Porto com Sentido wants to rent 1,000 properties by 2022

For this purpose, it should spend a total of 4.3 million euros, states the person responsible for the initiative, José Sequeira, which is managed by Porto Vivo SRU. 

Covered by the legal regime of affordable housing, this program was created "to boost the offer of long-term leasing for people of the so-called middle class", in a system in which Porto City Council works as a lessee, through a brake income, giving greater confidence to the market.

Raquel Maia, the administrator of Porto Vivo SRU, explains that the idea is to "capture properties available on the market, of different types and in all the parishes of the city, taking them for lease by the Municipality of Porto to place them, later, in the sublease market, aimed at different profiles of the middle class”. 

Owners who join benefit from a range of tax benefits, such as exemption from taxation under the IRS or Corporate Tax and Municipal Property Tax. In addition to these advantages, "the owner receives the rent regardless of whether the fraction is occupied or not, that is, during the contract period it is as if the occupation were 100%".

The contracts are signed directly with the municipality of Porto and may have a term of three or five years. During this period, "the landlord has the guarantee of the timely payment of the rent that is stipulated", and Porto City Council ensures that, at the end of that period, the property "is delivered under conditions similar to those in which it was received. This represents a huge reduction in the risk currently presented by the rental market”, highlights Raquel Maia.

This theme will be highlighted at the Urban Rehabilitation Week of Porto on November 25th, in the session "Lease, the new opportunity?", Co-organized by VI, Porto Vivo SRU, and JLL.

Learn more about the Urban Rehabilitation Week in Porto.

At this moment, there is a competition to gather 250 properties for the program, which ends until December 11th. All information about the program can be found on the Porto Vivo SRU website.