Maria João Carreiro reiterates Regional Government's willingness to cooperate with local authorities on Local Housing Strategies - Communication

Secretaria Regional da Juventude, Habitação e Emprego

The Azorean Government is willing to contribute to the construction of new housing solutions identified in the Local Housing Strategies of Regional Municipalities that are not financed within the Recovery and Resilience Plan under the 1st Right programme of the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation-IHRU.

This assurance was reiterated by the Regional Secretary for Youth, Housing and Employment, Maria João Carreiro, during a meeting in Ponta Delgada with the newly elected President of the Board of Directors of AMRAA - Association of Municipalities of the Azores, Carlos Ferreira, which was also attended by the Regional Director for Housing, Daniel Pavão. 

A survey of new housing solutions, construction and renovations identified in the Local Housing Strategies of the 19 Azorean municipalities, which are excluded from RRP funding, has already been requested from local authorities via AMRAA. It is expected that this survey will be delivered to the Regional Government via AMRAA by the end of January next year.

"After this differentiated survey, per municipality, of local construction and renovation needs excluded from the RRP, an analysis will follow to determine the specific amounts of co-financing by the Region, taking into consideration the progress of existing projects and their planned implementation," she explained.

Maria João Carreiro noted that this willingness to cooperate with local authorities in responding to local housing needs is part of the work already being conducted by the Regional Government to plan public intervention for the post-PRR period in housing and the required increase in the Region's public housing stock.

As the Regional Secretary announced on November 18, during a visit to monitor the Detráz os Mosteiros housing development in the municipality of Ribeira Grande, São Miguel, all RRP procedures for the construction, renovation and servicing of plots for transfer have already been launched, with an overall investment of €65 million.

Overall, 150 public tender procedures were launched for projects, project reviews, construction contracts, supervision of housing construction and renovation, and servicing of plots. This has resulted in a total of 767 housing responses already completed, in progress, or to be completed by 2026.

"Responsible governance that generates confidence is governance that does not waste and knows how to make use of the financial resources available to respond, by increasing the supply of housing, to a crisis in housing supply arising from years of disinvestment by socialist governments in the construction of new housing solutions," stated the government official at the time.

In the Programme of the XIV Government of the Azores, the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition committed to providing two thousand housing solutions for Azorean families, covering the middle class, young people and households with socio-economic vulnerabilities, over a period of ten years.