The property developer Grupo Rio expects to invest around €1,000 million in the construction of 21 projects comprising 5,000 homes. Aimed primarily at the middle class, the group is currently building 1,500 homes in Greater Porto and plans to start work on a further 860 before the end of this year.
These involve three residential developments representing an investment expected to be around €180 million, according to statements made by Nuno Afonso, the company’s CEO, to Jornal de Negócios. One of the projects, Velaris, located on Avenida Fernão de Magalhães, Porto, will comprise 347 homes; São Vicente, in Maia, around 250; and a further 244 homes are planned in Matosinhos, at the Metropólis.
For Nuno Afonso, “housing is no longer just an economic issue but has become one of the most pressing social issues in Portugal. Current construction levels are clearly insufficient, and many of the projects that are emerging are not designed with the middle class in mind”.
In a recent report, the International Monetary Fund suggests precisely that the imbalances in the Portuguese housing market “are predominantly structural rather than cyclical in nature”, and the CEO of the Rio Group agrees.
He argued that this problem has several causes, ranging from new-build construction failing to keep pace with demand, to “factors such as rising construction costs, planning restrictions, excessive bureaucracy and labour shortages, which limit the expansion of supply and exacerbate the shortage”. The company stated that it is focused on building homes at more competitive prices, ranging from €160,000 to €220,000, seeking to meet the “real needs of the market”.
