Loulé council hands over 36 more affordable rental homes funded by EU recovery money
Loulé council handed over 36 public affordable-rental homes on 27 October at the Clona development near Mina do Sal, in Loulé town. The one- to four-bedroom flats are aimed mainly at young people, police and security staff and teachers working in the municipality, along with middle-income families priced out of the private rental market. They were funded entirely by Portugal's Recovery and Resilience Plan and form part of the local housing strategy running to 2032. That brings the homes allocated this term to 171, with about 1,000 more in the pipeline. The mayor said further draws will be held and the council wants to shorten the wait between allocation and key handover.
Barcelos opens two PRR-funded housing projects for older people and people with disabilities
Two new social facilities opened in Alvito, in Barcelos, with the labour and social security minister present. Azenha dos Afetos, run by the Casa do Povo de Alvito, offers ten independent homes for 30 residents around shared spaces, in one of the first collaborative housing schemes in the Braga district. Casas da Aldeia, run by Centro Social Vale do Homem, houses 30 people with disabilities, with all places filled and 15 jobs created. Together they represent about 4.5 million euros, backed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan. A second phase, a day centre, is due in January 2027.
Catholic bishop says Church may rent out vacant properties to ease housing crisis
The auxiliary bishop of Porto, who chairs the bishops' social pastoral commission, says several dioceses have started to look at how unused Church properties could help with the housing crisis. Roberto Mariz told the news site 7Margens that some parish houses have already been put up for rent. He believes the Church should consider offering properties for housing, ideally at controlled, affordable rents. He cautions, however, that the number of suitable buildings may be small, since some are in use or in no condition to serve as homes.
Delay in signing agreement puts Leiria prison-estate housing rehabilitation at risk
The rehabilitation of 58 houses in Leiria's prison estate, planned by the region's inter-municipal community (CIMRL) as affordable housing, may be at risk. The cooperation protocol setting the terms for handing over the properties has still not been signed, and CIMRL says the delay could jeopardise funding for the works, initially put at eight million euros. Forty-two of the houses are empty. In May the justice minister visited, saw the damage worsened by the storms, and said the buildings were reaching a critical limit and a solution was needed quickly.
Olhão council approves €49 million loan, with €40 million for housing
Olhão's municipal council voted on 29 October to seek a €49 million loan, with €40 million of the money earmarked for housing. Mayor Ricardo Calé said the request must now go to the Municipal Assembly for approval. He described housing as one of the executive's main priorities and said the aim is to help young people stay in the municipality and start families, at a time when finding a home remains a major difficulty for many households.
Government plans EIB-backed credit line for councils to prepare building land
Economy Minister Manuel Castro Almeida said the government is negotiating with the European Investment Bank a credit line letting municipalities carry out urbanisation works on land for housing. Councils would repay the loan from land sales, on better terms than ordinary borrowing. He called the shortage of serviced land a core obstacle to supply, which he sees as the only way to lower prices. He also said the state will fund all 133,000 homes municipalities identified as needed by 2030, and 2027 budget plans allocate €2.003 billion to affordable housing.
Portugal's 1970s housing shortage was solved in 25 years; today's rules block a repeat
An opinion piece compares today's housing crisis with the shortage of 1970, when 120,000 families lived in shanties and some 500,000 homes were missing. The author says the gap was closed by the end of the century, helped by simpler licensing, subsidised mortgages and political agreement, with 2.7 million homes built between 1970 and 2001. Today, he argues, more than 2,000 rules, a patchwork of municipal requirements, slow licensing, weak public technical capacity, scarce skilled labour and costly refurbishment keep supply low. He calls for the constraints, many of EU origin, to be dismantled.
Call for Porto metropolitan municipalities to join forces on housing and transport
A year after the local elections, the municipalities of the Porto Metropolitan Area are urged to coordinate housing and transport policy rather than plan inside their own borders. Porto's new sustainable mobility plan barely addresses neighbouring councils or the housing shortage, while Gaia drafts its plan without considering Porto, and cycle lanes are built on one side of the river and torn up on the other. Shared infrastructure such as the VCI, the Douro and the A28 serves commuters from the whole region, and rail leaves Arouca and Vale de Cambra out. Many municipal workers cannot afford to live in the city they keep running, so a joint pact is proposed.
Braga's TUB launches Line 34 to link southern parishes from 2 November
Braga's urban bus operator, TUB, presented a new Line 34 at Guisande church, to start running on Monday 2 November. It will rework the timetables of Lines 18 and 58 and serve the southern part of the municipality, including Guisande, Lamas, Lomar, Arcos e Esporões, Celeirós, Nogueira and both Penso parishes. Parish leaders, who had waited some 30 years for such a link, welcomed it as a way to improve movement between parishes for students, industrial-zone workers and health-centre users. Passengers will no longer have to go into the city to change lines, as the Pinheiro do Bicho roundabout will act as an interchange with other routes.
Leiria's Mobility Plan Proposes a Green Ring Modelled on Avião Park
Avião Park in Leiria, crossed by the Polis riverside route, has become a living room and meeting point for families and sports enthusiasts alike. The Polis scheme, nearly 20 years old, brought residents much closer to the River Lis, and similar stopping places now line its path, among them the Guimarota adventure park, the Santo Agostinho garden and the Parque Verde. Leiria's Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan now proposes a large circular green space linking several neighbourhoods. It aims to support gentle mobility, leisure, cultural activity, landscape preservation and climatic comfort, and in effect would replicate the park's success elsewhere.
Pontevedra sets aside €100,000 to start a footbridge across the Minho to Monção
Pontevedra's provincial council will earmark €100,000 in its 2027 budget to begin work on a pedestrian and cycling bridge over the River Minho, linking Monção in Portugal with As Neves in Galicia. The suspension bridge will be 84 metres long and four metres wide, and will connect to existing greenways on both banks. The council's president, Luis López, says it is the first of five planned suspension bridges over the Minho in the province to reach this stage. The design contract, worth €95,000, was put out to tender in 2026 and is funded equally by the council and Monção's municipality. The 2027 sum is a starting payment, not the full construction cost.
Azores has spent €42.7m so far on rebuilding Lajes das Flores port
The Azores government says €42.7 million has been spent on the new port at Lajes das Flores, out of a planned total of €191.5 million for what it calls the largest public works project under way in the archipelago. Most of it, €28.2 million, was spent in the first half of 2026. The port was wrecked by Hurricane Lorenzo in 2019 and hit again by storm Efrain in 2022. The works include a longer breakwater, a new 170-metre quay and dredging. Completion is promised by April 2030.
Olhão builds €4.4m marine biotechnology hub to turn research into commercial products
Olhão is setting up the Hub Azul, a specialised facility with controlled-environment cultivation spaces and laboratories for molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, genetics and microscopy. Researchers and companies will be able to run trials on fish, bivalves and algae, study their health and nutrition, and test new uses for marine resources, without each firm having to buy costly equipment. The roughly €4.4m investment comes from the Blue Fund and the municipality, through a Recovery and Resilience Plan application, and the hub joins a national blue-economy network. It aims to diversify the Algarve economy, attract investment and create skilled jobs. Its scientific management lies with the S2AQUAcoLAB collaborative laboratory.
