The group “Habita!” accuses the municipality of Lisbon (CML) for selling the city to the real estate industry and tourism.
“The approval of a new urban master plan together with the enactment of a law which accelerates and simplifies evictions and liberalizes rents (imposed by the troika in the memorandum of understanding) created the conditions to expel families and small businesses from the city center in order to replace them by offices, hotels, luxury housing and franchised business. This plan is very well promoted by Lisbon’s City Hall together with speculative funds, architects and lawyers in MIPIM.
Lisbon has thousands of buildings which are vacant for spcualtive reasons. In the future they are going to be hotels and expensive/luxury houses.
Evictions, gentrification, removal of families and individuals from the city center, the closing of hundreds of traditional stores,
associated with land speculation are the consequences of the liberalization of the real estate market and urban plans which serve
the capital and speculative players. The city center becomes more expensive, inaccessible, ceased to be the center of people’s lives,
who are not entitled to participate in this transformation process. Is not a democratic City, the market authoritatively expels citizens.
Commodification of houses and land destroys society and crystalizes the city’s human development and life!
Real State Funds and the Town Hall evict people in Amadora to construct and sell middle class apartments through bank loans.
Real estate funds belonging to a Portuguese bank – Millennium BCP – bought the land of the more than 40 years old neighborhood Santa Filomena. Through the use of coercive force and public expenditure of the Amadora’s City Hall, people are being evicted from their houses with no alternative, no kind of solution, finding themselves thrown out to the streets. When they struggle they are criminalized.
Where is the Housing Right? Where is Democracy? The only thing that matters is the market, the capital, the real estate fund
and its property. This land belonged to the communities for over 40 years and now is only an asset of a real estate fund to
be traded at the stock exchange market. Commodification of land and houses destroys society!”