This Thursday, the Government approved a set of changes to the rental law, to restore confidence to owners and, in this way, put more homes on the market. Among the planned changes are the flexibility of evictions in situations of repeated non-compliance, making court decisions quicker.
The main objective of these changes is to increase the number of houses available for rent, namely the thousands of properties that are off the market, although they are habitable.
True reforms, with the ability to solve the country’s structural problems. These diplomas in the area of housing, real estate and inheritance are very important. They were generally approved […]”, began by saying the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, in the briefing to the media after the Council of Ministers meeting.
According to the minister, “Portugal has, it is estimated, 3.4 million rural properties that are undivided. Many of them that no one knows where they are, are not treated, cared for and are true pastures for rural fires.” He also said that “prevention and forest management need to accelerate the resolution of these 3.4 million properties”, accounting for a third of the land in Portugal.
He also noted that in the cities, “the assessment is that there will be 250 thousand houses in Portugal that are in good condition, but are not for sale or rent” and in addition “an additional 130 thousand houses, these are no longer in good condition, but which, with recovery, can be placed on the market, for housing”.
“Around 500,000 houses that are not being rented and that could be being rented”, he highlighted, noting that it is necessary to work on what is not being put on the market “because it is in an impasse due to lack of confidence to rent, lack of incentive to rent or in an impasse because the inheritance is blocked”.
In this chapter, in undivided inheritances, Leitão Amaro said it was not possible “to live any longer with so much need for housing and so many properties that, due to impasses based on and caused by the law, are not made available to people for rent”, he stated.
“And these three initiatives – there are three diplomas -, one that regulates the faster resolution of undivided inheritances, another that reviews the rental regime and the third is a decree-law that regulates and creates an emergency housing fund to meet and support situations of need”, he said.
The proposal will be taken to Parliament and the Executive promised to listen to the parties. The Minister of the Presidency also explained that, in the case of undivided inheritancesmechanisms that accelerate the resolution of land and property sharing in the event of an impasse between heirs are reinforced, with the use of succession arbitration (outside the court).
The intention, according to him, is to accelerate “the use or sale of a property without a single person being able to block” the sharing of the inheritance. Leitão Amaro refused that an attack on private property and the rights of owners is underway, rejecting a comparison with the coercive lease approved by the last PS Government. He also clarified that the rights inherent to the family home and those of minor heirs will be protected.
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