Loulé and IHRU finance 320 new homes because Algarve is not just a “summer place”

«For the majority of the Portuguese, the Algarve is a summer place where apparently there are only good houses and good hotels. But then there is another Algarve, where the people of the Algarve actually live and that is not the one of luxury homes». It is with these in mind that the Loulé Council and the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) signed, this Friday, 23 October, a protocol that will allow the financing of 320 new dwellings in the municipality, in a total investment of 44 million euros .

The ceremony was attended by the prime minister whose words are quoted above. António Costa acknowledged that the Algarve «is one of the regions where public housing policies are absolutely central».

“It is very important to respond to the lack of housing for those who live here and for those who need to be attracted to come and live here. Difficulties in accessing housing are the other side of the coin of the success of the Algarve as a tourist destination», considered the official.

This agreement, signed between the municipality and the IHRU, will then make it possible to finance 320 new dwellings in the municipality of Loulé over the next six years.

The total investment will be around 44 million euros, with a non-refundable contribution from the IHRU of 15 million euros. The remaining financing will be carried out through the contracting of a subsidized bank loan, on the part of the IHRU, in the order of 25,5 million euros, and funds from the Municipality itself, which total close to 3 million euros.

Housing solutions, within the scope of this protocol, include new construction, rehabilitation of fractions or buildings, acquisition of fractions or degraded buildings and subsequent rehabilitation or acquisition of land and construction of a housing development in a housing scheme at controlled costs.

This “1st Right” program is an initiative to publicly support access to housing, as part of the new generation of policies promoted by the Government, and Loulé was one of the first municipalities to sign this partnership.

Vítor Aleixo, mayor of Loulé, did not hide his emotion at this moment.

"In the seven years that I have been mayor, no moment has fulfilled me as much as this one that we are living here today", he acknowledged.

«When we talk about housing, we all know that we are talking about a right enshrined in our constitution and an indispensable good that many Portuguese have not yet been able to access. The government's new generation of housing policies is an ambitious program that has come at the right time to finally complete the construction of a social state without which democracy, in the long term, may collapse,” said the mayor.

Moreover, Loulé has already drawn up a Local Housing Strategy that aims to support, by 2030, 1400 households. A survey of housing needs was carried out and steps have been taken.

In the city of Loulé, for example, 8 lots were purchased, for 1,5 million euros, for 128 homes, in addition to the ongoing rehabilitation of Bairro Frederico Ulrich; in Almancil, 21 dwellings will be built in municipal buildings, and in Salir the idea is to build 17 single-family houses.

Added to this are prospecting projects taking place in Alte, Quarteira, Boliqueime, Querença, Tôr and Benafim. The goal is that, "in a year, if all goes well, the first families will be relocated," said Vítor Aleixo.

Loulé was one of the first municipalities in the country to sign this agreement, under the “First Right” program, and Pedro Nuno Santos, Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, highlighted “the example” of this Algarve municipality.

«The Algarve is one of the most affected regions in terms of access to housing. Those who live here know about the difficulties. Loulé is even one of the most difficult municipalities in the country, with the price that housing has reached and this only makes the need for a public response to a problem that the country, in a democracy, has not always been able to respond to, more pressing”, said the governor.

Even because, considered, in turn, António Costa, the «right to housing is the essential condition for everyone else because it is in the home that people build their base of life».

The main objective, at the national level, is to celebrate “the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April, having assured the 26 families I still do not have a decent housing, one”, concluded the prime minister.

Photos: Pedro Lemos | Sul Informação