Changes to the Alojamento Local laws, designed to enable Councils to control short-term tourist accommodation, will have come too late for many of Lisbon’s neighbourhoods with popular areas now having more tourist accommodation than local homes.
Lisbon Council is due to limit the number of AL properties by issuing quotas and refusing any more AL applications.
But the introduction of quotas may already be to late as areas such as Alfama, Mouraria, Castelo, Baixa or Chiado already are tourist nests with 34% of properties turned over to serving a thriving tourist trade.
Some of the capital’s parishes have so many AL licences that the potential number of tourists surpasses the number of residents.
Lisbon City Council is looking at suspending all new registrations, thus disadvantaging those who are about to apply for an AL licence but halting the increase in tourist accommodation provision, despite a government objective being to see further increases in tourist numbers.