Banking is available to finance a “very strong housing construction program in Portugal” which, for the president of BPI, will be the only solution to solve the problem of access to housing. For João Pedro Oliveira e Costa, the solution cannot be to continue subsidizing credit so that people can buy houses that, due to scarcity, are becoming increasingly more expensive. Access to housing will only improve with an “industrial construction” program that banks are interested in financing – and doing so without the “mixtures” of the pastwhich aggravated the deep crisis that banks experienced in the last decade.
João Pedro Oliveira e Costa, the first banker to present the first quarter results at a press conference, took advantage of the journalists’ attention to insist on the need for “the State to take the initiative” in launching an ambitious housing construction program. A program of this type, in addition to significantly improving access to housing, could generate a “engine” of “dynamism” that will be “very advantageous” for the economy Portuguese, defended.
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“Some say that there are many homes that are closed, unoccupied for a long time, but for the solution to come to fruition we would have to motivate the owners to rent these houses, that is, We would have to change the rental law. considering that for some reason, for all these years, these houses did not come on the market. If they did not come to the market it is because the leasing law is not favorable,” said João Pedro Oliveira e Costa. However, it would be “much more beneficial and would generate greater job creation and economic dynamism to have a construction movement here, which I believe is very necessary,” he considered.
We have some Portuguese companies that already carry out industrial constructions. In Portugal there is already this capacity to build not piece by piece but industrially, which is what is needed. I think that here we would create a very important employment movement, in addition to the fact that we have one of the largest numbers of architects in the country. per capita and conditions of the best schools for civil construction engineers,” said João Pedro Oliveira e Costa.
Questioned by the Observer at the press conference in Lisbon, the BIS leader affirms that this should be a priority for political leaders and assured that the bank is interested in “supporting” this mission – allowing “the State not to have to do the financial effort the burden of being the one who pays for the construction.” “I am sure that everyone [os bancos] You will want to compete in such a situation.“, that is, the launch of a large housing construction plan, stated João Pedro Oliveira e Costa, even admitting that “foreign banks” want to come to Portugal to compete for the financing of these programs.
The Luís Montenegro Government’s program aims to alleviate the real estate crisis by increasing the supply of housing, which is believed to be possible through public-private partnerships (PPP) capable of accelerating construction. The so-called urban simplex was also recently approved (still by the previous government), which has the stated objective of accelerating the construction of housing in Portugal.
Urban simplex gives “turbo” to construction (and puts an end to bidets). The sector says it could be a “revolution” but there are risks
To the Observer’s question about how this can be done without the banking sector once again being “soaked” in ruinous loans for real estate development, João Pedro Oliveira e Costa began by guaranteeing that “BPI can talk to some properties because there were never any. problems with loans for housing or construction.”
On the other hand, he added, “it is important to understand what housing construction credit is and what real estate development is. Real estate development is something else,” said the banker, adding that there are now conditions for banks to advance in financing these projects without the “mixtures” of the past. “Much of what happened at the bank [na crise da década passada] It was due to other aspects that were not purely the objective business of construction credit. We had builders who were shareholders of the banks and there was a mix between the different roles of different people,” he said.
I believe that today, with the regulation we have, with the management we have in the banks, with perfectly defined rules, there will not be any problem,” guaranteed João Pedro Oliveira e Costa.
The BPI leader’s statements came after the bank announced that it had increased its first quarter profits by 43%, to 121 million euros, of which 112 million came from its activity in Portugal.
The increase in income was due, as was the case last year, to the favorable evolution of the financial margin – which, according to the bank, has already exceeded its maximum. Profits in 2024 should therefore be lower than in 2023, the bank predicts.
BPI gains another 43% in the first three months of 2024, but profits will fall this year. Lower interest rates “will give families and companies a break”
“We have already reached a peak in relation to the evolution of the financial margin,” stated João Pedro Oliveira e Costa, indicating that this highest point occurred in the fourth quarter. In this first quarter, the financial margin increased by 19% compared to the first three months of 2023, up to 245 million euros. However, it was already a value slightly lower than the 255 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The president of BPI confirmed that the bank’s expectation is that the annual results in 2024 will be lower than those in 2023 (the year in which BPI obtained profits of 524 million euros). “Despite the increase in business that we are going to try to do, increasing commissions (not by increasing prices but through more business), we do not foresee that this will have a dimension that could overlap with the reduction of the financial margin,” stated João Pedro. Oliveira and Costa, confirming that 2024 will bring “a reduction” in annual profits, although it is not expected to be very significant.
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Source: Observadora
