Lisbon greenlights first affordable housing scheme

Citizens can now apply for the city’s first 120 affordable homes

The City Council of Lisbon recently approved the Lisbon Municipal Housing Rights Regulation, opening up the capital’s first 120 affordable homes.

The programme, according to mayor Fernando Medina is specially tailored to fit the needs of the middle class and students, who seek to live in Lisbon but lack the means to do so.

Long term approach

A web portal is being designed specifically to facilitate eager citizens along their journey – “Habitar Lisboa” should be launched very soon.

Once the portal is completed in its entirety, people will be able to look up vacancies online – as well as their associated price ranges.

To keep the flow of new housing going, the City Council will be constantly updating the portal with new entries, once new homes complete rehabilitation and once they are ready to be inhabited.

Mr Medina is especially proud of the new legislative act as a whole. “It's a very important document, a regulation that will make it so much simpler. There will no longer be various programs, various initiatives that are scattered, which people often have difficulty accessing and searching for. They will now find a single regulation, which stipulates a supported income program, an affordable income program aimed at young people and the middle classes and the municipal lease allowance for those who need to rent houses in the private market and face very high prices, ”he said.

The conditions to be able to take part in this brand new scheme are the following: gross household income must be between a minimum of 8,400 € / year for each income earner, and a maximum of 35,000 € / year (one person), 45,000 € / year (two people), or 45,000 € / year + € 5,000 / year for each dependent (more than two people).

This is just the latest of many steps undertaken by the City Council of Lisbon to combat the lack of housing in the Portuguese capital with local authorities aiming for there to be no people living on the streets in the next few years.