NoThe day the Bloco de Esquerda (BE) organizes a session on housing in Lisbon entitled “Where are we going to live?” or collective, with their own permanent residence or headquarters abroad”.

According to the party, this measure – which has generally been adopted recently in Canada – aims to “combat the escalation of prices with housing”.

In the articles of this diploma, BE specifies however that this prohibition would not apply to “Portuguese citizens having their own permanent residence outside Portugal”, nor to asylum seekers or immigrants holding a permanent residence permit.

Also excluded would be “real estate transactions in low-density territories”, as well as “foreign nationals who acquire property, in co-ownership, with their spouse or with a de facto partner”.

In the explanatory memorandum to the bill, the party led by Catarina Martins states that “in Portugal, the fundamental right to a home is not yet respected”.

Bloco de Esquerda advances with statistics according to which, between 2010 and 2022, housing prices “have increased by 80% and rents have increased by 28%”, forcing the inhabitants of Portugal to spend “a brutal percentage of their income on the House”.

While acknowledging that “the housing crisis is not a Portuguese singularity”, the BE nevertheless considers that “Portuguese governments have only worsened this trend, with their policies of privileges and inequalities”.

According to the party, the “process of gentrification and financialization of housing has motivated the mobilization of citizens and local authorities in several European cities”, causing legislative changes at the international level.

Among the examples cited in this bill, the BE mentions in particular that “in Canada, the Liberal Party government banned the sale of residential properties to foreigners, a measure that had already been implemented in New Zealand and which recently will also be a reality on the islands of Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca”.

“Defenders of these measures, whose application has been hampered by the power of real estate interests, invoke the same argument: competition from financial capital makes housing prices unaffordable for local citizens,” reads the draft. law.

For BE, “if this is the reality in Canada, the Netherlands, Germany or Catalonia, it is more so in Portugal, where salaries do not compete with the financial power of investment funds or personal income. attracted by gold”. visa regimes, tax benefits for non-habitual residents or cryptocurrency speculators”.

The party also adds that these international experiences demonstrate that “the process of real estate inflation requires exceptional measures, aimed at protecting the right to housing”.

In this sense, “in addition to repealing the measures aimed at attracting foreign capital to Portuguese real estate, BE proposes to prohibit the purchase of properties intended for housing by non-residents, whenever they are located in areas of urban pressure”, refers to the document.

BE argues that “this measure, recently adopted in different versions, by the governments of the Netherlands and Canada is justified by the recognition of the situation of serious violation of the constitutional right to housing, in the name of short-term financial interests “.

Read also : Bloco wants clarification on former Espinho House executive