In order to enhance housing conditions in the municipality, the Covilhã City Council has launched a competition to rebuild three houses in the historic centre as part of the Local Housing Strategy. With a budget of 275 thousand euros and a 15-month execution period, the municipality anticipates that work will start in January 2025.

The project, which is part of the 1st Right Program, aims to support the promotion of housing solutions for people who live in inadequate housing conditions and who lack the financial means to pay for access to adequate housing, the municipality emphasised in a written response to the Lusa news agency.

The Covilhã City Council stated, “The municipality sees this project as very important for the implementation of an ongoing strategy that aims to rehabilitate the municipality’s housing heritage, increase the municipal housing supply and provide more and better conditions for those who live there”.

According to the local government, the properties have never been the subject of conservation or enhancement efforts since they were constructed in the 1950s. Along with another project that is up for public tender and has the same goal, the intervention on Rua Comendador Gomes Correia entails demolishing the buildings' interiors and constructing two T2 apartments and one T1 apartment.

The Covilhã City Council’s strategic priorities centre on ensuring housing, public supply and revitalising the city. As the municipality added, “This project will provide better living conditions for residents, adapting the existing housing conditions where they live”.