A government working group looking at the private rental market has not, as one would expect, suggested changes to the current Alojamento Local legislation to corral those outside the tax net, but has come up with several proposals to limit the number of rental properties and make life financially harder for those letting their properties to tourists.
The Housing Policy Working Group (Políticas de Habitação, Crédito Imobiliário e Tributação do Património Imobiliário) wants to limit the number of properties on short-term tourist lets and insists that a percentage is released to the long-term rental market.
Particularly in Lisbon and Oporto, individual and corporate property owners have been buying blocks of apartments and putting them all up for short-term tourist lets. This, say the group, has squeezed out those who wish to live in the area by restricting the supply of affordable lettings.
The conclusions of the working group made up of Socialist and Left Bloc MPs are being prepared for consideration by the Government “in the next legislative session,” according to Left Bloc member Pedro Soares.
The working group admits that short-term rentals "can have a positive effect on the regeneration of urban centers in heritage areas and on social diversification, in addition to improving the income of locals through job creation and economic recovery."
The group concluded that "oversupply of local accommodation reduces the supply for those who want to live in the city."
Pedro Soares says that investors who dedicating entire buildings to tourist lets iare killing the goose that lays the golden eggs by transforming traditional neighborhoods “into a kind of Disneyland."
The working group also agreed on another measure: to stiff owners who let to tourists by increasing condominium fees as “a lot of different people pass through the buildings which increases the use of common areas.”
A further proposal to deter the tourist lettings market is still being discussed: this is the creation of a special municipal tax to go towards the environmental and urban sustainability.
__________
For information of the Alojamento Local lettings market and associated legislation, see: https://nalle.pt/
