New right of first refusal in the sale of houses - how does it apply?

To comply with that preemptive right of the Municipalities, Autonomous Regions and the State in these areas, obligated owners must use the communication processes already used in other situations in which this same preemptive right exists, that is, through the “home ready” platform of the IRN, provided for in Decree-Law No. 263-A/2007, of July 23, in its current wording, which guarantees the dematerialization and simplification of this procedure.

• The period for exercising this preemptive right by the aforementioned public entities is 10 days;
• If the Municipalities, Autonomous Regions and the State say nothing within this period, then they are considered not to have exercised the preference, as well as if the intention not to exercise the legal right of preference is expressed, this decision cannot be later changed.

Therefore, real estate promotion and mediation professionals must:

1. Check in advance if, in the plan published by the municipality, the property that is the object of the deal falls within an urban pressure zone.
2. If you do, the owner will have to communicate the conditions of the business for the exercise of this preemptive right on the “casa ready” platform.
3. Wait a period of 10 days, and only then proceed with the conclusion of the deal, which is the period that those public entities have to exercise, or not, their legal right of first refusal, after entering the business data on that platform.

By imposition of law or by a contract entered into between the parties - the preemptive agreement -, in the sale of a property, the owner obliged to give preference to a certain person or entity, must give the opportunity to acquire it, under the same conditions in who agreed to sell to the third party.

The legal right of preference often works as an instrument of intervention and implementation of public policies, and therefore its provision results from the law. The greatest manifestation of this public intervention happens when this right is granted to the State itself, the Autonomous Regions, Municipalities or other public entities.

Examples of these public policy objectives, in which the Central State or municipalities have preference in the real estate business:

• reorganization of land use – as expected for detailed plans in land use planning.
• heritage protection – in properties classified or in the process of being classified or located in the respective protection zone – and also, as the name implies
• areas defined for urban rehabilitation, commonly called “ARU”, among others.

The Basic Housing Law, published in 2019, in addition to providing for the right of citizens to access housing, establishes that the State must respect and promote the right of citizens to choose their place of residence. The same law thus provides for this possibility of creating the right of preference of the State, the Autonomous Regions and the Municipalities, in the onerous transfers of buildings between individuals, with a view to pursuing the objectives of the public housing policy.

Now, to respond to the problem of the lack of available properties for the “generality of households” in these areas of urban pressure, also in 2019, the answer was of a fiscal nature, increasing the IMI of vacant buildings located in these areas - that is, the that have been unoccupied for more than a year –, thus putting pressure on their owners to make them available in the real estate transactions market.

Source: idealista