According to the third edition of the “Confiança dos Owners” Barometer, by the Lisbon Owners Association (ALP), released on 8 July, “owners distrust the State and therefore give a very negative rating to affordable rental programs: 91.7 percent of the owners do not trust these Government/municipal programs and only 2.3 percent have properties placed in this market”.

The barometer was carried out between 1 May and 7 June, 2021 and gathered more than two hundred owners, of which almost three quarters were members of the ALP (75.5 percent).

Among the reasons to be suspicious of these types of programs, three-quarters (75.1 percent) of owners pointed to the fact that they cannot personally choose renters as the main reason, followed by fears that the tax benefits of these programs and other terms contractual changes are unilaterally altered by the State, pointed out by around 70 percent of respondents.

Additionally, 40.5 percent of the owners consider that the income values ​​practiced in these programs are unattractive, while the bureaucracy inherent to the programs is also mentioned by 38 percent as one of the reasons that retracts the owners.

“Also very relevant to the discussion of affordable renting is the fact that more than half (51.4 percent) of the surveyed owners claim to still support old lease contracts, with rents frozen (prior to 1990)”, points out the ALP.

The association recalls that this type of contracts, “unlike those that are covered by affordable renting, do not have any tax exemptions, despite having rent values ​​that are far below the market and these programs to stimulate renting”.

"The property owners, who hold 98% of the country's housing supply, were, regrettably and inexplicably, not consulted in any of the measures that the Government and local authorities have implemented in terms of Housing policy", stated the vice president of the ALP, Yolanda Gávea.

For the association's leader, “the results are in sight: the owners do not trust the State and, by extension, the affordable rental programs, which also fail at the municipal level, namely in Lisbon, although both offer a package of tax exemptions that should initially be irrefutable and lead to an explosion of properties placed in this segment”.