“If there are no more houses on the market, madam deputy, we will not be able to stop the price increase. That is the goal we must achieve,” stated Luís Montenegro during the state of the nation debate in the Assembly of the Republic.
The head of the executive was responding to the sole deputy of BE, who moments earlier had ironically asked him to “stop working, to see if we can stop the housing prices and during that pause he could listen to the European Commission,” which includes rent control, limits on Local Accommodation, or “measures to put empty houses on the market.”
Mortágua even congratulated the prime minister for Portugal having “the largest increase in house prices in Europe and the largest increase in house prices since there has been a statistical series from INE,” stating, “there is no doubt that Luís worked,” referring to the PSD/CDS-PP coalition’s campaign slogan.
“The big problem with housing is that when Mariana had the opportunity, she either did not work or worked poorly,” retorted Luís Montenegro, alluding to the time of the ‘geringonça’.
Luís Montenegro highlighted that the increase in public housing supply in the market “was a complete failure” and recalled the “promise” of former socialist prime minister António Costa to end the housing shortage in the country by the 50th anniversary of April 25, 1974, which is 2024.
The prime minister acknowledged that the promise was not made by the Bloc leader but pointed out that it was “by her fellow travelers.”
Emphasizing the need for “courage,” Montenegro advocated for “more agile licensing processes,” “incentives for developers,” and having “greater capacity for discussion in the Administration.”
“That is why we more than doubled the goal set by the previous Government: we went from 26,000 houses to 59,000 new homes within the objective of public construction and we are promoting a series of legislative changes, some of which have already passed in parliament, so that the market can function by creating conditions for more construction,” he asserted.
