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Porto: The mayor of Porto, one of Portugal’s largest cities, said in a council meeting the city would not follow Lisbon’s plans to suspend licences for short-term rentals.
The situation in the Portuguese capital has persuaded the local government to propose adopting such measures, in which the growing use of short-term rentals by tourists has contributed to housing inflation.
Mayor Rui Moreira said in reference to a last-minute rush to register short-term rental properties before the rules take effect: “Suddenly applying a cork stopper to tourist lets in an area, announcing that in advance, is simply going to lead to what is happening in Lisbon. We won’t do that.”
Legislation enabling city councils to restrict tourist lets has recently came into effect, as a means of making housing and rental prices more affordable for local residents. Lisbon is now the latest city to pledge to suspend licences for short-term rentals.
House prices and rents have been rising sharply in recent months, particularly in cities like Lisbon and Porto. This is partly due to strong demand from foreign buyers and properties being withdrawn from the long-term rental market to be used for more lucrative tourist lets.
Moreira said: “From what I understand we have to be able to measure short-term rentals in a way that these are accompanied by investment in rehabilitation for housing.”
Moreira added that an alternative solution would be proposed by Porto to avoid ‘killing the goose that laid the golden egg’ of tourism.
Lisbon’s city council has already unveiled plans to suspend new registrations for short-term rentals in some of the city’s older neighbourhoods such as Madragoa, Castelo, Alfama, Mouraria and Bairro Alto.
Portugal’s socialist government has been working on a set of new measures designed to increase the number of homes available at affordable prices, to be included in the 2019 state budget
