La «location abordable»comme objet politique au Portugal. Regards sur la gouvernance urbaine et la politique du logement

In a time where the leasing market expands its prominence in political discourse and formulation, the article proposes guidelines for the formulation of a model of urban and housing intervention that favors «affordable leasing », highlighting the contradictions and obstacles to a just and equitable housing policy. It is a critical analysis of the evolution in the political foundations that have been guiding the urban and housing intervention since the 1990s. Considering the «political rationalities»in the exercise of power and its effects on the rental market, three regimes of governance are identified: the support for the purchase; the encouragement of urban regeneration, and, more recently, the intensification of austerity measures contained in the Programs for economic and financial adjustment agreed between the IMF, the ECB, the «strong governments»of the EU (the Troika) and the Portuguese government. The «affordable leasing », so far a non-existent or poorly defined political object, as it is devoid of political and operational frameworks, evolves to an object, still vague in its definition, but solid as a means of answering to the non-compliance and foreclosure problems that threaten banks. This new approach is largely subjugated to the logics of intervention marked by the foundations of a neoliberal policy, increasingly present in the government since 2011.