The rise in housing prices in the last decade is the country’s “most structural” problems, which will take time to resolve, and it will be necessary to “increase the supply a lot,” the Minister of Finance in Parliament said today.
© Lusa
23/09/2026
by
Lusa
The problem is not a result of pressure on the demand side, but of “negative pressure on the supply side,” said Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, during a parliamentary hearing following a request made by the Livre to listen to the government on the sale of housing assets of the state.
“The rise in housing prices is a problem of the most structural that the country has,” a very significant worsening occurred in the last decade, from 2016/2017, he said.
“It’s a problem that takes time to resolve until we can have housing price growths closer to inflation,” he said, arguing that “supply needs to be greatly increased.”.
The minister cited a graph of Banco de Portugal's economic bulletin showing the supply and demand of the last decades since the 1970s and the last ten were the only ones where supply was significantly below demand.
The ruler said that the executive acted on three axes to answer the housing problem.
In a first pillar, he said, the executive reinforced the availability of public housing, from the target of 26,000 houses to 59,000 houses at the end of the decade.
In a second axis, incentives to rent were created by reducing the IRS and facilitating the resolution of conflicts between tenants and tenants when there are no payments, he listed.
Finally, incentives were created for new construction with reduced VAT, sale of state buildings and simplification of licensing, to have a lower cost for those who build, he said.
“It is in these three lines that we must continue to act”, knowing that the effects will be felt in the medium and long term, he said.
The minister pointed out that, since 2024, the State has established 71 agreements with 64 municipalities concerning the availability of 95 properties, worth around 80 million euros, that municipalities can use in their public housing policies.
The governor also said that the Estamo “practically” has already completed the state register, to check whether they are being used or unoccupied.
In 80,000 public buildings, the overwhelming majority are rural land, many of the urban buildings are used by the state and others will be available, it has gone ahead.
The minister also said that the government has increased housing funds, exceeding the target of delivering 26,000 public housing units provided for in the RRP and projecting that the total will reach 59,000 by 2029.