Ribeira Grande's Câmara Municipal launches public land programme for social housing

Municipal land to curb the shortage

Plots are being transferred mainly around Ponta do Sol.

Requirements and conditions of the transfer

Developing each plot costs around 900,000 CVE, co-financed with the beneficiary families.

A response to pressure from hiking tourism

The programme aims to offset the effect of holiday rentals linked to hiking tourism.

First allocations and outstanding questions

Questions remain over bank financing for self-build housing.

First families sign up to the municipal register

The Câmara Municipal has opened a provisional register of interested parties which, in its first few weeks, has drawn more than a hundred applications, most of them from Ponta do Sol, Paul and Ribeira Grande. Municipal officials explain that priority will go to families with young children and agricultural workers without a home of their own. Several residents consulted say they had been waiting years for an opportunity like this, though they are calling for the selection process to be transparent. The council has pledged to publish the final criteria before the end of the year.

Comparison with experiences in other Santo Antão municipalities

Similar land-transfer programmes have been tried before in Paul and Porto Novo, with mixed results, according to municipal sources. In Paul, a good number of the plots handed over a decade ago remain unbuilt due to a lack of financing among the beneficiary families. Ribeira Grande council says it has taken note of those difficulties and is proposing, this time, to tie the transfer to a construction timetable. Local real-estate professionals believe financial support will be decisive if the programme is to avoid repeating the same setbacks.

Local banks face a small-loans challenge

Banks with branches in Ribeira Grande admit that granting loans for self-build housing on transferred plots is difficult, since the land cannot be used fully as collateral during the first few years. Credit cooperatives on the island are looking at specific lending lines backed by municipal guarantees to unblock these deals. Industry representatives say that without that backing, a significant proportion of the families awarded plots will not be able to build their homes within the planned timeframe. The council is currently negotiating with at least two financial institutions to close a deal before the first plots are handed over.

Planned timeline and next steps

The council expects to formalise the first allocations before the end of the first quarter of next year, once complaints over the scoring criteria have been resolved. A second phase of the programme has also been announced on land near Ribeira Grande, subject to municipal budget availability. Residents' associations are asking for free technical advice to be included for those building for the first time. The council insists the goal is to keep young people on the island and ease the pressure holiday rentals place on the existing housing stock.