Lisbon, Oct. 11, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, on Friday promulgated the decree-law amending the legal regime for operating short-term rental accommodation establishments, approved by the Cabinet on 22 August.
This promulgation was announced today on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic, in a note with no considerations about the content of the law.
"The president has promulgated the government decree amending the legal regime for the operation of short-term rental accommodation establishments, approved by Decree-Law 128/2014 of 29 August, and repealing measures in the field of housing," reads the note.
The decree-law amending the legal regime for the operation of short-term rental accommodation establishments was approved by the Cabinet on 22 August, after hearing the bodies of the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores and the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities.
According to the communiqué from that government meeting, "this amendment removes certain burdensome and disproportionate restrictions on private initiative in the sector and focuses on decentralising the powers to regulate short-term rental accommodation to the local councils, which are responsible for adjusting municipal regulations to the local reality".
At the end of the meeting on 22 August, Cabinet office minister António Leitão Amaro said that this legal revision aims to "decentralise decision-making and regulation" on short-term rental accommodation.
According to the PSD/CDS-PP government, condominiums will continue to be able to oppose short-term rental accommodation, but they will have to justify this opposition "in the repeated and proven practice of acts that disturb the normal use of the building, as well as acts that cause inconvenience and affect the rest of the condominium owners".
At the same meeting, another decree-law was approved, repealing the exceptional tax levied on short-term rental accommodation properties, promulgated on 30 August by the country's president, which has already come into force.
In the middle of August, the Socialist Party (PS) announced that it would ask for parliamentary scrutiny of the new legislation approved by the government on this matter, if, for example, the withdrawal of powers from condominium owners was confirmed.
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