O prédio redondo da Avenida Araguaia, na esquina com a Rua 2, no Centro de Goiânia, deverá ganhar uma nova destinação após mais de três décadas de abandono. O prefeito Sandro Mabel (UB) anunciou nesta terça-feira (20) que um novo grupo de proprietários pretende retomar as obras e transformar o imóvel em apartamentos para locação por meio do Airbnb.

A situação do edifício vinha gerando reclamações de moradores e frequentadores da região por causa das ocupações irregulares e dos problemas de segurança. Segundo Mabel, laudos técnicos indicam que a estrutura do prédio está em boas condições, o que permitiria dar continuidade ao projeto.

“Serão construídos apartamentos para locação na plataforma Airbnb. Isso vai ser muito bom para o Centro. Temos laudos que atestam que a estrutura do prédio é muito boa. Muito bem construído. Então, será muito bom”, afirmou o prefeito.

Prefeitura cobra medidas de segurança

Antes da retomada das obras, os proprietários deverão reforçar a proteção do imóvel para impedir novas invasões. Entre as medidas anunciadas estão a construção de muros, a instalação de portões e o uso de concertinas.

“Tomamos medidas para garantir a segurança e os donos ficaram de reforçar os muros, instalar portões, colocar concertinas para impedir novas invasões e aumentar a segurança no local”, disse Mabel.

O secretário municipal de Eficiência, Fernando Peternella, afirmou que os antigos responsáveis pelo imóvel já haviam sido autuados duas vezes por não adotarem providências para garantir a segurança do local.

“Já autuamos os proprietários duas vezes por não tomarem providências para garantir a segurança do local. Agora esse problema será resolvido”, declarou.

A Guarda Civil Metropolitana e a Secretaria Municipal de Políticas para Mulheres, Assistência Social e Direitos Humanos também atuaram no edifício para verificar a situação das pessoas que estavam no local e oferecer encaminhamentos para serviços, programas e benefícios da rede socioassistencial.

Mabel cita outros imóveis abandonados

O prefeito afirmou que pretende adotar medidas semelhantes em outros edifícios sem uso na capital. Entre os imóveis citados está um prédio na esquina da Avenida Assis Chateaubriand com a Avenida Portugal, no Setor Oeste.

“Vamos fazer esse tipo de tratativa em todos os prédios que estão nesta mesma situação”, afirmou.

A retomada do edifício da Avenida Araguaia também ocorre em meio à proposta da Prefeitura de ampliar a ocupação residencial do Centro. Segundo Mabel, o programa Venha Morar no Centro está na fase final de regulamentação, mas ainda depende de providências para começar a funcionar.

Moradora da região, Sílvia Cristina de Lima comemorou as medidas adotadas no imóvel. Ela relatou alívio com a retirada das pessoas que ocupavam o prédio e com a previsão de reforço no fechamento da área.

“Estou aliviada com o início da obra. Já retiraram o pessoal que morava no local e agora estão derrubando esse muro de madeira e já vão fazer um muro seguro. Aprovo demais a ação da prefeitura em revitalizar o Centro”, afirmou.

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Regulation could be the fastest response for tenants facing their next rent payment, Italian MEP Irene Tinagli said. Measures to moderate rent increases and restrict short-term rentals in neighbourhoods under the greatest pressure could help in the short to medium term.

“In the long term we need structural measures that provide a greater supply of affordable homes,” she told the European Newsroom (enr) on Wednesday. That would however require substantial investment and long-term planning, she added.

Tinagli, who chairs the European Parliament’s Special Committee on the Housing Crisis (HOUS), said residential property “has become an asset” and was increasingly attracting investors and real estate funds. These investors were buying entire buildings and evicting tenants or sharply raising rents, she said, describing a pattern seen in cities across the EU.

One such case was Maricarmen Abascal, whose eviction from her longtime Madrid home made her a symbol of Spain’s housing protests. She died in hospital at the age of 87 on October 7, two weeks after her eviction. She never returned home, despite an agreement with the apartment’s owner, Urbagestión, that would have allowed her to return at roughly her previous rent rate.

In the interview, conducted before news of Abascal’s death emerged, Tinagli described Abascal’s eviction as “a case that we are seeing in many other cities and countries across the European Union” and added: “It tells me that we need to do something.”

European tools, local action

While housing remains primarily a national and local responsibility, the EU could provide authorities with tools to act, alongside guidelines and parliamentary resolutions, Tinagli said.

She pointed to greater use of cohesion funds, “reprogramming them to address housing investments”, and more flexible state-aid rules to support social and affordable housing projects.

Work on an Affordable Housing Act, which the European Commission proposed last month, was intended to give authorities clearer criteria for restricting short-term rentals “where they are becoming increasingly invasive of the dynamics of the city,” the Italian politician said.

