Lisbon residents call for vote on restricting vacation rentals

(CNN) — The city of Lisbon, known for its picturesque cobbled streets, eye-catching colorful buildings and mouth-watering Portuguese custard tarts, has become an increasingly popular vacation destination in recent years.

But as overall monthly overnight stays in Portugal reached an all time high in August, some Lisbon residents are becoming frustrated by the impact of ballooning tourism on local quality of life.

Following protests in September about the city’s housing market, thousands of people living in the Portuguese capital have signed a petition demanding a clampdown on Lisbon vacation rentals.

The appeal, supported by more than 6,600 locals, demands a referendum on existing tourist lets in Lisbon’s residential blocks, and was presented to the city’s municipal assembly at the end of last week.

The group behind the petition, the Referendum Movement for Housing (MRH), is seeking to eradicate the almost 20,000 short term vacation rentals in Lisbon residential blocks, hoping to free up housing opportunities for locals.

“The conversion of homes into holiday rentals has led to evictions and the displacement of residents from the city’s neighborhoods,” Lisbon-based MRH representative Luisa Freitas told CNN Travel.

Locals ‘forced to move to the outskirts’

Alongside the locals, some 4,400 non-Lisbon residents have signed the referendum petition, which was circulated at Lisbon’s various community centers and across local businesses over the past year.

According to Freitas, many of these non-residents are former Lisbon locals “forced to move to the outskirts by drastic rent increases.”

“Their voices are as important as the ones of people who have the privilege to vote, so we also collected their signatures to show not only the will of the people but also the scale of the impact of Lisbon’s housing policies,” she says.

The number of signatures collected on the petition means Lisbon’s municipal assembly must debate the referendum, but there’s still no guarantee it’ll go ahead.

A booming vacation rental market

Lisbon isn’t the only popular tourist destination reconsidering its vacation rental market. Barcelona announced earlier in the summer it will bar apartment rentals to tourists by 2028.

Meanwhile back in February, the European Union voted for more transparency around short-term rentals, acknowledging these kind of properties represent around 25% of tourist accommodation in the EU.

Airbnb — a travel accommodation company so popular it’s become a byword for vacation rental — said back in February “welcomed” increased transparency.

CNN Travel has reached out to Airbnb for comment about the Lisbon referendum petition.

Changing the Lisbon tourist industry

Freitas stresses a successful referendum wouldn’t eliminate Lisbon tourist lets altogether, but prevent them from “existing in houses registered for residential use.” Landlords would also be prohibited from establishing new vacation rentals in residential buildings in the future.

Freitas says she’s also concerned about the wider impact of Lisbon’s tourist industry on the city’s buildings and urban landscape, with Freitas suggesting “businesses and services which residents rely on and form an important part of the social fabric are increasingly being evicted in favor of souvenir shops, tour agencies, and cliché restaurants which primarily cater to tourists.”

But for now, the focus is rebalancing the city’s housing market.

“We firmly believe that a referendum is not only desirable, but also achievable,” says Freitas.

And the goal, said Freitas, is not to discourage tourism, but encourage a Lisbon tourism industry that “distributes its benefits equally across society and respects the local culture, life, and rights of residents.”

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