The Government of the Azores will support 1,421 families under the "Lease Incentive" measure starting in February, which corresponds to a monthly support over 216 Euros and an annual public support of nearly 2.6 million Euros.

A total of 1.575 applications were submitted, including new processes and renewal processes from previous application periods; the approval rate exceeded 90%.

The universe of families includes 652 new applications submitted in 2015, which correspond to applications submitted for the first time and those submitted after the first five-year period of support. A total of 561 applications were approved.

The final results may be consulted at the services of the Regional Directorate for Housing on several islands, at the offices of the Integrated Citizen Support Network (RIAC) or on the portal of the Regional Government at the address: http://www.azores.gov.pt/Portal/pt/entidades/srss-drh/textoImagem/Concursos.

As for the applications approved, more than 45% correspond to young households and about 30% to single-parent families.
The majority of applicants belong to households whose size varies between one and four persons, corresponding to one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom houses, respectively.

This programme created by the Azorean Government provides for the increase of support for rented property on the so-called "cohesion islands" as well as for single-parent families, families with children and families with disabled members. The amount of support can reach 70% of the maximum amount of authorised lease in accordance with the socio-economic characteristics of each family.

The rules of the "Families with Future" programme have been recently amended, providing families who have reached the fiver-year limit with the possibility to extend their applications for a new application period; hence, they will have a new period to achieve financial independence. The programme introduced new rules in the financial model that are fairer and better suited to the socio-economic characteristics of beneficiaries.

With this measure, the Government of the Azores aims to improve the housing conditions of Azorean families, through the access to adequate housing in accordance with their income, as well as to their financial independence. Moreover, it will also stimulate the regional housing market.