“This is the path we must follow. I believe it is within our reach,” stated Miguel Albuquerque, emphasizing that hundreds of housing units are currently under construction in various forms in the autonomous region.
“Housing is a problem that is not difficult to solve,” he remarked.
Speaking at the commemorative session for the 517th anniversary of the City of Funchal held at the Paços do Concelho, he assured that the Regional Government and the local authority, also led by a PSD/CDS-PP coalition, will continue to collaborate on “structuring and essential” projects for the municipality, especially in public housing and mobility.
The leader of the Madeiran executive explained his intention to “update and adapt” the national housing framework law to the region, creating mechanisms that allow for the advancement of a regional public sector market.
“In other words, besides overcoming bureaucratic limitations and especially some potential fraud that social housing itself can generate, we create a rental and alienation market for public housing, as exists in other countries,” he explained, arguing that state-supported housing “can never enter the normal transaction market.”
Albuquerque noted that the private real estate market yielded 1,000 million euros in Madeira in 2024 but stressed the importance of “creating a public housing market that cannot enter the normal market.”
The president of the Regional Government pointed out that the ratio of public housing in Madeira is already 5% based on the population (about 250,000 inhabitants), which is double that of the mainland.
Furthermore, he advocated changes in the rental law to stimulate the market, stressing that “the landlord cannot continue to be seen as a speculator.”
In the City’s Day commemorative session, Miguel Albuquerque also identified mobility as a priority, highlighting the construction, already underway, of a new east-west road axis through the city, costing 400 million euros, and new roads in the higher areas of the municipality, the most populous in the autonomous region, with 108,129 inhabitants (official data for 2024).
The President of the Funchal City Council, Cristina Pedra, stated that the municipal management led since 2021 by the PSD/CDS-PP coalition, after eight years of governance by coalitions headed by the PS, has made the local authority “more robust” financially and ensured more social support and less tax burden on residents and businesses.
In her speech, Pedra listed the main works and measures undertaken over the past four years, highlighting that it was “an honor and a privilege” to serve the public cause, but she will leave the team after the local elections on October 12.
Cristina Pedra assumed the presidency of the Funchal City Council at the beginning of 2024, after Pedro Calado resigned following the judicial process investigating corruption allegations in Madeira, in which he was named a defendant, becoming the first woman to head the municipal executive in 517 years of history.
During the commemorative session for the 517th anniversary of the City of Funchal, five individuals were honored with the Municipal Merit Medal, Gold Degree: Cecília Berta Fernandes Pereira (former regional director of Special Education), Francisco Simões (sculptor), José Nelson Rodrigues Coelho (entrepreneur), Mário André Rosado (musician), and Rui Alberto Camacho (photographer, researcher, and musician).
Furthermore, three residents were recognized with the “Centenary Resident” municipal insignia — Maria José Gouveia da Silva, Florinda de Freitas Pinto, and Maria Celeste Nóbrega, all of whom turned 100 years old.
