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"The rules adopted in the last Council of Ministers are killers of local accommodation and who will announce their death, in a very short period," AHETA said in a statement, calling the Government's idea a "fallacy", further adding that the measures, "with regard to local accommodation, do not solve or contribute to solving the country's housing problem."
For the association, the More Housing program, announced on Thursday, "instead of fostering and strengthening economic activity in order to raise revenues and concentrate them for housing construction at controlled costs, and consequent rental at values bearable by the most disadvantaged", will end up "destroying an activity that has been very well regulated" in the past, putting an end to the so-called "parallel beds".
AHETA recalled that the creation of the local accommodation scheme allowed to end a parallel market of beds that existed in the Algarve, made the State benefit from the taxes levied with the legalisation of this offer, considering that the proposals now submitted call into question all the work and investment done by the owners, many of them with recourse to credit, to convert "parallel beds" into legal tourist beds.
"What will the Government have to say to the people who have put all their finances into this, where many have resorted to loans to develop their activity and now have a very bleak ending? What about the country's lack of credibility in front of thousands of foreigners who have also made their investments here," AHETA said, lamenting that the rules of the game have been "changed in the middle of the championship."
The association has positioned itself in favour of the existence of second homes, tourist real estate and local accommodation "controlled and licensed, with guarantee of quality services and contributing, with its taxes, to the growth of the country", and warned that these measures will "again" lead "thousands of beds to enter the parallel market".
AHETA also criticised the end of the allocation of golden visas, considering that this solution has "brought to the country many millions of euros of investment, and taxes, especially in real estate", which will now be "lost" to other countries that continue to capture this foreign investment.
Therefore, AHETA said it believed that "the measures now approved and disseminated should be reviewed immediately before they enter into force, for the good of the Algarve and the quality of tourism" in Portugal.
"Our country needs to attract permanent investment, serious, legal, with longevity and, to this end, it is crucial to transmit security, stability to the market and investors, everything that the measures now taken do not do," he argued.
In the Council of Ministers held on Thursday and dedicated to housing, the Government decided that emissions of new local housing permits "will be prohibited", with the exception of rural housing in municipalities in the interior of the country, where they can boost the local economy.
In addition, current local accommodation permits "will be subject to reassessment in 2030" and then periodically every five years.
The Government thus intends to incentivise landlords to transfer the properties they have in local housing to housing, ensuring those who do so by the end of 2024 an exemption from taxation of IRS until 2030, as "compensation for the reduction of revenue they will have".
At the same time, the Government intends to create an extraordinary contribution to properties that remain in local housing, the revenue of which will revert to housing policies.
The measures are part of the regime of "strong incentive for housing that are currently dedicated to local housing", explained António Costa.
The five axes of the More Housing Program, which will be under public discussion for a month, are: increasing the supply of properties used for housing purposes, simplifying licensing processes, increasing the number of homes in the rental market, fighting speculation and protecting families.
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Unbridled tourism is not a "championship" of any kind. Only a handful of people profit while slow-paid, seasonal work is all that is available. Shame on Portugal only supporting out-dated tourism and low paid jobs. The Algarve could offer so much more if there was a vision and will.
By k from Other on 20 Feb 2023, 18:46
My wife and are Retied persons living in the Algarve. We have seen the results of the unrestrained short-term market in residential apartments, which were never meant to be Hotel Rooms or Short term rentals, being added to AL system at alarming rates. Apartment complexes built for long term housing should never have been allowed to be part of the AL system We also applaud the Ending of the Golden Visa 'scheme'. What started as a program to pump money into Portugal helped fuel this insane rise in real estate prices. GV combined with out of control AL licenses in what were meant to be long term apartments created an untenable situation. Airbnb is the worse thing to happen to real estate here and everywhere. Foreign and even local owners with tons of cash buy up apartments and use Airbnb to rent them out to tourists. Sad. Most apartment buildings were never meant to be for tourist short-term rentals, now many have been bought and rented out in the AL/Airbnb market. This has inflated prices, drastically shortened supply and made it hard for everyone to find affordable long term rental housing or purchase a place of their own.
We are happy GV is ending and hope serious controls will be put on AL/Airbnb. No one profits off GV or SL except the rich, who got richer while most others suffered. AHETA should be ashamed of itself. The housing crisis is everyone's problem but they are showing they simply do not care. They do not care about the people of Portugal, just their own pockets.
