The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, promulgated this Sunday the rule that puts an end to the extraordinary tariff applied to tourist apartments, a socialist measure that the current conservative government has revoked.
The promulgation, announced by the presidency in a note on its official website, cancels one of the measures that the government led by socialist António Costa had launched in 2023 to address the housing crisis that the country is going through, which required owners of tourist accommodation to pay a rate of 15%.
The package also included restrictions on the operating licenses of these accommodations, which would not be transferable in the event of the death of the owner or divorce and would have to be renewed every five years.
With its arrival in power this year, the current center-right executive of Luis Montenegro announced that it would end all these limitations.
The new government wants to leave in the hands of the municipalities the power to regulate the presence of tourist accommodation of each city.
In addition, last month the Council of Ministers approved a decree-law aimed at limiting the power of neighboring communities to revoke the licenses of tourist apartments located in their buildings if they consider that they are disrupting coexistence.
Portugal suffers from housing crisis with shortage of supply and the surge in prices that particularly affect Lisbon and Porto and which have raised many critical voices against the proliferation of tourist apartments over the last decade.
In Lisbon, a citizens’ movement has collected signatures to organize a referendum against tourist apartments in residential buildings.
