What changed in Portugal's short-term rental law?

We're a company from the Minho region that builds websites and direct-booking tools for short-term rentals. We're not lawyers or accountants. This guide brings together dated facts you can check, with links to the official sources, to help you get your bearings. It doesn't replace legal or tax advice.

Whenever you read anything about AL, check two things: the date (the law has changed several times since 2023) and what your own municipality says, because many of the rules (containment areas, quotas and the tourist tax) are decided council by council. If in doubt, confirm with your municipal council (câmara municipal) and Turismo de Portugal.

The recent turning point was Law no. 56/2023 of 6 October, the "Mais Habitação" (More Housing) programme. Alongside other housing measures, it placed heavy restrictions on short-term rentals, with the stated aim of bringing properties back into long-term renting.

In practice, Mais Habitação introduced, among other measures:

• A suspension of new AL registrations for apartments and for lodging establishments (estabelecimentos de hospedagem) in self-contained units, except in inland areas (territórios do interior).
• Expiry of registrations: they would have to be reassessed and would only be valid for a limited time (five years as a reference).
• Condominium approval as a requirement for running AL in a unit within a building divided into separately owned units (propriedade horizontal).
• CEAL (Contribuição Extraordinária sobre o Alojamento Local), an extraordinary annual levy on properties used for AL.

Source: Law no. 56/2023 of 6 October (Diário da República, the official gazette). The sector pushed back hard, and most of these measures were reversed soon after.

The reversal came with Decree-Law no. 76/2024 of 23 October, which amended the AL legal regime (Decree-Law no. 128/2014) and repealed the Mais Habitação measures aimed at short-term rentals. It came into force on 1 November 2024.

What the decree changed:

• No more 5-year expiry: AL registrations are again valid indefinitely, with no compulsory periodic reassessment.
• Condominium approval is no longer a general requirement (except for hostels). The condominium's general meeting can still object through a reasoned decision, approved by owners holding more than half of the building's ownership shares, when residents' rest is repeatedly and demonstrably disturbed.
• Registrations can again be transferred as a general rule (they're no longer personal and non-transferable), with exceptions in containment areas, explained below.
• The suspension of new registrations imposed by Mais Habitação was lifted.

Source: Decree-Law no. 76/2024 of 23 October (Diário da República) and Turismo de Portugal. Always read the consolidated, up-to-date version, because the law may change again.

The extraordinary contribution on short-term rentals (CEAL), created by Mais Habitação in 2023, was repealed by Decree-Law no. 57/2024 of 10 September, with retroactive effect to 31 December 2023.

The practical result is simple: nobody actually pays this contribution, because the repeal goes back to the date it would have started to apply. Source: Decree-Law no. 57/2024 of 10 September (Diário da República). For your own tax situation, check with a certified accountant. This isn't tax advice.

This is the key point: the 2024 reversal didn't make the rules the same across the country. It handed powers back to the municipalities, so a lot depends on your council.

• Containment areas: councils can define areas where new registrations are limited or banned. Municipalities with more than 1,000 AL registrations can set them up, based on studies updated every three years.
• Transfers in containment areas: inside these areas, transferring a registration (for houses and apartments) may be limited or cause the registration to expire. Family transfers are exempt: to a spouse or unmarried partner, to ascendants or descendants (parents, children, grandparents and so on), and in cases of divorce, separation or the end of a de facto union.
• Objection to registration: after the prior notification (comunicação prévia) on the Balcão Único Eletrónico (the government's online one-stop shop), the council can object within 60 days (or 90 days when the application concerns a containment area).
• Tourist tax: set and collected by each municipality. Whether it exists, the amount per night and any cap on nights vary widely from council to council.

So before you buy, register or transfer an AL, ask two questions: what national law says, and what your council's regulation says today.

Don't rely on undated articles or advice on social media. To find out what applies to your property, go to the official sources:

• Turismo de Portugal: official information on the AL regime and on registering through the Balcão Único Eletrónico.
• Diário da República (diariodarepublica.pt): the consolidated, up-to-date text of the laws (DL 128/2014, Law 56/2023, DL 57/2024, DL 76/2024).
• Your municipality: the local AL regulation, the map of containment areas and the council's tourist tax rules.

For any decision involving money or risk, speak to a lawyer and a certified accountant. This guide is for information only and can go out of date. The date at the top shows when it was last reviewed.