IHRU Will Build 40 Affordable Rental Homes in Bragança on Its Own Land, With Work Due to Start by the End of the Year

The Instituto da Habitação e da Reabilitação Urbana (IHRU, the state housing institute) will build 40 homes for affordable rent in Bragança, the city's mayor, Isabel Ferreira, told Lusa on Friday, as reported by Observador. The homes will go up on land the institute owns at Quinta da Braguinha, the IHRU will pay for the whole build, and work should start "by the end of the year", she said.

For tenants in the north-east, the need is plain. According to the mayor, a one-bedroom flat in Bragança now rents for about 600 euros a month, against about 300 euros six years ago.

What is planned

Ferreira said the deal followed a meeting with the IHRU's president, and that the homes form part of the council's local housing strategy, which is still being drawn up and will cover affordable rentals and controlled-cost homes for sale at prices set by law.

The site has been in the institute's plans before. In August 2023 the IHRU put out to tender the design of a block of flats with shops and services on lots 28 and 29 of Rua das Forças Armadas, Quinta da Braguinha, estimated at 475,000 euros and tied to the Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência (PRR, the EU-funded Recovery and Resilience Plan). Friday's report does not say whether the 40 homes are that building.

The council is also restoring six houses in the town's citadel as social housing, at a cost of about 900,000 euros, 60 percent paid by the IHRU and 40 percent by the Norte 2030 regional programme. A further 16 homes in Bairro da Previdência and eight in Bairro da Estacada are to be refurbished for low-income families, with Norte 2030 funding still to be sought. Ferreira said these projects had been meant for recovery-plan money but "did not get a cent" from it because the previous council did not carry them out. Nationally, the PRR's wind-down is already showing in a 2027 budget with far less housing investment.

What is not known yet

No rents, flat sizes, completion date or application rules have been published for the Bragança homes, and no allocation notice is open.

What it means for you

The IHRU lets its own homes by lottery (concurso por sorteio), and its contests page on the Portal da Habitação says each draw is announced with a notice on the IHRU Arrenda platform setting out who may apply. That page still describes registering first with the Programa de Apoio ao Arrendamento (Rental Support Programme), but that programme was revoked from 1 September by Decreto-Lei n.º 97/2026, so check the notice itself for the current route when one appears.

The decree's replacement, the Regime Simplificado de Arrendamento Acessível (RSAA, the simplified affordable-rent regime), lets public bodies such as the IHRU sign affordable leases, with a minimum term of three years for a permanent home. If the Bragança homes are let under it, rents cannot exceed the local ceilings in Portaria n.º 454/2026/1: 308 euros for a one-bedroom flat, 392 for two bedrooms and 475 for three, as we reported when the ceilings were set. The IHRU has not said which regime it will use.

Households on low incomes have a separate route. Under arrendamento apoiado (supported rent, with rent tied to income), the same IHRU page says you file a Pedido de Apoio Habitacional (housing support request) on the eAA platform; you are then entered automatically in every IHRU contest whose homes match your household size and chosen location, and you must keep the request valid and up to date.