Apartments in Praia da Rocha, Portimão
Ambitious numbers, but the reality is very different on the ground, just over a year from the end of the deadline. Most of the dwellings provided for in the 1st Law refers to the rehabilitation of existing properties.
Just over a year from the end of the deadline set by the Plan of Recovery and Resilience (PRR), the results in the housing area are far below the defined goals.
Although much of the financing is already contractual, execution on the ground remains extremely slow: Less than 10% of the promised houses were delivered.
Of the 26,000 dwellings promised by 2026 under the 1st Law Program, only about 2,000 have so far delivered to families-which represents less than 10% of the goal, the newspaper recalls this Tuesday.
Initially launched in 2018, the main focus of the program is to respond to situations of housing indignity, whose total number is around 136,800 across the country. In 2021, this program was integrated in the PRR, with the clear goal of delivering 26,000 dwellings by 2026, with lost fund funding of 2174 million euros from the PRR and the state budget.
But the delays in execution led the government of Luís Montenegro to reformulate the programassuming the additional commitment to make 33,000 dwellings available by 2030. This new lot, financed exclusively through the State Budget, has a submission of 2011 euros. In all, between the two phases, more than 59,000 homes are promised, with an expected global investment of 4185 million euros, recalls the morning.
Despite the ambition of the numbers, the reality on the ground tells a very different story. According to data from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, about 22,100 fires are already contractualized, which corresponds to 91% of the money destined to the 26,000 dwellings of PRR. However, only about 465 million euros – just over 23% of the contractual funds – were effectively paid to the promoting entities. Worse still, only 1518 fires received more than 80% of the planned financing.
The reasons for this discrepancy between contractual and executed funds are not known. The Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), responsible for payments, provided clarifications regarding the delays, nor has it confirmed whether to complete the payments within the established deadlines.
With regard to the promised houses beyond 2026 – the 33,000 outside the PRR – the situation is even more serious. Only one candidacy is currently contractualizedaccording to data from investigator Aitor Oro, from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto.
And the nature of the funded projects? Most of the dwellings provided for in the 1st Law refers to the rehabilitation of existing properties – About 41,000 – against just over 14,000 new fires, that is, the impact of the program on the effective increase of the public housing park will be reduced. In addition, average financing values suggest that in many cases rehabilitation works may be superficial. The average financing is around 140 thousand euros for new construction and only 58 thousand euros for rehabilitation.
In addition, the Affordable public housing parkalso funded by the PRR, has a budget of about 900 million euros, and provided for the creation of 6800 dwellings. However, only 1775 are contractual and only 175 have been delivered so far – Less than 3% of the goal.
