The State of Urban Rehabilitation in Funchal City – Analysis of Collected Data – Part I

Abstract

The rehabilitation of built heritage in rural, urban and historic centers is a growing market in Portugal and Madeira Island (Outermost Region of European Union) is no exception. The high demand in real estate has driven up prices, reaching €7,000 to €8,000 per square meter in the center of Funchal city due to “lack of supply.“ As a result, there has been a strong investment in residential projects (and others,) totaling around €1 billion in recent years, with the trend expected to continue in line with the Urban Rehabilitation Strategic Program (URSP). Therefore, the Government of Autonomous Region of Madeira (ARM) has been promoting and publicizing various financial mechanisms to boost urban rehabilitation (UR) in Funchal City and consequently in ARM, including Invest Madeira, the Urban Rehabilitation and Revitalization Financial Instrument (IFFRU) 2020, Rehabilitate Madeira, and the Program for the Recovery of Degraded Properties (PRID).In this context, three young students in their third year of the Civil Engineering bachelor’s degree at the University of Madeira, under the supervision of a lecture, conducted data collection on the subject with the aim of creating a database. The data presented and discussed here were obtained from the Regional Agency for Energy and the Environment of ARM (AREAM) for the period between 2017 and 2022. The most relevant findings are presented graphically or summarized in synthesis tables. Finally, three practical cases were selected for a more detailed discussion of the main conclusions drawn.