Portugal's politics and elections

[Neo-JacobitefromNewYork]

Is there backlash against CDU in Alentejo for local elections because of their support for the Costa Government? Any local splits running as more leftist independents?

Awesome coverage of Portugal politics by the way Mike88

[Neo-JacobitefromNewYork]

You're welcome Mike and I guess Alentejo's declining population might mitigate any radicalism among dissidents CDU members.

[Neo-JacobitefromNewYork]

Seems foreign buyers of real estate might provide much needed money boost, hope they spread it around the country to not overheat Lisbon and Algarve. From Bloomberg April 28:

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Portugal’s property market is generating growing interest from the French, which last year overtook British nationals as the biggest foreign property buyers in the country, according to the Portuguese Real Estate Professionals and Brokers Association.

Under Portugal’s so-called non-habitual residence program, foreign pensioners who come to live in the country may have their pension income exempt from taxes as long as it’s paid from a foreign source. The country is also offering residence permits to non-Europeans who invest more than 500,000 euros in real estate. Both programs have been a magnet for foreign buyers, including French citizens seeking lower taxes and Chinese seeking a home in Europe.

Real estate investment in Portugal may rise to a record 2 billion euros this year from 1.3 billion euros in 2016, Eric van Leuven, the managing partner at Cushman & Wakefield in Portugal, said on Jan. 4. Home prices in Lisbon rose 23 percent last year, according to Confidencial Imobiliario, a company that collects property-market data.

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[Neo-JacobitefromNewYork]

Thanks, maybe local areas could levy taxes if the foreign buyer real estate market gets too heated? Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne are all establishing new taxes for that purpose recently. And it's weird that Lisbon and Porto have had such population decline for decades until the 2010's, guess Salazar's ruralism put a damper on their growth. Apparently uniquely in Europe Oslo had until it's recent population boom from immigration a very similar profile to Lisbon and Porto of slow growth in the actual city and fast growth in suburbs.

[Neo-JacobitefromNewYork]

That's good that Lisbon and Porto have the ability to levy taxes on tourism, wouldn't want to get Barcelona'd where in reaction there are now much harsher measures to control tourism like strongly restricting building of new hotels in the center city/inner city.

I'm guessing super low rents with little refurbishment gave the two cities a poor but sexy image like Berlin? Did any Anarchist squats take advantage of the policy left over from 1910 that discouraged investment that you see in other European inner cities with all their high prices, gentrification, and hipsterization? I'll have to read up more about what areas are like in these two cities.