This was one of the main ideas defended during a round table over the motto "Housing: institutional investment in the rental market", which had Helena Roseta, Portuguese member of Parliament, and Sofia Galvão, lawyer. The debate followed the Prémio André Jordan award ceremony, in Lisbon, which awards academic and scientific research in real estate.
For Sofia Galvão, the Portuguese housing rental market «is deeply destroyed and traumatized». And given the low public investment in housing, which is unable to meet the country’s real demands, she believes that the answer is to create a REIT regime which should happen soon, according to her: «REITs are a solution to democratize real estate investment, making it regulatable and transparent, at a time when investment scale will become fundamental».
For the specialist, the market revitalization is dependent on new key players who can bring this scale. «A heterogenous and fragmented investment won’t fix the problem. It’s important to bring new types of institutional investors to the housing market, who are already present in the commercial rental market».
And she adds that «Portuguese (rental) history is so much about blocking spontaneous and loose initiatives, that something very different is needed. And that is in the Government’s agenda and there might be news very soon», concerning the creation of a REIT regime.