Affordable housing and contiguous land. PS manages to approve major changes to land law

After a series of advances and retreats and a postponement imposed by Chega, the controversial land law was voted on in detail this Wednesday, that is, in the vote on the specifics. In Parliament, the PS managed to confirm several victories in which it showed itself to be in tune with the PSD, although not all the changes it wanted to make were given the green light. As for the reasons that Chega had alleged for needing more time to change the law — including proposing “stronger mechanisms” that would aim to “stop corruption” — it was not successful and they fell by the wayside.

During the complex vote on decree-law 117/2024, which amends the Legal Framework for Territorial Management Instruments (commonly known as the land law), which will later be confirmed in plenary, the deputies immediately overlooked two conditions that the PS had set for amending the law.

On the one hand, the concept of “moderate value” that was foreseen for building housing in the context of this new law (which simplifies the transformation of rural land into urban land, facilitating construction) disappeared and it was defined that “at least 700/1000 of the total area” must be destined for public housing, affordable rental housing or controlled-cost housing”. With socialists and social democrats aligned, the entire law was amended to accommodate this change, since the concept of “moderate value” raised concerns about the effects on house prices.

Furthermore, the PS managed, with the favorable votes of the PSD, Livre and Iniciativa Liberal, to ensure “contiguity with urban land” when it is decided that one of these plots of land will be transformed from rural to urban, “as a consolidation and coherence of the urbanization to be developed with the existing urban area”. And it guaranteed that it will be necessary to demonstrate what the “urban burden” is in relation to the infrastructure system that already exists, convincing all parties except the PCP (which abstained).

Despite the PSD's acceptance of the main socialist proposals, there were still some changes made by the PS that fell by the wayside, such as the requirement that the lack of available urban areas be verified before approving the transformation of more land into urban land. The requirement that the financial viability of the project in question be demonstrated, with the identification of those responsible for its financing, was also not approved — the PSD and IL were against it.

During the vote, a few more protections were also approved — the socialists ensured that there can be no construction in strategic areas of infiltration and protection and recharge of aquifers, areas with a high risk of water erosion or unstable areas. And the PSD defined that, until the inclusion of the new rules, the standards relating to urbanizable areas are suspended, and at this stage “there can be no place for the practice of any acts or operations that imply the occupation, use and transformation of the land, under penalty of nullity of such acts”.

At the PSD's proposal, this regime will be in force for four years, starting to apply retroactively from December 31, 2024. However, the PS managed to ensure that its extension will depend on a report presented to Parliament by the Government, evaluating this new regime of the so-called land law.

The smaller parties, with the exception of IL, were unable to approve their proposals during the vote. Chega even mentioned an intention to propose the creation of “municipal transparency and anti-corruption committees” to have a say in these processes, but did so incorrectly, in terms of the rules of procedure (it proposed a new article, from scratch, instead of an amendment to the articles that were under discussion) and ended up accusing the committee of “not wanting transparency or scrutiny”. Nothing was done: the board explained that the content of the proposal was not in question, but the way it was made, and the amendments that would have led Chega to ask for a postponement of the vote, last week, were dropped.

Chega postpones vote on controversial land law