PCP proposes housing cooperatives on land in Ramalde.

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The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) proposed this Wednesday to establish housing cooperatives on a plot of land spanning dozens of hectares in Ramalde, Porto, through the creation of a program under the responsibility of the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU).

In a statement, the Porto regional organization of the PCP (Portuguese Communist Party) explains that the plot of land is located on Rua Direita do Viso, in Ramalde, and that its proposal is to avoid "fueling speculation and dispossession with the public-private partnership announced" by the Government.

According to the PCP (Portuguese Communist Party), the issue at hand is a public-private partnership with ESTAMO – Participações Imobiliárias to "implement and monitor the execution of the Strategic Program for the Development of Partnerships for Affordable Housing, which aims to make housing available for affordable rent in the national territory," as stated in the Council of Ministers Resolution of October 24.

Under the responsibility of IHRU (Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation), the PCP (Portuguese Communist Party) advocates for the site "support for the construction and provision of non-profit private housing, in order to guarantee truly affordable housing, as well as responding to the needs of families and the city , with an integrated design of urban developments and associative control of the process".

For the communists, the solution "is framed within the Housing Framework Law on cooperativism, specifically in the so-called New Generation of Cooperativism for the Promotion of Affordable Housing".

Through it, it is further stated, "it is possible to build new housing cooperative operations on public land (through its transfer as a surface right), in addition to financing possibilities through the Development Bank, where the possibility of a non-refundable contribution of 25% of the total investment is established, and where the management of the entire process will be carried out between IHRU, the cooperatives and, if possible, the local authority".

Critical of the government's policy, the PCP points out that its housing policy demonstrates "that these resources are never lacking to fuel speculation and the profits of large economic groups, although they are not used to support public or private non-profit housing."

“These PPPs [Public-Private Partnerships] are presented as part of the process of promoting affordable housing, therefore benefiting from tax exemptions, without any guarantee that these dwellings will not continue to fuel speculation,” the statement continues.

According to the PCP (Portuguese Communist Party), within the scope of a municipal program in Porto, "in the most recent affordable housing tender, in the parish where this land is located, a one-bedroom apartment was rented for 550 euros and a two-bedroom apartment for 780 euros, values ​​that are anything but affordable for the majority of young people, workers, and the population of the Porto district."

On October 23, the Government announced the placing on the market of 16 vacant or underutilized public buildings and land plots to finance public housing programs, including the former headquarters of the Council of Ministers in Lisbon. In the resolution published in the Official Gazette, the Government indicated that the buildings and land plots in question are located in Lisbon, Porto, Póvoa de Varzim, Felgueiras, Marco de Canaveses, and Matosinhos.

The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) believes that, through the sale of assets, "the Government is seeking to transform the State into a real estate agency and is placing at least six public properties in Póvoa de Varzim, Felgueiras, Marco de Canaveses, Matosinhos and Porto at the service of speculation."

The property, according to the PCP (Portuguese Communist Party), "should be allocated to IHRU (National Housing Institute) and thus integrated into the public housing offer for rent at controlled costs to hundreds of families."