Lisbon relaunches cooperative housing construction programs

With the launch of the tender - for the granting of surface rights to municipal land to a cooperative, for the construction of 18 homes on Rua António do Couto, with the final project already approved and completed - the municipality is promoting an increase in the supply of housing in the city on a cooperative basis, as a strategic measure in the Lisbon Municipal Housing Charter.

The measure, according to the proposal approved on July 19 at a town hall meeting, and signed by the Mayor of Lisbon (CML), Carlos Moedas, and the Councillor for Housing, Filipa Roseta, "is a way of increasing the supply of housing" for people with "intermediate incomes, and is an important solution for young people".

As the "owner of a vast real estate asset", the proposal stresses, the municipality wants to develop the associated housing capacity and potential, in order to "guarantee affordable housing prices".

The "1st Lisbon Housing Cooperatives" - the model for which the council approved in February of this year - aim to guarantee "housing solutions for life" in various areas of the city, "helping families who are unable to purchase housing on the market to settle in Lisbon, building a more inclusive and diverse city".

CML, Carlos Moedas said at the time, "assumes the costs of the architectural, licensing and execution projects, removing this financial burden from the cooperatives and thus seeking to guarantee a considerable reduction in the execution time of the work". The selected cooperatives "can immediately start construction".

After identifying empty municipal land "with small-scale housing potential and suitable for this program", 12 houses in Benfica, 15 in Arroios, 21 in São Vicente and 23 in Santa Clara are currently in the design phase.