Morais Leitão lawyers debate the new Land Law at the 12th Lisbon Urban Rehabilitation Week

The 12th edition of Lisbon's Urban Rehabilitation Week was the stage for a debate on legislative changes in the property sector, bringing together experts, policy makers and professionals from the construction and legal sectors. Morais Leitão was present at the event with the participation of João Pereira Reis, Rui Ribeiro Lima and Miguel Arnaud de Oliveira.

On 26 February, Rui Ribeiro Lima took part in the parallel session ‘What still needs to be known about the amendment to the Land Law (RJIGT)’, where he dealt with the changes to the Legal Framework for Land Management Instruments in an integrated manner. The lawyer highlighted the most controversial changes, such as the reclassification of rustic land to urban land for housing purposes, as well as other relevant issues in the context of spatial planning.

On 27 February, João Pereira Reis, a partner at Morais Leitão, and Miguel Arnaud de Oliveira, a consultant at the firm, took part in the conference ‘New Land Law - Building on rustic land for more housing’, organised by APPII with the support of Morais Leitão. During his speech, João Pereira Reis emphasised that ‘this public debate on the land law got off to a bad start, because it started out as if it were about an amendment to the law, which is not the case. Consequences and effects have been attributed to it that, in reality, it doesn't have.’ The lawyer also emphasised that ‘this is not a structural reform, but a simplification of existing legal instruments, something that, in his view, the government has done well’.

For his part, Miguel Arnaud de Oliveira warned that although the revision of the law had put the issue at the centre of public debate, ‘it's not certain that, at the end of this process, we'll have a more simplified mechanism than the existing one for reclassifying land for housing purposes’.

See the extended summary of Lisbon's Urban Rehabilitation Week.