The program was presented this Thursday, during the Semana da Reabilitação Urbana de Lisboa (Lisbon’s Urban Renewal Week), at the conference «Programa Relançar – Captar investimento, voltar a crescer» (Program Relaunch – Attracting investment, growing again). APPII’s president Henrique Polignac de Barros points out that «we will need massive investments, but there is great liquidity worldwide and it will be invested in the countries which find the best solutions to attract that investment».
Hugo Santos Ferreira, Executive Vice-President at APPII, remarked that Program Relaunch «is a program for all real estate», which aims to «attract investment, place Portugal on the path of economic recovery and generate confidence amongst investors», on a «post-Covid» response. The idea is to raise awareness among the Government, corporations and public opinion because real estate «is one of the sectors that attract more investment», around 5.000 million euro per year, representing around 15% of the GDP. «We have the ability to be one of the first sectors to rise again after the crisis».
This program is based on the Manifesto dos Investidores Imobiliários (Real Estate Investors Manifest), delivered to the Prime Minister at the beginning of the crisis, which defends a set of 9 measures, amongst which the suspension of paying the IMT and IMI (Municipal Real Estate Taxes) and the Special Payment on Account; extension of the legal administrative tax deadlines in favour of private entities; streamlining of municipal licensing procedures; allow remote negotiations; grant the category of escrow current account for local accommodation; relaunch the «golden visa» and Non-habitual residents tax programs; reduce VAT to 6% on new construction and suspend the housing AIMI (Additional Municipal Property Tax).