The Government has extended restrictions on local accommodation, which until now only applied to areas already overloaded with establishments, to now applying to areas where there is a risk of this situation occurring, also increasing the time for reassessment.
In the decree published yesterday in the Official Gazette, the Government amends Law No. 62/2018, adding “areas of sustainable growth” to the “containment areas” previously provided for.
Containment areas are those where there is already “an overload of accommodation establishments, which may justify restrictions on the installation of new ones”, while areas of sustainable growth are those that justify “special monitoring and follow-up measures, in order to prevent a situation of overload with undesirable effects for neighbourhoods and places”.
As it was previously, it is up to the territorially competent municipality to approve, by regulation, “the existence of containment areas and sustainable growth areas, by parish or union of parishes, in whole or in part, for the installation of new local accommodation”.
In containment areas, “new registrations of local accommodation establishments in urban buildings, autonomous units or parts of urban buildings capable of independent use, and which have been the subject of an urban lease contract for housing in the previous two years, cannot be authorised”.
Decree-Law No. 76/2024, also published this Wednesday, changes the legal regime for the operation of local accommodation establishments, granting municipalities “the legal tools to decide on matters of attribution, regulation, inspection and promotion of intervention processes in the units” used for that purpose. It states that that “factors such as housing and environmental pressure” in those areas may result in the imposition of limits.
The decree-law also establishes that both areas “must be reassessed at least every three years”, increasing the deadline established in the 2018 diploma by one year.
In municipalities with more than 1000 local accommodation establishments, “the municipal assembly must expressly deliberate, within a maximum period of 12 months from the date on which the municipality reaches 1000 registrations, whether to exercise the regulatory power” attributed.
The Government decrees that the creation of containment and sustainable growth areas must be justified “on the basis of a study that assesses, in particular, the concentration and impact of local accommodation in the different areas and territories of the municipality”.
Source https://www.algarveprimeiro.com/
