Portugal cuts investment to combat housing crisis by 63.5%

That's a reduction of €1.844 billion, which will coincide with the end of the extraordinary funding from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). All of this comes at a time when there is massive public anger about housing prices and rents.

The biggest blow is to the programme for access to housing, with its budget falling by 80.9% (from €2.216 billion to €424 million), funding for the rehabilitation of the existing stock falling to €10 million, and the emergency housing reserve getting nothing.

Investment in the public stock of affordable housing will rise from €463 million to €612 million. Of the overall housing budget of €2.003 billion, the government will be drawing on "Portugal 2030"

funds, private capital and tax incentives (which will cost the public purse €303 million in forgone revenue). Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento has confirmed that the funding is in place and that the target of 59,000 public housing units by the end of the decade will be achieved.

The budget proposal contains no specific targets for delivery by 2027. At the local level, municipal investment is expected to fall by 29.4% (€1.45 billion), and the government has indicated it may remove certain housing-related loans from the debt limits to give the municipalities more scope.