Sensible regulation of the AL system is needed. Stop renting Apartments to the AL/Airbnb market. Get Apartments and homes back into the Long term housing market.
By William McAdoo from Algarve on 21 Feb 2023, 15:39
The Golden Visa ‘scheme’ (GV) was and is, one of Portugal’s Banking & Real Estate best kept secrets namely. The Golden Visa ‘scheme’ (GV) was created right after the sub-prime crisis for a simple reason. To give the Portuguese Financial Markets, the Banks, the Real Estate Investors, much more time to get out of a massive Real Estate Portfolio ‘hole’. Eventually, Part (1.) funds and other vehicles were set up to place tens of thousands Toxic Real Estate Assets and the Banks very toxic and very dangerous loan-to-value ratios (LTV) as far away from their Balance Sheets as possible and Part (2.) The Golden Visa ‘scheme’ (GV) would contribute massively by ‘revaluing’, repackaging, ‘rebundling’ and then return said properties to the Real Estate Market for extortionate prices, selling them on at the time mainly to the Chinese. To simplify. One minute you had a property in the open market valued at €200,000.00 and if you looked carefully, the next minute, said property was repackaged for €500,000.00 or much more for what became since 2012 the big con, a bubble property pricing model. And yes indeed. The Association of Hotels and Tourist Developments of the Algarve (AHETA) have no shame but then again who has when it comes to money?
By Miguel Diogo from Lisbon on 21 Feb 2023, 19:35
The Algarve has a 'problem' many countries would give their right hand for. Successful tourism, job creation on the back of it, and a thriving real estate market.
Our country's international profile has risen dramatically as a result of the Golf Open, motorbike racing, F1 , equine and other events which require quality accommodation.
I agree that residential apartments should never have been granted AL licences (with the accompanying noise and nuisance), but it is shortsighted to apply the ban to all city touristic accommodation. The immediate consequence will impact on the construction industry, housing managers, cleaners, maintenance people, insurance brokers, gardeners and letting agencies, whose services will be dispensed with - and ultimately result in a stock of older lettable properties.
The better option would have been an increase in tax on rentals. The extra funds could then be channelled towards creating affordable housing for Portuguese families.
In touristic areas of the UK, with the same problems of low paid seasonal workers and high rents (hardly just a Portuguese problem), some housing developments are created solely to benefit local residents. Portugal can do this without taking draconian steps to destroy everything those in the tourist industry have worked long and hard to create.
I won't waste too many tears for those who will lose the opportunity of a Golden Visa - other countries with commercially savvy governments will snap them up and Portugal can wave goodbye to the millions in investments, which ultimately could have been put to good use to house and uptrain the Portuguese - all so we can feel proud we have done absolutely nothing to dent the reality of capitalism, nor help the poor.
By Stefan Cool from Algarve on 21 Feb 2023, 21:39
As is always the case the vested interests don't want change that disturbs their way of life.
Airbnb is a curse and has been abused since day one.
The Algarve needs affordable accomodation for workers and other people on low incomes.
It is an outrage that tens of thousands of places stand empty for 8 months of the year.
It is a futher outrage that Airbnb Landlords are only paying tax on 25% of their revenues,whilst the rest of society pays tax on the first euro earned.
The association of hoteliers and tourism is simply more vested interests.
Hotels do little to fit in with their neighbourhoods or protect their environments.
The promotion of all inclusive wedding packages mean hell for many residents from April to November.
People who bought homes and appartments in good faith do not deserve to have their rights stamped all over by disrespecful Airbnb renters and their greedy landlords
Another point of fact.Who doesn't know of multiple people that are only able to rent without a contract?
That means vast amounts of landlords are dodging taxes.
Another scam is Airbnb landlords their properties but under different host names.Why? Again to dodge taxes.
There needs to be an adult conversation that involves the people that actually live in Portugal full time and how they want their country to move forward.
The re also needs to be a discussion on how to make the Algarve into a thriving sustainable economy that bring in high paying green jobs.
We the residents are the ones that have to deal with illegally parked motorhome,having to walk though peoples excrement,havig to pick up the vast amounts of trash tossed onto out beautiful cliffs and beaches.
Wake up have an honest debate and make a plan
By James from Algarve on 22 Feb 2023, 11:43