We started by discussing the lack of housing, house prices, licensing and the difficulty in building. Like so many other conversations that take place today all over the country.

But as the discussion evolved, it became apparent that the real problem was not just in the construction. The real problem is that Portugal no longer speaks the same language.

The Algarve is perhaps the best example of this reality. We are talking about a region with sixteen municipalities. Sixteen different ways of interpreting development. Sixteen Municipal Master Plans that, despite obeying the same legal framework, have evolved differently and respond to different priorities. In many cases, what can be done in a municipality is no longer a few kilometres away.

Now, investors do not look at administrative boundaries. Neither do companies. People much less. Because those looking to set up a company, develop a housing project or create jobs look at the Algarve as a region. It does not distinguish where one municipality ends and another begins. However, it continues to encounter different processes, different interpretations and completely different decision times.

To this is added another problem that is rarely discussed. Many municipalities today do not have the human resources or the technological tools necessary to keep up with the speed at which the market has changed. The challenges are greater, the projects more complex and the legal requirements more demanding. Despite the enormous effort of municipal technicians, the truth is that municipalities have lagged behind in relation to current needs.

Then comes the institutional complexity. A process depends on the city council, but also on the CCDR, the APA and other sectoral entities. Each opinion conditions the next, each decision depends on another decision and, often, no one has the capacity to assume effective leadership of the process. The result is known to all: delay, uncertainty and loss of opportunities.

Nor can we ignore another factor that continues to have effects. For several years, the national spatial planning policy favoured an extremely restrictive view of the expansion of Municipal Master Plans. The intention to protect the territory was legitimate, but its application ended up limiting the ability of many municipalities to respond to population growth, investment and new economic needs. Today we feel the consequences of these options.

In my opinion, perhaps the time has come to think differently.

If we discuss mobility on a regional scale, if we plan energy networks on a regional scale, and if we promote economic development strategies for entire regions, why do we continue to plan housing, industrial land, and essential infrastructure almost exclusively within the administrative boundaries of each municipality?

Perhaps Portugal needs to take a step that other countries have already taken a long time ago: to create true Regional Development Agencies, with the capacity to coordinate economic, housing and territorial strategies between the municipalities of each region. Not to take away autonomy from municipalities, but to create a common vision of what really matters.

Because talent, companies and investment do not choose municipalities. They choose regions where there is quality of life, mobility, housing, infrastructure, energy and decision-making capacity. Basically, they choose territories where everyone works towards the same goal.

That was perhaps the main conclusion of that conversation in the Algarve. Portugal does not only suffer from a lack of housing. He suffers from a lack of coordination. And as long as each entity continues to speak a different language, it will be difficult for us to build the cities and territories that the country needs.

The day we all speak the same language again, we may find that many of the solutions were already in front of us. We just never had the ability to build them together.