General conditions of the Porto com Sentido program will be adjusted to increase efficiency
16 Dec 2020
The Municipality of Porto intends to change the general conditions of the Porto com Sentido program, adjusting this instrument so that it fulfills the purposes that were at its origin and effectively contributes to the housing market.
Noting the "strong imbalance between housing demand and supply, not only in quantity but also in terms of rents and prices when compared to the average income earned by households" - a situation that the pandemic crisis has worsened - and the existence of some limitations in the general conditions of the municipal program, the Executive designed a set of adjustments to be implemented so that Porto com Sentido gains greater efficiency.
The experience of more than six months of the program, combined with the reflection made by the working group created at Porto Vivo, SRU and the feedback gathered from different public and private stakeholders, led the City Councillor for Urbanism, Pedro Baganha, to elaborate the proposal that will be voted on at the next meeting of the Municipal Executive, on December 21st.
The set of changes, which will be submitted for approval by the Municipal Assembly, will not imply any change in the estimated cost of Porto com Sentido, which results from a municipal investment of more than four million euros. In order not to create inequalities within the scope of the municipal program, a transitional regime will be introduced for lease contracts already concluded and applications in progress.
Thus, among the amendments proposed by Pedro Baganha, the "possibility of renting fires that lack small works stands out, making the Municipality available to advance rents so that landlords are able to carry them out", or also the "possibility of signing lease agreements, up to a total of 200 properties, encouraging the respective rehabilitation".
The rent and subletting rent values will be reviewed, which will have new brake values by type, proposing also the elimination of differentiation by parish and the elimination, also, of the increase for furnished properties.
Pedro Baganha's proposal also foresees the introduction of the obligation to pay, by the Municipality of Porto, the rents of the lease contracts until the effective vacancy of the leased by the sub-tenants, as well as the termination of the sublease contracts two months before the end of the respective contract. lease, in order to enable the delivery of the leased in the conditions initially presented.
Finally, the adjustments to be implemented in Porto com Sentido will also imply the possibility that the municipal company Porto Vivo, SRU will ensure the ordinary maintenance of the properties and the management of the condominium, in cases where the fractions of a building are delivered in their the program as a whole.
Porto com Sentido was created with the aim of introducing affordable housing in the traditional rental market, of different types and in all parishes in the city, thinking of the different profiles integrated into the middle class, with intermediate incomes.
The first tender for lease integrated into the Porto com Sentido program is taking place until 5 pm on December 30th. There are seven fractions ready to live in this first batch of available dwellings, with typologies varying between T0 and T3.
