Porto City Council presents Porto Com Sentido lease programme

The new programme aims to be a "regulatory intervention" in the housing market, minimizing the difficulties that middle class encounters. It foresees "the inclusion in the rental market of properties that are currently in local lodging”.

Fixing the resident population and attracting some of the many citizens who, in recent years, have not found housing options in the current rental market in the city, were the main concerns that were at the origin of this initiative.

According to Público, the City Council is going to open a tender for the lease of an as yet undefined number of dwellings for a base price, by typology, which works as a "brake-rent”. Proposals below this amount will be chosen, and the owners may enter into contracts with the municipality with completion between 2 and 5 years.

The rents to be paid to the owner can even be advanced, in the case of the existence of bank commitments to be settled, and the price can be increased up to 10% if the house is furnished. In return, the municipality will sublet these houses at controlled prices.

The municipality "ensures the contractual and financial relationship with the landlord (and the sub-tenant), with the exception of carrying out conservation works, ordinary or extraordinary, structural or from which damage is caused to the outside (common parts, contiguous autonomous fractions, etc.)”.

On the other hand, because it guarantees the scrupulous fulfilment of the rent payment obligation, "the risks and costs resulting from any default by the sub-tenant" are eliminated.

The City Council also informs, quoted by the same newspaper, that "this proposal allows, on the one hand, to overcome some weaknesses of the most recent legislation in force in the rental market, which had repercussions in the decrease in the available offer, with price increases; to circumvent factors such as the slowness of public construction - incompatible with the urgent housing needs - and, simultaneously, be a valid option to face the current situation of systemic crisis and that may further weaken the balance between supply and demand”.