Lisbon refuses to limit rents and defends public and private solutions By EFE

Lisbon, Nov 29 (.) .- The mayor of Lisbon, the conservative Carlos Moedas, today refused to limit rents because they create “distortions” in the market and opted for solutions that combine public and private to solve problems of access to housing in the city.

“It never worked,” he said about limiting rents during a meeting with foreign correspondents in Lisbon, in which he argued that such a measure “creates distortions in the market and has a perverse effect.”

Moedas, from the PSD (center-right) and mayor of Lisbon since he won the municipal elections in September, considered that “there are no magic solutions” for the housing problem in the Portuguese capital, where the prices of rents and sales have skyrocketed in the last years.

“The solution involves a combination of public and private,” defended the mayor, who explained that the “Housing Charter” is being prepared, an “x-ray” of the situation to identify public spaces to create social and rental housing accessible, although it did not reveal when it will be ready or how many people it can benefit.

Moedas said that it is necessary to have a “private market”, where he opted for speeding up the granting of construction licenses, and the public offering “for those who cannot pay.”

GOLDEN VISA (NYSE :), WITH PROS AND CONS

The councilor admitted that one of the causes of the increase in prices is the “golden visa” – visas granted for investments in the country, including real estate -, but defended that this instrument also brings “employment” and “improvement in the conditions of life”.

The central government, of a socialist nature, modified the “golden visa” regime and from 2022 they will stop counting real estate investments in Lisbon, which Moedas considers a “mistake”.

“Portugal has a very big capital problem, there is no capital base. The more capital we can go to look for foreign countries, the better for the country,” said Moedas, who pointed out that these investments are needed in Lisbon.

One of the mayor’s star projects to attract capital and talent to Lisbon is to create a “unicorn factory” – start-ups with a market value of over 1 billion – in the capital’s current innovation center, the Hub de Beato.

“The big problem is the growth process of the company, and for that we have to have a site in Lisbon where these people can have the mentorship of those who have already built large companies,” he explained, noting that they are working with Nuno Sebastião, the CEO of Feedzai, one of the Portuguese unicorns.

“There are very few places in Europe where we see this process of growth of a company accompanied,” said Moedas, who assures that it is a “challenge” that he posed to himself.

He also wants to “rethink” the city’s tourism strategy, to promote tourism “more stable and not only for the masses, but also for added value.”

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