In response to the rising costs in the real estate market, Mafra City Council has resolved to raise the Local Housing Strategy's first investment from €37.2 million to €61.7 million, in an attempt to support 390 families. The proposal, which was approved in a private meeting by Mafra’s municipal executive, follows a previous change to the Local Housing Strategy conducted in 2022, regarding the same reasons.

According to the municipality of Mafra, as mentioned in the proposal, “The review of investment values ​​is a result of the dynamics of the housing and construction market in recent years, with growth in construction and housing costs having been observed, which have proven to be significantly higher than projected”. Therefore, this means that “the increase in construction and housing costs had a concrete impact on the interventions recommended”.


In line with the agreement, 285 housing requests that qualified for 1st Right support were registered by the municipality's Social Action services, following the approval of the Local Housing Strategy's initial edition in 2021, when more than half of the requests were submitted. As revealed in the proposal, out of the 285 families, 167 live in dangerous conditions (19 of which are related to domestic abuse, 56 of which are homelessness or lack of a place to live), 80 of which are in filthy, unsafe housing, 19 of which are inadequate, and another 19 of which are overcrowded.


According to the plan, the average value of housing transactions in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML), which includes Mafra, increased by 38 percent between 2016 and 2020. In Mafra, however, this growth exceeded 60 percent. As revealed in the Census, the population of the Mafra municipality in the Lisbon district increased from 76,500 to 86,551 between 2011 and 2021, with 20 percent to 25 percent of the population being young people.