Only About 12,000 of the 31,792 Homes Finished Under Portugal's Recovery Plan Are New Builds, Housing Institute Data Show

Of the 31,792 homes completed under Portugal's Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) by August 2026, only about 12,000 are new homes; the rest are refurbishments and purchases of existing buildings. The figures come from the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) and were released to ECO on 23 October by an official source at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, which said the 12,000 are "new housing solutions" for families named in councils' Local Housing Strategies. That is a little over a third of the total.

Target met, but mostly with existing buildings

The European Commission's deadline for PRR investments ran out on 31 August. In a communiqué on 1 September, the ministry said 31,700 homes had been finished, 5,700 more than the 26,000 set in 2021 for families living in undignified conditions. It credited its Construir Portugal strategy, a 790 million euro budget top-up and simpler sign-off rules for councils, and said only about 16,500 homes would otherwise have been completed.

The plan never required new construction. The main programme, 1.º Direito, lets councils build, renovate, buy or rent homes to sublet, under a strategy each submits to the IHRU; its PRR commitment was at least 20,209 families by 2026. Two smaller lines set their own goals: 3,500 homes for affordable public rental, through construction, purchase or rehabilitation, and 18,000 new or renovated student beds.

Where the homes are

According to ECO, Lisbon accounts for 53.4 percent of completed homes, Porto for 14.6 percent and Setúbal for 7.1 percent, with Braga at the bottom of the mainland table. Recuperar Portugal's weekly data list 3,669 contracted housing projects, led by Lisbon (567 projects, 1.12 billion euros) and Porto (539, 552.39 million euros), but give no split between new and renovated homes.

That split has been hard to obtain. Pedro Dominguinhos, who chairs the PRR's National Monitoring Committee, told parliament this week that he had asked the IHRU for it twice, and that the committee's "perception" was that most completed homes were refurbished rather than new, ECO reported.

What it means if you are waiting for public housing

• A refurbishment helps the family already living there. It fixes damp, unsafe or overcrowded homes, but it does not add a home to the stock. A purchase moves an existing home into public hands.
• Demand is far larger than the PRR. Councils' strategies produced about 59,000 applications to 1.º Direito, the ministry says; the government has budgeted 2,011 million euros to fund the remaining 33,000 homes by 2030.
• New affordable rentals are still to come. The ministry lists a 1,340 million euro European Investment Bank line and 511 million euros from the State Budget for 12,000 new homes for affordable rent.
• Councils remain the door. Eligibility and waiting lists for 1.º Direito homes are handled by your council under its Local Housing Strategy, so ask there about your case.

Late projects can also draw on extra state funding if they win Portugal 2030 money, as we reported in September. For many families the wait goes on: in Vila Franca de Xira, people listed in the council's strategy five years ago still have no rehousing date, and riot police cleared the housing protest camp from Lisbon's Rossio on 20 October.