Key figures — as of 2026-10-18: Over 100 vacant state-owned properties identified in Castelo Branco alone — closed and unused — according to Iniciativa Liberal; 2.5 years have passed since PM Luís Montenegro pledged in 2024 to make state buildings available within 60 days; separately, the government listed 16 public buildings and plots for sale in late 2025 to fund public housing; Portugal's minimum wage stands at €920/month against rents the IL leader calls "sky-high."
A broken 60-day promise, two and a half years on
The single sharpest line from this weekend's political sparring: in 2024 the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, said he would put state properties at people's disposal within 60 days — two and a half years have passed, so why hasn't it been done, and what's needed to make it happen? That question, put by Iniciativa Liberal leader Mariana Leitão during a visit to Idanha-a-Nova in the Castelo Branco district on 17 October, is now the centre of a live housing fight with real consequences for anyone — Portuguese or foreign — hunting for an affordable lease in 2026.
Leitão's challenge wasn't abstract. Visiting Castelo Branco, she said that city alone has more than 100 vacant state properties that could be made available for affordable rental. She argued that with wages low and rents extremely high, the government has to guarantee these vacant state properties are made available to people.
What the IL is actually proposing
This isn't a new idea from the Liberals — it's a repackaging of their own "Fénix" bill. The party's programme envisages private operators rehabilitating vacant state properties and then placing them on the affordable rental market for at least five years. Once converted, the properties would stay in the affordable rental segment for five years, unless used as the operator's own permanent residence. That private-sector-does-the-work, state-supplies-the-stock model is the thread connecting the 2023 bill to this weekend's renewed pressure on Montenegro.
Leitão also turned the pressure sideways, daring left-wing parties to table workable alternatives rather than recycled ones. She said opposition parties should present proposals that actually work, not ones already tried elsewhere that instead worsen the problem.
The government's own (slower) plan is already in motion
It's worth noting the government hasn't been entirely static. Late last year it announced plans to put 16 vacant or underused public buildings and plots on the market to finance public housing programmes, including the former seat of the Council of Ministers and buildings formerly occupied by the Education, Economy and Health ministries in Lisbon. Those properties sit in Lisbon, Porto, Póvoa de Varzim, Felgueiras, Marco de Canaveses and Matosinhos. Disposal procedures were meant to start by the end of Q1 2026, with the process wrapped up by the end of this year. But that's a sale-to-fund-housing scheme, not the direct lease-to-renters model the IL is pushing — a distinction that matters for anyone hoping these units will actually become rental stock rather than cash for other programmes.
Parliament's track record on rental reform this year hasn't helped either side. Earlier in 2026, lawmakers rejected a full slate of competing rental bills — from the PCP's rent-increase caps to the IL's own push to lift rent freezes on pre-1990 contracts — leaving the underlying legal framework largely unchanged even as the vacant-buildings debate rumbles on.
GrowIN's read: scaling Castelo Branco's number
Here's the number that should worry anyone counting on new rental supply: if the ratio of vacant state properties to population in Castelo Branco (roughly 100 per ~56,000 residents) held nationally, Portugal's stock of unused state-owned housing-capable buildings could run into the tens of thousands — a rough extrapolation we offer as illustrative, not an official figure, since no nationwide audit has been published. The absence of that national inventory is itself part of the story: three years after the first "Fénix" proposal and two and a half years after Montenegro's 60-day pledge, there still isn't a public, searchable list of what the state actually owns and leaves empty.
"Two and a half years after a 60-day promise, Portugal's renters are still waiting for the keys to buildings the state already owns," says GrowIN Portugal Editorial.
Why this matters if you're relocating
For foreigners weighing a move to Portugal's interior — places like Castelo Branco, often pitched as affordable alternatives to Lisbon and Porto — this fight is directly about future supply. If the IL's pressure forces a faster rollout, or if the government's 16-building sale eventually feeds new rental units rather than one-off sales, that could ease the acute shortage newcomers currently face outside the main cities. For now, nothing has changed on the ground. Anyone budgeting a relocation should still plan around today's private rental market rather than hypothetical state stock — see our relocation hub for what's actually available and how to navigate contracts, deposits and NIF requirements as a non-resident.
What to watch next
Keep an eye on whether Montenegro's government responds publicly to Leitão's challenge, whether the 16-property disposal list from late 2025 is amended to include rental conversion rather than straight sales, and whether any new rental-reform bill resurfaces in parliament after this year's rejections. None of this is close to a done deal — it remains a political dare, not policy.