Parliament approves Comprehensive Housing Act

The Portuguese Parliament has approved the Comprehensive Housing Act this Friday, a diploma prepared by a working group on Housing, Urban Requalification and City Policies for more than one year. Despite the approval, the document, which will bring considerable changes into the housing sector is now waiting for the President of Republic’s promulgation to come into force.

The document was approved with the support of the PS, PCP, Left Bloc, PEV and PAN and opposed by PSD and CDS. Its approval was possible thanks to an overreaching agreement reach among the parties on the left. PCP even stated that it “reached common ground with the government to allow for the approval of the first Comprehensive Housing Act in the history of the country.”

Focusing on the specifics, the document will establish the possibility of paying off a mortgage by handing over the property to the bank, and will also accelerate the judicial processes regarding inheritance disputes. Measures like the definition of affordable rent and the temporary requisition of degraded properties were excluded from this Act.