Local Lodging Rentals Should Pay Higher Condominium Fees

21 August 2017

Owners of short-term rentals should start paying higher condominium fees. This one of the measures that the new Secretary of State for Housing is expected to take to regulate local lodging.

The proposal appears in the report of the Portuguese government’s joint working group the PS and the Left Block political parties on housing policies.  The government is expected to formally adopt the rule: owners of rooms or whole apartments for temporary local lodging will be obliged to pay higher condominium fees. The development was reported by the newspaper Público, citing a source within the government.

According to the unnamed government official: “It’s necessary to regulate [temporary local accommodations] in an intelligent way that solves the problem and avoids serious damage to this part of the new economy, which has been beneficial to our country.” The same source also told Público that the proposal “makes sense within the gamut of legislation that the Government is evaluating for the sector”.

The Environment Minister, João Matos Fernandes, seems to sympathize with the measure and has publicly defended the higher condominium fees, considering that owners who provide tourists with short-term rentals should contribute towards building fees, since they end up taking more advantage of the buildings’ common areas.

It remains to be seen how this measure could coexist with other more controversial proposals, such as that of the PS working group, which suggested the possibility of condominium boards preventing such short-term rentals to tourists.

Original Story: O Jornal Econômico – Tânia Madeira

Translation: Richard Turner