The number of properties seeking licensing to enter LA has never been higher. Industry association says Mais Habitação package and registration brake instigated race, but most will be ghost licenses. ALEP expects intervention from Marcelo and Brussels to stop measures and warns of the growth of the parallel market.
There have never been so many requests for licenses for Local Accommodation (AL) as in the first half of this year. Between January and June, 11285 new properties were registered, an increase of 68% over the same period last year, according to the accounts made by Dinheiro Vivo, through the data available in the National Register of Local Accommodation Establishments (RNAL). Compared to the first half of 2018, so far the record year with more AL registrations, new licenses rose 6%. In other words, the race for registrations reached a historic high until last June.
For the Association of Local Accommodation in Portugal (ALEP) the reading of the numbers is clear: the thirst for licenses was a response “to the environment of uncertainty and irrationality” caused by the Mais Habitação package. “Whenever restrictions, closures or suspensions are announced regarding LA, this ‘last chance’ environment is triggered”. Since February 16 [the date on which the government presented the package of measures to respond to the housing crisis] there is this idea among the owners, that the AL can close at any time “, explains to Dinheiro Vivo the president of ALEP.
Eduardo Miranda assures that these were “preventive” records based on the fear that, in the future, it will not be possible to enter the market. “There is no increase in overnight stays or tourist demand in the country that justifies these numbers,” he points out.
