The release of the urban pressure zone delimitation has given the Viseu City Council a new tool in its fight against abandoned or decaying buildings, which allows the IMI to be increased tenfold on certain properties. According to Viseu’s Chamber president, Fernando Ruas, “The owners of buildings in ruins, if they did not provide a solution to their properties, will pay an IMI 10 times higher”.

Following the publishing of the decree on the delimitation of Viseu in Diário da República, which the president of the municipality argues that it is a new toll which will massively help the municipality to reduce the issue of buildings in ruins, includes crucial areas in the city centre. As Fernando Ruas noted, "Our urban pressure zone has a curious characteristic: it encompasses an ARU [Urban Rehabilitation Area], the ARU of the historic centre.”

The delimitation, which has been selected by the municipality, encompasses the empty buildings on Avenida 25 de Abril, Avenida da Europa, the northern entry to the city, close to Cava de Viriato, and the entrance to Nelas and Serra da Estrela. “At this entrance, for those coming from the mountains, there are a series of vacant buildings, of which I don’t even know who the owners are, right up to the old cemetery, which does not favour that area”, Fernando Ruas explained.

“This is an urban planning instrument that councils should have. There aren’t many that have them, but they should [have], because it means that this type of building doesn’t last forever and that ends up existing a lot, especially in the more inland regions”, Fernando has claimed. According to the mayor, Viseu will immediately begin a survey, which entails creating an inventory of every unoccupied building in that pressure zone.