Applications for the municipal subsidy for those renting a home in the capital are open until March 9th. Find out if you’re eligible.
Anyone renting a house in Lisbon can now apply for the rent support promoted by the capital’s municipality. Applications for the Municipal Subsidy for Affordable Rent opened this Friday, February 9, and will continue until March 9. This is rent support aimed at displaced families and professionals with an income of at least 6,000 euros, a figure that was recently reduced by Lisbon City Council to broaden the universe of beneficiaries.
Families who are renting a house in the capital or have signed a rental agreement can now apply for this municipal subsidy by filling in a form available online on the Habitar Lisboa platform. The deadline for applications is 5pm on March 9th this year (in a month’s time).
Of course, in order to have access to the Municipal Subsidy for Affordable Rent , households must meet a series of access criteria, as you can read in the notice:
- You must be over 18 and a national or foreign citizen with a valid residence permit;
- Hold a currentresidential lease agreement or promissory lease agreement in Lisbon, duly registered with the tax office;
- The entire household must have a permanent residence and tax domicile in the subsidized home and be in compliance with the rental contract;
- Have an effort rate supported by the household with the payment of the monthly rent, equal to or greater than 30% of their income on the date of application;
- Theoverall household income has a minimum limit of 6,000 euros and a maximum limit of 35,000 euros (one person) or 45,000 euros for a household with more than two people, plus 5,000 euros/year for each additional dependent included in the IRS declaration.
In addition, the rented dwellings must be located in Lisbon and have rents within certain limits. For example, for a studio the maximum rent is 600 euros, for a one-bedroom 900 euros, for a two-bedroom 1,150 euros and for a three-bedroom 1,375 euros, the document reveals.
The amount of rent subsidy to be paid to each household is calculated on the basis of the monthly rent paid, the effort rate and the monthly income, according to the following formula:
Support = Contracted income – Effort rate x Available monthly income
Reduction in minimum income brings rent subsidy to more families
One of the new features of the Municipal Subsidy for Affordable Rent (SMAA) is that the minimum overall income limit for eligible households has been reduced to 6,000 euros, instead of the 9,870 euros in force until now. This change will make it possible to widen the universe of beneficiaries, explained the Lisbon council, which unanimously approved the measure.
“We have lowered the amount of access to the Municipal Subsidy for Affordable Rent to allow people who previously did not meet the criteria to access this program to now be covered and benefit from monthly support in paying their rent,” said Carlos Moedas, mayor of Lisbon, quoted in a press release.
The aim is to respond to “a significant fringe of the population, especially young people, the elderly and single-parent families, who are unable to apply for the municipal programs PRA (Affordable Rent Program) and SMAA, since they have an overall household income on their IRS tax form that is lower than the minimum limit for access […], currently 9,870 euros,” says Housing councillor Filipa Roseta (PSD) in the proposal.
This change is already reflected in the new rent subsidy competition, which also extends the application of these extraordinary measures “to all age groups over the age of 18”, since previously the competition was aimed “only at young people up to the age of 35”. In this way, the measure will “reach more people, namely pensioners with pensions below the minimum wage, who were previously left out”, guarantees the Housing councillor, who recalls that, in 2023, the Lisbon municipality supported 1,000 families with the SMAA alone, distributing 1.5 million euros in rent payment support.
