Lisbon, Dec. 30, 2024 (Lusa) - The decree allowing construction on previously forbidden land was published in the Diário da República on Monday and will become effective in a month.
After the president of Portugal promulgated the law that creates an exceptional regime to allow construction and urbanisation where it is currently not possible, the government today published the decree-law that amends the Legal Regime for Territorial Management Instruments (RJIGT).
When it announced the decision, the government mentioned the possibility of building on land classified as rustic and REN [National Ecological Reserve] and RAN [National Agricultural Reserve]. However, it said that ‘its most critical areas’ would be safeguarded.
Now, justifying the initiative, the government says in the decree-law that the greater availability of land ‘will facilitate the creation of housing solutions that meet the criteria of controlled costs and sale at affordable prices, thus promoting greater social equity and allowing Portuguese families to have access to decent housing’.
The special reclassification regime ensures that at least 700/1000 of the total above-ground construction area is for public or moderate-value housing.
However, the government explains that this will not be ‘controlled cost’ housing, but housing for the middle class, ‘taking into account the average values of the local and national markets, and defining maximum values to ensure greater equity’.
The increase in the number of plots of land earmarked for housing construction ‘not only contributes to the expansion and realisation of the “Building Portugal” plan but also strengthens the state's capacity to promote effective, sustainable housing policies in line with the needs of the population’, says the government in the document.
It explains that the amendment to the RJIGT makes it possible, on an exceptional basis, to create construction areas on land that is compatible with an existing urban area, ‘while the prohibition on building on units of land with high suitability for agricultural use, under the terms of the National Agricultural Reserve (RAN), remains in force’.
As for the National Ecological Reserve (REN), it says, ‘fundamental natural values and functions continue to be safeguarded, as well as risks to people and property being prevented’.
The decree-law also stipulates, as the government had already announced, that the reclassification of land from rustic to urban is legitimised by a resolution of the municipal assembly on a proposal from the municipal council.
And that if the planned urbanisation operations are not carried out within five years, which can be extended in exceptional situations, the classification of the land as urban land automatically becomes null and void (in whole or in part), ‘without prejudice to the urbanisation rights acquired through an urban title, under the terms of the law’.
According to article 72 in the new version of the law, ‘reclassification as urban land is exceptional and must be based on the demonstrated need to safeguard values of public interest that are relevant in environmental, heritage, economic and social terms’.
The law also stipulates that municipalities can determine reclassification to urban land through a simplified amendment to the municipal masterplan whenever the purpose is housing (in conjunction with other requirements).
The reclassification to urban land of areas included in the National System of Classified Areas, dangerous areas or those at risk of flooding, for example, and, among others, areas covered by special coastal programmes, hydro-agricultural developments, watercourses or dunes, is prohibited.
Land classified as class A1 or soils classified as class A and B, which should remain RAN, cannot be developed.
FP/ADB // ADB.
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