This morning, Pedro Nuno Santos advocated a proposal during the opening session of the housing sector that marks the beginning of the process to update the electoral program with the development of the 2025 Legislative Manifesto, which the party will present at the anticipated elections on May 18.
Pedro Nuno Santos suggested, “We believe it is a good idea for part of the Caixa Geral de Depósitos’ dividends to support a state current account that allows our municipalities to access funding to advance with housing projects.”
The PS leader stated, “The state has this capability, the country needs it,” highlighting the potential for Portuguese municipalities with “great capacity, dynamism, and initiative” to use resources to “build housing for middle-income populations.”
Pedro Nuno Santos noted that following the results of the public bank in 2024, Caixa distributed 50% of its net income to the state, in a year when it had a profit of about 1,600 million euros, with a substantial portion coming from housing.
In his initial remarks, which were the only publicly accessible part of these debates, the PS leader expressed his desire to hear from former government officials and experts in the field to add proposals to the PS’s political response to “the main national issue.”
“There is no silver bullet in terms of housing, and we must resort to all possible solutions. Public construction or the rehabilitation of public buildings should scale up significantly,” he argued, believing that “the state has the obligation to escalate public construction,” one of the PS’s objectives.
Pedro Nuno Santos, who previously held the housing portfolio in former socialist governments, accused the current PSD/CDS-PP government of implementing housing measures that “ultimately worsened the issue,” criticizing the consequences of the IMT exemption measure that left “the majority of young people” even “further from securing a home.”
He emphasized, “We do not rule out the need to regulate the housing market, and there is an ongoing debate in Portugal that needs to be addressed,” pointing out that housing is currently pursued as a financial asset rather than solely as a place for people to live.
According to the PS leader, “transnational demand has very severe consequences on the price and exclusion of many Portuguese from accessing housing.” While acknowledging the “controversial” nature of this topic, he insisted on the necessity of engaging in this debate.
“We have no doubt that we need more houses on the market. This is achieved through regulation and mobilization of numerous unoccupied homes,” he advocated.
Pedro Nuno Santos remarked that Portugal once constructed 100,000 homes annually, a figure now reduced to around 30,000.
“Many of these homes are in areas where they are not as necessary, and where they are needed, it is not always easy to ensure they are available for housing,” he pointed out.