Such restrictions could range from limits on licences to outright bans, depending on local housing pressures. Reducing potential returns from holiday lets could curb investors’ interest in driving up property prices, she added.

MEPs have opened debate on the EU’s proposed Affordable Housing Act, which would give national and local authorities a clearer legal framework for restricting short-term rentals and some non-primary residential property use in areas facing severe housing pressure.

The European Parliament has begun examining legislation that would give cities and national governments greater legal certainty when restricting short-term rentals and the use or acquisition of residential property in areas where housing has become difficult to afford.

The proposed Affordable Housing Act, presented by the European Commission on 9 September, was on Parliament’s agenda in Strasbourg on Tuesday as housing costs move further into EU-level politics.

The legislation does not transfer general housing policy to Brussels. Decisions on construction, planning, rent policy and social housing would remain primarily with national, regional and local authorities.

Instead, the proposal would establish a common EU legal framework governing some restrictions that member states and cities may introduce when attempting to protect housing supply.

The draft regulation specifically covers measures restricting short-term accommodation in residential properties other than a host’s primary residence. It would also cover restrictions on the acquisition or use of land and housing that is not intended as somebody’s principal home.

Those provisions are designed partly to resolve a legal problem that has become increasingly important in cities with large tourism markets.

Local governments have introduced restrictions on holiday rentals and second-home use, but such measures can clash with EU single-market rules governing services, property and establishment. The Commission says the legislation would provide authorities with a clearer method for demonstrating when restrictions are justified and proportionate.

The law would therefore not impose a common European cap on Airbnb-type accommodation. Nor would it oblige cities to introduce restrictions.

Authorities choosing to intervene would instead have to demonstrate housing stress and ensure that their measures meet EU requirements on proportionality, transparency and review.

Brussels argues that the scale of Europe’s housing problem now affects more than social policy.

According to the Commission’s European affordable housing plan, house prices across the EU have risen by more than 60 per cent since 2013, while average rents have increased by about 20 per cent. Short-term rentals increased by 93 per cent between 2018 and 2024.

Only between six and seven per cent of EU housing stock is classified as social housing, while about 20 per cent of homes are recorded as unoccupied.

The Commission estimates that Europe needs to build more than two million homes a year to meet current demand — around 650,000 more annually than are presently being constructed. It estimates the additional investment requirement at approximately €153 billion each year.

Those figures underline a central difficulty in the housing debate: restrictions on tourist accommodation may return some properties to residential use, but they do not address the full shortage of new homes.

EU Today examined that wider supply issue when the Commission launched its European Affordable Housing Plan, which combines proposed regulation with investment, faster permitting, construction reform and changes to state-aid rules.

The debate is becoming more politically prominent as housing affordability affects a growing share of middle-income households as well as those on lower incomes.

Berlin offers one example. EU Today reported last month that advertised rents in the German capital had risen by roughly three-quarters in less than a decade, while the city calculates that it will need another 211,000 homes by 2040.

Pressure is particularly acute in large cities and tourism centres, where residential demand competes with short-term accommodation and investment properties.

The Commission argues that this has consequences for the wider economy because workers who cannot find affordable accommodation may be unable to move to areas where jobs are available.

That is why Brussels increasingly presents housing not only as a social concern but as part of the competitiveness and single-market agenda.

The proposal is still at an early stage. Parliament and the Council must negotiate the legislation under the ordinary legislative procedure, and substantial amendments remain possible.

Questions are likely to centre on how “housing stress” is defined, what evidence authorities must provide before restricting property use and how far EU law should permit local intervention in property markets.

The political dividing line is already apparent. One side of the debate stresses that cities need more freedom to protect permanent housing stock. The other warns that regulation of short-term rentals or second properties can affect tourism businesses, property owners and investment without necessarily creating sufficient new supply.

The Affordable Housing Act attempts to establish legal rules for that dispute rather than settle it centrally.

If adopted, its importance will therefore depend less on a single Brussels policy than on how individual European cities use the powers and legal protection it provides.

Six hours after the explosion in a residential building in historic center of Athens, Plaka, on Friday morning, rescuers and authorities have not been able to locate three to five people under the debris of the building that collapsed. According to state broadcaster ERT, missing are: an elderly couple, permanent residents on the 2nd floor […]

The post Explosion in Athens: Elderly couple, three US tourists missing appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

i have been struggling in the last couple of days to get the facts right and make an update on that horror story of the dead infant found in a deep freezer at an Airbrb apartment in Kypseli district of Athens on August 31. The more I delay to write down and post the update, […]

The post Infant in the freezer stabbed 18 times. Big fail of social services appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

Authorities made shocking findings in an Airbnb apartment in Kypseli district of Athens on Monday:the “frozen” body of an infant inside a container stuck in a suitcase. Three minors aged 9, 12 and 15 with the latter to be pregnant. At least one of the minors, a boy, and the pregnant girl were found positive […]

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