Last year, the city council approved the designation of urban pressure zones with the aim of creating a tool that encourages urban rehabilitation and subsequent leasing, while penalizing the maintenance of unused properties in areas where there is a housing shortage.
Among the measures anticipated is the increase of property taxes on vacant buildings as a way to pressure owners to put them on the market or utilize them, along with granting the municipality the right of first refusal in their sale.
“The amount determined this year, to be paid in 2026, is 57,892 euros,” stated Fernando Ruas to journalists at the conclusion of today’s public meeting of the municipal executive.
The social-democratic mayor emphasized that property owners “will have to find a use” for the dilapidated buildings, highlighting that the amounts could be “multiplied up to 20 times more” in the coming years.
During the executive meeting, socialist councillors questioned Fernando Ruas about “precarious and degraded clusters” that exist in some areas of the municipality.
“We arrive at the city gates and see shacks, and it seems no one talks about it. This has been happening for decades,” said PS councillor João Azevedo to journalists, referring to situations in the parishes of São João de Lourosa and Silgueiros, like the one “near the [highway] A25, in the area of Teivas.”
According to Fernando Ruas, these are people who “were in Rua José Branquinho, in private houses” owned by a businessman who “bought some land near Teivas and gave it to them.”
The mayor explained that, “despite being on private land,” the constructions were made illegally.
“We held a meeting with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, PSP, Municipal Police, and Civil Protection to determine how to address these situations,” as well as cases of illegal occupation of municipal houses, which has particularly happened in the Paradinha neighborhood, he noted.
Fernando Ruas stated that the situations he is aware of and which have persisted “for many years” are in Teivas and another on the road linking Vila Chã de Sá to Passos de Silgueiros.
