The mutual fund Montepio will launch an ambitious housing program for young people and the elderly, which involves the purchase of houses and subsequent rental to their members, or lifelong income arrangements. At stake is an annual investment of 50 million euros for the acquisition of properties, said Virgílio Lima, the current president and re-candidate in the December elections. And the range could reach 800 homes after four years, at a rate of 200 per year.
“Each year, we have around 50 million euros in budget allocated for this purpose. We can think of 200 houses per year for our members. Over the course of a mandate [quatro anos]we could be talking about 800 houses”, said the manager in statements to Lusa.
The initiative comes after the mutual organization noticed that its youngest members, around 600 thousand, are having difficulty paying rent.
According to Virgílio Lima, in areas with a high density of members, the mutualist will buy or build houses to rent to members. In areas with fewer members, they can indicate the houses they want, the mutual company buys them and rents them to members. There is the possibility that, after a period of time (15 or 20 years, for example), the member can buy the house he rents.
“This lease is not intended to be a source of income for the association, but to respond to the needs of members. That is, we only reimburse ourselves for the cost of factors”, stated Virgílio Lima, stressing that the rent will be below market prices.
The mutualist will launch yet another solution, aimed at older people. In this case, a person or a couple already in retirement with their own home can sell the house to the association at market value and create a lifetime income to pay for an assisted residence (for example, Montepio residence). The houses acquired will also be part of the housing category.
The mutualist also has income houses that it rents to generate income to remunerate members’ savings. Currently, it has 1,000 of these houses (with discounts for members).
The production of houses for members, to face the housing crisis, has been a demand for years by members of the opposition to the current management of the mutual association and reinforced in these elections by list B, which is running only for the assembly of representatives.
Regarding the lack of transparency in the group, a criticism also from the opposition, Virgílio Lima rejected them, stating that all members of the assembly of representatives receive information in a timely manner and ask the questions they consider necessary. And he says that today there is more scrutiny and control than when issues went to general assemblies, as there was very little participation.
Furthermore, he stated, the Board of Directors has non-executive members who scrutinize the actions of executives.
Virgílio Lima also said that the mutualist has been updating existing modalities to respond to the needs of its members (more than 600 thousand), specifying that a new modality in the area of health that operates in preventive medicine is being launched.
With LUSA