Housing is the central theme of the interview with Luís Lima, president of the Association of Professionals and Companies of Real Estate Mediation of Portugal (APEMIP), made by Fumaça.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the median value of rents from housing contracts made in the second half of 2018 is 9,3% higher than the same period in 2017. INE also shows that rents have increased in all parishes of the city of Lisbon, in the last semester of 2018.
Data from 2018, from the Residential Rents Index, made by Confidencial Imobiliário, which conducts studies on the Portuguese real estate market, reveal that rents in the capital have grown since 2014 and that prices were, in 2018, 38% higher compared to 2010. According to the National Branch of Lease, in 2016, more than five families were evicted a day in the country.
On the other hand, according to INE, the number of home sales has been growing since 2014. In 2018, more than 170 homes were sold, 16,6% more than in the previous year, and the purchase and sale price of homes has increased at least since 2015. Is the housing crisis for some people an opportunity to make money for others?
Luís Lima is a man from the market but, he says: «When people come to my shore and pat me on the back saying 'this is very good', I get irritated». He believes that housing, today, «is a problem for almost all Portuguese people», but he does not believe that the crisis will be resolved in the near future.
For the president of the Confederation of Construction and Real Estate of Portuguese Official Language (CIMLOP), the solution is “more offer” – that is, more houses available on the market. And, for that, the State must intervene making it more profitable to rent houses to the young and the middle class than to the upper class and tourism. However, he defends the non-intervention of the state in the price of rents: «If you do this, we will all suffer. Unemployment will increase, investors will all flee».
This content was originally published on Fumaça that, like the Sul Informação, is part of the project "Elections in Network 2019"
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