The More Housing program is discussed this Monday at the Municipal Housing Council. Carlos Moedas had already announced that the Lisbon City Council (CML) will “launch five co-ops” to respond to the crisis in the sector and, on February 23, in the presentation of the Municipal Housing Charter, it was mentioned that “the first cooperative has already been launched in Lumiar”. “By the end of the year, the remaining four will be launched”, but you need to understand what is at stake.
To the SAPO24the CML points out that “cooperatives are a form of housing production in partnership between the Municipality and families, in which the Municipality cedes the land for 90 years so that private agents can build cheaper housing”.
“We estimate an existing potential on municipal land for the construction of 500 homes in this modality. In this sense, we launched in 2022 the first architectural project for the construction of 18 homes (minimum) in Lumiar, which marks the relaunch of the cooperative movement in the current mandate”, it is mentioned.
As for the cooperative in Lumiar, according to the document of “public design competition” — which exposes all the characteristics that the project must have —, the construction will appear on Rua António do Couto and “the maximum estimated value for the intervention” exceeds 3.6 million euros [3.692.383,05€]with the addition that “this value does not include VAT”.
“To determine the cost estimate, four types of work were considered: Housing + Tertiary, Parking, Green Spaces for Private Use / Patio and Public Space / Infrastructure”, is mentioned in the document. However, “this value is subject to updates resulting from market fluctuations and changes in applicable legislation”.
According to the Chamber, “the present project is the first of a series of municipal projects aimed at relaunching the cooperative movement in Lisbon. building or rehabilitation works, through the cooperative movement: private construction under public ownership, assigned in surface rights”.
“The project will be fully developed in direct collaboration with the Municipality, via Lisboa West, SRU, with the horizon that in the construction phase the owner of the work will legitimately become the cooperative selected in the meantime in a tender to carry out the work”, it is further explained in the document.
The municipality also adds that “the alternative possibility of construction by the municipality is safeguarded as a last resort in case some land does not have demand from cooperatives”.
Also according to the Lisbon Chamber in response to the SAPO24the “opening to housing cooperatives makes it possible to make public property available for private construction of housing at affordable prices, by non-profit entities, under a surface right regime with a limited term (75 or 90 years), at the end of which period the Chamber may recover the right of usufruct”.
The municipality also explains that “the model of cooperatives, as it is planned for small-scale construction, less than 50 dwellings, allows good use of small land scattered throughout the city”.
Thus, “in the light of the values ​​of the New European Bauhaus – an initiative of the European Commission that intends to place culture and creativity at the center of the European Ecological Pact – based on the values ​​of environmental sustainability, aesthetics and inclusion, public tenders will be launched to challenge the designers to imagine how Lisbon could and should play a leading role in this transition to new times”.
