Lisbon, Feb. 17, 2025 (Lusa) - The CEO of Portugal's state-owned Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) bank said on Monday in Lisbon that it would be nonsense to claim that the housing problem would be solved next year.
"We don't need housing in five or seven years, we need it now. But there's no point in saying that housing will be solved next year. That would be nonsense," said Paulo Macedo, at the conference “Portugal 2030: Strategic Future for the Construction Sector”, organised by AICCOPN - the Association of Civil Construction and Public Works Industrialists.
The CGD pointed out that there is a double problem in housing, since houses are needed for young people, but also for immigrants, at a time when there is little supply and demand is increasing.
Paulo Macedo pointed out that in some municipalities, such as Sintra, immigrants account for 25% of the population.
"Either these people have a decent life or there will be a more serious problem here," he warned.
In Paulo Macedo's opinion, this pressure won't let up any time soon and the conversion of office projects or commercial areas into housing may be a more agile solution at the moment.
Regarding residential financing, the chairman of CGD' said there has been no shortage, pointing out that last year the bank totalled around €4.1 billion in housing finance.
Concerning construction financing in the private sector, there was a reduction following the financial crisis and then a recovery.
CGD has been willing to finance projects in terms of large-scale infrastructure, ensuring that it has one of the largest own funds.
Even so, he emphasised that attractive and balanced projects are needed.
"There is a willingness to finance not only at Caixa, but also at other banks. We think this willingness is materialising," he said.
At the same session, the CEO of Mota-Engil - Engenharia e Construção, Carlos Mota Santos, argued that construction lacks labour and predictability, stressing that the government should be more open to discussing immigration with this sector.
Carlos Mota Santos recalled that some of the companies in the sector disappeared with the financial crisis. On the other hand, at the time, the companies had not planned. They implemented their internationalisation plan and were living at a time of "very strong investment in infrastructure in Portugal".
As a result, there was a flight of human resources and the "advent of low-cost" helped, pointing out that it's easier to come and go to Europe than to part of the Alentejo.
In addition, there has been a lack of investment in training and a generation gap.
For Mota-Engil, short-, medium- and long-term plans are needed to resolve these issues.
As he pointed out, the solution should be immigration "with criteria and quality" in the short term. He noted the government's openness to discussing these issues with the sector.
Mota-Engil's CEO said that many companies have the recruitment capacity to respond to the gaps in the national market, guaranteeing, in the case of this construction company, a job, housing and, when necessary, the repatriation journey.
In the medium and long term, looking at the birth rate and training, "returning to the concept of vocational schools" is necessary.
Finally, Mota-Engil believes that it is important for the industry to grow in size and take advantage of the wave of public investment that will take place over the next few years.
PE/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
