Legislative stability is what weighs most on owners’ decisions whether or not to place properties on the rental market, according to the Owners’ Confidence Barometer, carried out by the Lisbon Owners Association (ALP).
A majority of 57.8% of respondents consider that the predictability of rental laws is decisive in their decisions, even more than net profitability (15%) or taxation (13.2%) on owners.
For the ALP, this result characterizes an activity marked by “distrust” in relation to the housing policies announced by the Government.
The Barometer results indicate that, for more than half (55%) of those surveyed, the Government’s measures are not enough to lead them to put more homes on the market. But 29.4% say they “may” do so after learning more details about the announced package.
The majority (52.4%) say they do not believe that the new policies will cause the “shock” announced by the executive to resolve the housing crisis.
In the part dedicated to taxation, around 41% of owners responded that the executive’s “fiscal shock” measures did not change their lack of confidence in the rental market, and 9.4% even said they felt more apprehensive. 12.4% of respondents received the measures positively.
However, the reduction in IRS and IRC rates on property income, from the current 25% to 10%, is understood “as fair and necessary by 46.6% of owners”.
Next year, almost 70% of respondents intend to update the value of their rents only by the value of the legal coefficient, of 2.24%, which is seen by the ALP as an attitude of “prudence” on the part of those who have rented houses.
“The Government needs to understand that predictability and legislative stability are the real incentive for renting. Constantly changing the rules and maintaining measures that are highly harmful to property owners’ rights undermines the confidence of landlords and deters investment in housing”, considers the president of the ALP, Luís Menezes Leitão, in a statement.
Therefore, “the priority to reverse the current very serious crisis in access to housing must be to rebuild the confidence of owners”, he added.
The majority of Barometer participants are smallholders. Around 60% own up to five properties, with the most representative group being those who own between two and five rented properties (40.4%).
The ALP Homeowners Barometer is intended to regularly measure “the sentiment and expectations” of homeowners regarding the rental market and public housing policies.
This edition was prepared based on responses from 210 members, collected between October 3rd and 17th. Around 99% of respondents have rented properties.