Communist, Left Bloc and Green parties on Lisbon city council have called for a block on new hotels in the city as one of the solutions to the housing crisis – but the ruling coalition does not agree.
The issue was initially raised by PCP (communist) councillor Natacha Amaro, during the Lisbon Municipal Assembly meeting on Tuesday.
“The number of beds available (in hotels) is increasing persistently and in a very concentrated way in the city, which is why measures such as the suspension of licensing” for new hotels are necessary, she said – pointing to the intensifying pace of hotel construction in the capital since 2019, and criticising the council for keeping “the door open for unrestricted approval” for new hotels, in spite of the “impacts this entails”.
In the same vein, Rodrigo Machado (Left Bloc) considered that talking about ‘sustainable balance’ in relation to short-term rental accommodation “in a city that is one of the most expensive in the world to live in” with “unbridled tourism and thousands and thousands of people pushed out of the city” and “without a serious policy to curb new hotels”, “is like trying to balance a scale with only one weight”.
The Greens’ Cláudia Madeira also pushed for “more restrictive” short-term rental accommodation regulations.
“It is inconceivable and unjustifiable that there is no brake on the licensing of new hotels to curb tourist pressure on the housing market (…) we would like to hear the position of Lisbon city council and the reason for understanding that there is no need to move forward with this measure,” she added.
After various submissions – all from the left wing on the council – the centre-right mayor Carlos Moedas took the floor and agreed that “much more supervision is needed”. But, for the time being at least, his coalition is not prepared to act on hotels considering that “blind restriction, without studies, without analysed information” did not seem appropriate.
What is happening, however, is a study on tourist capacity in the city. Once this is completed perhaps attitudes will change.
Source material: LUSA
