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ABSTRACT
The financial crisis was a critical factor for the development of short-term rentals (STR) in Lisbon, as it was in other Southern European cities. However, the project for transforming the city that predates the crisis is another important factor. STRs became a public issue associated with unaffordable housing, neighborhood disturbances and touristification in 2016. Using a qualitative methodology, this article explores the regulatory process for STRs in Lisbon and the solutions – mainly territorial bans, a symbolically powerful political outcome conveying the idea of stringency prioritized in cities in which the impact of tourism was most evident – and conditions explaining them.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the anonymous referees for their constructive comments that helped improve this article significantly.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. In Portugal and Greece, the median equivalised income of those with higher education was in 2018 considerably lower than the (27) EU average: €26,039; Portugal: 20,190; Greece: 14,767 (Source: Pordata – Base de Dados Portugal Contemporâneo).
2. After submitting the proposed new regulatory framework for public consultation in April 2019, in January 2020 the Scottish government approved a new legislative framework that would ‘provide local authorities with the ability to implement a licensing scheme for short-term lets from spring 2020’ (Retrieved from the Scottish Government website https://www.gov.scot/news/regulating-short-term-lets/).
3. The new legislation adopted in Ireland emphasises the concept of the Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ), a STR territorial restriction measure.
4. In Toronto it was not until November 2019, almost two years after the city council approved the new (rather restrictive) regulatory rules, that the provincial court allowed their implementation (City of Toronto, 2019).
5. “In August 2018 the city of New York introduced new regulations on short-term rentals, requiring STR booking services to share information with the city, which were due to come into effect on February 2019, (Wachsmuth, Combs, and Kerrigan Citation2019, 2).
6. In a case brought by the French Association for Professional Tourism and Accommodation/AHTOP (Boffey Citation2019).
7. The number of illegal rentals fell substantially in 2018 and 2019.
8. In Portugal, with stronger effects between 2011 and 2013, during the Troika financial assistance programme.
9. The Tax Regime for Non-Habitual Residents for European citizens was created in 2009, but changed in 2012 with more ambitious targets; ‘Golden Visa’ – Residence Permit for Investment Activity/ARI for non- Europeans created in 2012.
10. A new law on rents (2014) that facilitated the liberalization of the sector and new legislation on STR (law of 2014) and several facilitating urban renewal procedures.
11. The first STR legislation was based on an elementary definition of this type of accommodation and dates from 2008 when the phenomenon was minor. It was followed by another in 2009, which introduced a few changes.
12. A left-wing movement on the issues of the right to housing, anti-‘touristification’ and anti-gentrification.
13. In an interview with Bloomberg, Lisbon’s mayor said the city should prepare to take in more tourists (Almeida Citation2016).
14. Quem vai poder morar em Lisboa? (Who will get to Live in Lisbon?) 2016, organised by the Architecture Triennial, The international conference Lisboa, Que Futuro? (Lisbon, What Future?) 2017, at ISCTE, Lisbon University Institute, with speakers including S. Zukin, D. Lee, O. Nel.lo with responsibilities in Barcelona PEAUT.
15. Source: Parliament Report of the WG on local accommodation.
16. ‘In the case of the Local Accommodation Act, unlike others in which there had to be compromises from several sides, the PS addressed some of the issues raised by the proposals set out by the PCP and BE and inserted them into the new text by adapting them … For the elaboration of the PS’s replacement text there were some conversations on some subjects. Yet, one cannot properly call these negotiations as there were in other discussions’. Excerpt from the interview of the Socialist Party MPs responsible for the redaction of the final text.
17. The issue of monitoring and control was also enhanced.
18. 31% residents and residents’ associations and 17% other unspecified public bodies.