Portugal will lower taxes on new homebuilding and make more rural land available for developing affordable flats in a bid to ease the housing crisis in one of western Europe’s poorest countries.
Faced with a housing shortage and growing popular discontent, the government plans to place state-owned properties on the market, lower the value-added tax rate for construction of homes to 6%, and provide incentives for developers to build homes to rent.
The aim is to cool real estate prices by increasing the supply of homes, Infrastructure and Housing Minister Miguel Pinto Luz said on Friday at a press conference in Porto, northern Portugal. “We want to have homes available at lower costs.”