As the demographic profile of the Portuguese population changes, there is a pressing need to rethink housing solutions in order to guarantee the well-being and quality of life of citizens, especially the elderly. In this context, partnerships between public and private entities have played a crucial role in designing and implementing innovative projects that aim to respond to current and future challenges.
Helena Lucas, Director of the Real Estate and Property Management Department at Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, highlighted the institution's commitment to offering residential solutions adapted to active and healthy ageing. Helena Lucas highlighted one of Santa Casa's current projects, developed by ISCTE in Marvila, which combines student residences and senior residences «a proactive approach to building new solutions that exemplify a focus on intergenerationality and rehabilitating heritage to create inclusive and dynamic social spaces».
With the aim of exploring new housing models, Luís Clara, Capital Markets Associate at Savills Portugal, presented the dynamics and alternatives of student housing, senior housing and coliving, highlighting the diversity of costs and structures associated with the different concepts. «While the first (student housing) responds to the need for student accommodation, with communal spaces and strategic locations close to educational institutions, the latter (coliving) aims to provide a shared, temporary living experience for young professionals who are at a stage in their lives where they already have more purchasing power».
According to Savills, the rate of supply of beds for students is still well below the average of other European countries, and Portugal is one of the territories where the phenomenon of displaced students is most significant. For student housing and coliving operators, economies of scale are a fundamental part of optimizing maintenance costs and justifying the creation of services that boost the sense of community. This scale is also sought after by investors themselves, who have strategies to carry out higher ticket transactions in these segments.
On the other hand, as far as senior housing is concerned, health services and personalized accompaniment have a greater preponderance. The typology itself is distinct, characterized by much larger private areas designed so that residents can receive family members, a concept that is the opposite of what students need in student housing.
Exploring alternatives such as the conversion of offices into residential buildings, the traditional rental market and the Build to Rent concept, one conclusion stands out: investors have indications to increase the exposure of their portfolios in these "living" segments, which have consolidated long-term fundamentals, and need to start building today to avoid overloading housing needs in the future.
The future of housing in Portugal
During a lively debate on the future of housing in Portugal, various experts shared their views and concerns about the challenges facing the sector.
Helena Lucas, Director of the Real Estate and Property Management Department at Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa, emphasized the importance of rehabilitating social projects in order to offer affordable housing solutions. She also stressed the need to speed up projects in order to make good use of the funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).
João Seixas, Pró-Reitor at the NOVA University of Lisbon, when addressing the issue of housing for university students, pointed out that expenditure on accommodation is now above tuition fees, becoming one of the main concerns of students even when it comes to finding modern, quality solutions, emphasizing that state rental support has not yet achieved the expected results.
For his part, Rui d’Ávila, Director, GFH, brought up the need to boost the rental market and the Build to Rent (BTR) concept. «Housing is a fundamental right, protected by the constitution, but it is necessary to ease the tax burden on long-term rentals and streamline licensing processes to make investments in this sector attractive».
The director also said that he wants to be part of the solution and build to rent, but argues that the investment market lacks confidence and that the legislation has too many constant changes.
«The public sector holds a lot of assets that it can't release to the market», explains Hugo Gonccedil Pereira, CEO of ReVentures, who guarantees that the private sector can both build and put into operation more quickly.
Also expressing his concerns about the challenges faced by private investors in the real estate market, Ricardo Kendall, CEO of KKR Investimentos, addressed the importance of speeding up licensing processes and reducing the tax burden on the sector in order to attract more investment and promote housing development.
Hugo Gonçalves Pereira, agrees and says that «licensing is a problem that cuts across the whole country, and the longer it takes, the more expensive it will become, and no investor can afford to have their capital sitting idle for 4 or 5 years without being remunerated».
The last topic discussed to encourage the development of innovative and affordable housing solutions focused on fees. According to the CEO of ReVentures, in some municipalities 20% of the costs are taxes (not counting the additional 23% VAT), which greatly limits the design of a cheap product.