Interviewed about her book 'A cidade democrática. Habitação e participação política no pós-25 de Abril' (published by Tinta da China), the researcher from the Centro de Estudos Sociais de Coimbra recalls that, in health and education, the democratic State was able to create "a public network where there was little private supply", without "truly interfering with major interests". However, in order to provide public housing at low prices and controlled costs, the State would have had to impose "rules and directly interfere with the land ownership that existed in the country, particularly in metropolitan areas", she distinguishes. Instead, it was thought that the housing aspect would be "resolved by the market" and, today as before, it is "the same debate" that divides the left and the right, about whether or not to impose "costs on the private sectors", whether they be owners, builders, banks, for the public provision of housing. The choice of the democratic regime resulted in a "kind of continuity" of the housing policies of the Estado Novo, observes Ana Drago, highlighting that there was only an "interruption at the time of the PREC [Processo Revolucionário Em Curso]", with the "attempt to structure a [...] much more robust public provision". However, from 1977 onwards, this "gradually faded away and the democratic regime bet heavily on the logic of supporting the construction sector", important for the Portuguese economy and job creation, and "on the indebtedness of families to acquire their own homes", observes the sociologist. Regarding Portugal's current public housing stock, Ana Drago confesses to having changed her mind about the link between its reinforcement and price moderation, referring to the example of the Netherlands, which has 30% of non-market housing and, "even so, has had absolutely overwhelming price increases", because "the race for investment in real estate and housing" has become "transnational". The public housing 'stock' is "very important for certain segments of the population, however, she stresses, we will only be able to understand what is happening in Portugal if we look at external demand, local accommodation and purchases by foreigners (non-habitual residents and 'gold' visas, for example). "If you don't have some mechanism [...] some regulation of what the context of rents is and also have some capacity to regulate what external demands are, local accommodation, purchases by non-residents, as Canada is doing now, as New Zealand has already done, [...] I don't see any way to lower prices", she says. In the current scenario, "the idea of injecting more supply, [...] when you have a demand that you can't estimate, because it comes from outside, is not the right solution", she argues, advocating internal mechanisms for regulating the market. "You talk about market regulation, everyone says 'oh my God, you're going to drive away investors'. Well, but at the moment, the problem of investment is the problem of rising house prices", she points out. Regarding the reinforcement of cooperativism, which she considers "very useful", the sociologist points out that it needs the support of public policies. The measures presented by the new Government include "the idea of a State guarantee for financing cooperatives", which "is absolutely crucial", she agrees, but adding that "it can't be just that" and that there has to be "some public funding on a non-reimbursable basis". Ana Drago asks not to "neglect" the middle classes, where there are many young people who cannot afford a home. "Otherwise, what will happen is what you are already starting to see in some places, which is 'they are building houses there for the poorest neighborhoods, but my son graduated from the higher education school of I don't know what and there is no house for him', because there is a segment of the lower-middle class, who are the 'neither-nor', who are neither poor enough nor rich enough", she portrays. Regarding the Government's proposal to build on rustic land, the researcher reacts: "We have a problem of half a century or more of territorial and urban disorder and, therefore, the idea of building with high density on rustic land is the worst that can happen to us in this context." Regarding the announced "new urban centralities", she prefers to wait and see, fearing that they "mean a logic of metropolitan planning in which you once again build dormitories, only that now, instead of being 30 kilometers or 40 kilometers from Lisbon, it becomes 80 kilometers from Lisbon, but, in fact, they are still dormitories", forcing people to go to the city center every day, without the necessary transport infrastructure. "We have to return to this idea [...] that a socially diverse city, with different social segments, all crossing paths every day in the same everyday spaces, strengthens democracy", she argues. Recognizing that previous relocation programs built "spaces that often seem like ghettos", the sociologist calls for learning from mistakes. "This idea that, in order to give people a decent home, you are going to relocate them to places where they lose their community ties, where there is nothing around, is to kill the urban fabric", she says. Read Also: "Portugal is commonly referred to as a country in Europe where people drive badly" (Portuguese version)