The housing legislative package approved on January 9 has split opinion in the real
estate sector. Speaking to the Lusa news agency, Rafael Ascenso, Founder and Partner at Porta da Frente Christie's, says the cut in construction VAT from 23% to 6% — conditional on sale-price or rent ceilings — contains "poorly designed measures and missed opportunities".
For Ascenso, the reduced rate should apply to all construction, without exception: the current model, he argues, is hard to police and prone to fraud, since VAT is incurred from the start of the build, long before it is known at what price the units will be sold. He also criticises the insufficient cut to landlords' rental-income tax, and regrets that measures with a direct impact on supply — such as putting vacant public property to use, or reclassifying agricultural land in urban contexts — were left out of the package.
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