The BE presented this Tuesday a package of measures to help families face the increase in mortgage loan payments, and proposes a program aimed at the middle class and the establishment of moratoriums.
“We propose a bank moratorium regime similar to what happened in the time of Covid for those who lost their jobs, for those who had a sharp drop in income,” said the BE leader at a press conference at the headquarters. national of the party, in Lisbon. .
Catarina Martins considered that this measure “had some advantage” in the past and “may, in some cases, be the answer” now.
“We know that moratoriums also require a decision at the level of the European Central Bank, but it is up to the Portuguese Government to also have a proposal and to fight for this proposal“, he defended.
Five bills have been presented and will enter the Assembly of the Republic, and they are expected to be debated in parliament next week.
BE also proposes the creation of the “rent to live” program aimed at people who are already in arrears on housing loan installments, giving them the option of “ceding their home to the State”.
Under BE’s proposal, the state would settle the debt with the bank and lease the house to the family “with the rules of affordable rent.”
Subsequently, the family would have “a term of 10 years to repurchase the house from the State” or remain as a tenant, Catarina Martins explained to journalists.
Families “who have adjusted annual gross income of up to 50 thousand euros” would have access to this measure with properties whose “patrimonial value of the property is less than 250 thousand euros”, continued the BE coordinator.
“It is not a measure necessarily aimed at families that are in a situation of poverty, it is a measure aimed at all families, what is usually called the middle class, who need this measure to guarantee housing,” he said.
This measure would be financed by a tax, which will be created, on “excessive bank profits of 25% when profits are recorded 10% above the same period of the previous year.”
To prevent families from reaching a “limit situation”, the blockers also propose that banks give clients the possibility of temporarily renegotiating the contractual conditions of the credits, so that the effort rate does not exceed 50% and does not increase “more than two percentage points with the increase in interest rates.”
Excluded from this program are credits associated with the Golden Visa regime or non-habitual residents and related to real estate whose taxable equity value exceeds 250 thousand euros.
BE also proposes the “unseizability of the first home”, considering that “it is necessary to protect the permanent home from pledges on other loans, specifically consumer loans whose interest has risen”.
Another of the proposals is one “that the BE has historically made”, and it has to do with dation in kind, providing that “when the house is delivered to pay the credit, the installments are completed” and the debt is terminated. . completely extinguished.
BE’s objective with these proposals is to “prevent over-indebtedness in relation to disposable income” of families, “protect the right to housing and maintenance of the family home”, and also “contribute to the creation of different structural responses” .
BE has wanted to present “a menu of possibilities”, since “the situations are very different” and “it is impossible to present a proposal that solves everyone’s problem with the increase in quotas”, said Catarina Martins, defending that these proposals are “solid and complete”.
The party will take these diplomas to debate in the Assembly of the Republic next week, on October 6, the day on which it set the agenda to address the responses to the “serious problems in housing loans that are causing the increase in reference interest rates. ”.
Catarina Martins indicated that the party is “available to discuss each proposal, understand how it can be improved and open to open other proposals.”
Source: Observadora
