Synergy between public and private investment is the recipe for increasing the supply of middle-class homes

The goal of increasing the supply of middle-class homes is one of the objectives of the Municipality of Porto. This was underlined by the Councillor for Housing, who travelled to Cannes (France), where MIPIM was taking place until last Friday. Pedro Baganha was a guest speaker in one of the event's many conferences.

The also Councillor for Urban Planning and Public Space had the opportunity to explain to an audience made up mainly of investors the path Porto is taking to provide an increasingly robust response to a problem on a global scale.

Pedro Baganha highlighted some of the anchor projects that the Municipality of Porto has ongoing and which are expected to have a multiplier effect in the city. Monte Pedral and Monte da Bela are two of the operations in which private investment is invited to be part of the housing response that brings together the efforts of different organisations.

The Councillor for Housing took advantage of the fact that Porto has gained so much international acknowledgement to encourage investors to get to know the terms of these interventions, which together will place another 620 dwellings on the affordable rent market.

Explaining some elements of the city's context, Pedro Baganha said that around 11% of homes are owned by the Municipality of Porto, which means that the city council is the landlord of approximately 13% of the residing population. He also emphasised the importance of increasing the middle-class housing market, revealing that the planned investment in this area is of several hundred million euros, 90% of which comes from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).

Bear in mind that Porto's ability to attract foreign direct investment has once again been recognised by the Financial Times, which once again placed the Invicta among the European Cities and Regions of the Future ('Large European Cities'). The award was received by the Councillor for Economy, Ricardo Valente, who also attended the MIPIM.

For one week, the world's biggest real estate event was attended by around 90 countries, more than 300 stands, 22,500 representatives and more than 6,500 investors. In addition to the municipalities of Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia and Matosinhos, Greater Porto included several companies of the sector in the regional delegation.