Madeira against “limiting” foreign investment in real estate

The President of the Government of Madeira argued that the problem of the lack of housing in Madeira cannot be solved by “shielding” foreign investment in real estate, preventing evictions or limiting local accommodation.

“The issue [lack of housing] has to be resolved, but it is not about stopping the market, which would be absolutely catastrophic. We cannot stop foreign investment here [Madeira], we cannot stop real estate, we cannot stop all economic activity that is linked to the growth of real estate, because that would be suicide,” said social democrat Miguel Albuquerque.

Asked whether the solution would be to “limit” or “create a ceiling” on property sales to foreigners, the head of the Madeiran executive declared: “I am against this because the market has to work and it is good that it works”.

In his opinion, “this socialist idea of ​​controlling prices, controlling the market, leads to state intervention, which creates dysfunctions in the market and harms everyone.”

Regarding the limitation of local accommodation, Miguel Albuquerque considered it “important that the municipal councils decide”, evaluating the interest for the respective municipalities, and added that this situation should only be considered when “it is harming the quality of life of residents”.

“We need to be careful with this limitation at the moment, as everyone knows, seasonal rentals have provided additional income, especially for families that have buildings outside Funchal, in many municipalities. It is an important complement to family income, but it is up to the city councils to decide”, argued the island’s governor.

Regarding the increase in evictions in the region, Miguel Albuquerque warned that “owners do not need to do the State’s social work”, because we live “in a State of Law”, and there is the right to private property.

Affordable housing

Albuquerque also highlighted that the Regional Government “has to find a solution to put housing on the market at affordable prices for residents and

Among the mechanisms to solve the problem, he highlighted the focus on the construction of cooperative housing, as happened in the 90s, at controlled costs, mentioning that “128 ME is being invested in popular housing”.

“There are other options, but at this time, our main priority will be to advance these two options: to continue investing in affordable housing, to continue and rapidly reinforce construction at controlled costs, placing the houses 30% below market price for families and with other complements that may exist in terms of acquisition facilities”, he reinforced.

Miguel Albuquerque recalled that the Madeiran executive had “two projects to launch, which could not be launched because the government fell and the budget was rejected. One of them was 220 apartments on the Tecnopolo site (Funchal) and another behind APEL (a school in Funchal), in addition to 53 apartments to be built through cooperatives”.

“We have more than 400 units under construction, some of which have already been delivered,” he highlighted.

The island's governor said that the Regional Government will continue to do this work, indicating that the municipal councils and the executive have land that can be ceded to cooperatives so that they can build and, together with other measures, costs can be reduced “substantially”.

“We have to have the market working”, and we need to solve the problem of the lack of housing without introducing “dysfunctionalities, because this brings poverty and a slowdown in the economy, it brings distrust, it brings a retraction in investment”, he concluded.