Gov’t to pass 411 public housing units from acquisition to rental

The government is moving 411 public housing units, built to be sold under the public housing economic acquisition scheme into the economic rental scheme, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosário said yesterday at the Legislative Assembly on the sidelines of the meeting of the Third Standing Committee. The meeting was convened to discuss the new aviation law.

After the meeting and speaking to the media, Rosário explained that this was a decision that the government made after taking into account the fact that, when they were made available for acquisition, these houses did not garner interest from the public, while there is still a long list of people who have applied and are waiting for economic rental housing from the government.

“I would like to clarify first that this is something that the law allows and, second, that we are not picking these housing units from the group of over 5,400 that are being built in new public housing projects. These 411 housing units are spread over, I believe, some 10 public housing buildings or projects and there are a few on each project that have not been sold,” said do Rosário.

“Since it would be complex and time-consuming to retender them for acquisition, and since there is a long waiting list for the social housing [economic rental], we have decided to make these units available for that first level of public housing so we can ease the pressure on that list since there will be some time before we have new [economic rental] units to offer,” the Secretary added, noting that the fact that the list is now permanent and does not expire also allows this type of decision to be made.

Rosário further explained that to tender these units for acquisition would be a much more complex process as a new price would have to be set and a whole new tender would need to be commenced for a relatively small number of units.

He also added that the next public housing development to be completed will be the one located at the Avenida de Venceslau de Morais (the land of the former CEM thermal power plant and fuel park), but this is still some months away.