Government and EIB approve a 1.34-billion-euro line for affordable homes

The Government and the European Investment Bank (BEI) approved a new credit line in the amount of 1.34 billion euros to boost the public housing stock in Portugal. The financing will enable the construction and renovation of around 12,000 homes to be rented at affordable rates, mostly for middle class households.

The first instalment, a sum of 450 million euros, was signed today at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence in the presence of Luís Montenegro, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Miguel Pinto Luz, the Minister of State and Finance Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, and the Minister of Economy and Territorial Cohesion Manuel Castro Almeida.

The homes fall under the affordable rent scheme to guarantee rents lower than those set by the market and set up a long-term housing stock to ensure greater stability in access to housing.

The EIB financing together with sums from the State Budget gives the municipalities by 2030 to complete their housing solutions, a larger timeframe than that set under the RRF of June 2026. The agreed terms include lower interest rates and more generous grace periods, making the investment more sustainable.

For the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Miguel Pinto Luz, "offering a solution for the housing challenges is a top priority for the Government. With this 1.34-billion-euro financing we have another tool operating for public housing in Portugal. This is more than 12,000 affordable rent homes, with controlled rents, that we want to offer to the households in our country as soon as possible."

The Minister of State and Finance Joaquim Miranda Sarmento praised "the outstanding role the EIB has played in Portugal’s development over these last 40 years, financing and supporting hundreds of public and private projects, as the one we see here today",

This endeavour joins the work undertaken under the Programme to Assist with Access to Housing – 1º Direito to complete housing solutions established in the Local Housing Strategies, mostly funded through the State Budget and which have an exception regime until 2030.