The president of IHRU, Benjamin Pereira, criticized the statements of the mayor of Matosinhos, Luísa Salgueiro, about the 204 houses that should be built in the county, stating that she “is not right”.
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22/10/2026
by
Lusa
O president of the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), Benjamin Pereira, said today that the mayor of Matosinhos, Luísa Salgueiro (PS) “is not right” about the 204 houses to be built in the county, lamenting “incendiary public declarations”.
“ I have heard a series of public statements from the Mayor of Matosinhos, a person for whom I have even a personal friendship, we have known each other for a long time, we have been local colleagues here in very close municipalities, but I think she has absolutely no reason to talk about the subject,” Benjamin Pereira said today to journalists in Vila Nova de Gaia (Oporto district).
This is the case of the 204 Picoutos fires that were planned to be financed by the PRR, which led the mayor to write to the IHRU twice and to await answers from the institute, which has already responded to Lusa which maintains the intention to build the 204 fires planned for Matosinhos, but now with funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB), after not being included in the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).
“ I sent a letter last week to the President, telling him exactly if he was ready to do the deed to give the surface right to the IHRU, so that the IHRU can now proceed with the operation,” added the president of the IHRU today, who said that the land was not “duely registered to be able to pass surface right to the IHRU”, so because of this, the project “could not even have been implemented.”.
Regretting that “it seems that the faults were on the side of the IHRU”, Benjamin Pereira considers that “much of what has been said publicly does not correspond to the truth.”.
“ I understand that the mayor, at last, wants to position herself politically within the party, perhaps, and that is why she is so aggressive with the IHRU, but has always been treated very well by the IHRU, by the IHRU workers ", said.
According to Benjamin Pereira, “there was no negative discrimination in relation to the municipality of Matosinhos, it was just what was missing”, and the case of Matosinhense “is a good example” that “the processes to advance have to be hand in hand, and the municipalities must work with IHRU and IHRU with the municipalities”.
“ Not with incendiary public statements that help nothing to solve the problems of housing in Portugal ", vincou.
Benjamin Pereira also recalled that “it is exactly the investments of the Accessible Housing that were initially planned”, with an allocation of 774 million euros, money that was realized “very quickly that it did not arrive”.
“ This [operation of Matosinhos] was one of the operations, therefore, this is sick of a problem that is back there, exactly in a government that is of the party of the Madam Mayor. And she was president of the National Association of Municipalities, knows exactly what I am talking about ", pointed out.
This is a competition for the design of 204 houses in Picoutos, which was won by Atelier Carvalho Araújo in 2023, which on 6 October revealed that it had no contract, work, or responses from the Government and IHRU to the project.
Lusa also reported that the House of Matosinhos also awaited the Institute's response after sending two letters asking for explanations on the subject in May and September.
The IHRU states that “the project selection contest for the operation of 204 fireworks in Matosinhos suffered some setbacks, namely the request for additional clarifications by competitors, which led to extensions of deadlines and extended the closing date of the tender.”.