A referendum on whether there should be short-term rental accommodations in the city center is set to take place in Lisbon. The City Council approved the request submitted by the “Movement for the Housing Referendum” (Movimento Referendo pela Habitaçao), which collected over 11,000 signatures from city centre residents.
According to the Movement, since 2014, the number of short-term rental accommodations in Lisbon has increased to more than 20,000. This, it points out, has caused a serious shortage of housing and raised rental prices for locals.
The Lisbon Referendum
“Lisbon has lost thousands of residents in the last decade, but we residents did not choose to be like this,” the Movement’s statement stressed, adding: “It happened because our governments preferred to regulate the issue in favor of real estate investors and against our right to live in the city.”
The Movement launched the campaign for the Lisbon referendum in 2022. The referendum will likely be held in the spring of 2025, if approved by Portugal’s constitutional court.
If the referendum is held, it will likely be against short-term rentals in the center, “ostracizing” OTA platforms such as Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and Expedia, from Lisbon.
