Portugal Sets Up a Team to Test Whether Private Partners Should Build Affordable Rentals on State Land, a Year After Its 10,000-Home Pledge

A year to the day after the Government published its plan for up to 10,000 affordable rental homes on State land by the end of 2035, the first published step under Portugal's public-private partnership (PPP) law has appeared. Despacho n.º 12934/2026 (Order 12934/2026), published in the Diário da República (Official Gazette) on Friday 23 October, sets up a project team to study and prepare the launch of the "Parcerias para o Arrendamento Acessível" (Partnerships for Affordable Rent).

The team has seven full members, none of them paid. It is chaired by Diogo Dias Moreira of the Unidade Técnica de Acompanhamento de Projetos (UTAP, the Finance Ministry's PPP unit). Three were nominated by the Secretary of State for Housing, among them Bernardo Alabaça. The order took effect on 9 October.

What was promised a year ago

Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 164/2025 (Council of Ministers Resolution 164/2025), approved on 18 September 2025 and published on 24 October 2025, says the homes will be delivered through concession contracts. State property company ESTAMO is the contracting authority, with European Investment Bank financing sought. Its annex lists 14 properties: seven in Lisbon, including the former Miguel Bombarda hospital and the old Campo das Salésias, two in Amadora, and one each in Porto, Almada, Oeiras, Albufeira and Faro. More can be added if they offer at least 1,000 square metres of floor space in areas short of housing.

ESTAMO's briefing note for a non-binding market sounding, which ran to 13 February 2026, described 20 preliminarily selected sites in the Lisbon, Porto and Algarve regions, room for up to 5,000 new homes from studios to three-bedroom flats, and an indicative 30-year concession. The State would hand over the land free and get it back at the end.

What the team has to prove

ESTAMO made its formal proposal on 14 September 2026, and the housing and Treasury secretaries of state had signed off by 8 October. Under Decreto-Lei n.º 111/2012 (Decree-Law 111/2012, the PPP law), the team must now show that a partnership offers the public sector more than other ways of reaching the same goal. It must also assess the budget impact and affordability, split the risks between partners, set the contract length and name the public body that pays and manages it. It drafts the tender documents, and it can recommend dropping the PPP if another model looks better.

Only after its report can the finance and housing ministers decide whether to launch a tender. The order sets no deadline for the study, and no home has yet been built under the programme.

Who could rent the homes

The homes fall under the national affordable rent framework: since 1 September, the Regime Simplificado de Arrendamento Acessível (Simplified Affordable Rent Regime), created by Decreto-Lei n.º 97/2026 (Decree-Law 97/2026). Under it, rent must stay at or below a ceiling based on 80 percent of the municipality's median rent, and a lease for a permanent home lasts at least three years. The ceilings published on 13 October put a two-bedroom flat in Lisbon at 1,309 euros.

The new regime sets no nationality or residence-permit condition of its own; its predecessor required non-EU tenants to hold a permit lasting as long as the lease. ESTAMO's briefing note says the public side will define the tenant profile, but no such rules have been published: who qualifies, and how tenants are chosen, is not yet known.

The order came out the day before thousands marched for housing in Lisbon, Porto, Faro and other cities. The Lisbon organisers put the crowd at 25,000, a figure the PSP police called "manifestly high", Observador reported. Parliament is still debating the Government's rewrite of the rental law.