DESPITE THE efforts of
various organisations in the
Algarve and the lobbying of
MPs and business groups, no
progress has been made in
relation to solving the
licensing problem concerning
the rental of private
properties to holidaymakers.
The Resident reported in
January that government
inspectorate, the
Inspecção-Geral das
Actividades Económicas (IGAE),
now renamed Autoridade de
Segurança Alimentar e
Económica (ASAE) had been
making surprise inspections
at villa rental agencies
across the Algarve,
particularly in the Almancil
area.
Large fines were being given
to agency and villa owners
if properties being offered
for rental did not hold a
Licença de Utilização
Turística (licence for
tourist use).
At that time, The Resident
also reported that câmaras
in the Algarve were not
equipped to issue the
necessary licences in terms
of knowledge, awareness of
the criteria and procedures,
as well as personnel
resources to carry out the
inspections and process the
necessary paperwork.
Meanwhile, câmaras and
several tourism entities in
the Algarve admitted that
the present legislation
relating to the rental of
holiday properties was
completely unworkable.
At a public meeting held in
Vilamoura just before
summer, a commission was
formed to try to resolve the
problem and present a
proposal for alternative
legislation. Since then
everything has gone quiet.
When the President of the
Republic, Cavaco Silva
visited the Algarve in
September and held a meeting
with the 16 council chiefs,
it was rumoured the
licensing problem would be
discussed.
However, Macário Correia,
president of AMAL, the
entity that represents the
councils of the Algarve,
told The Resident that it
wasn’t discussed and that
the present legislation
still stands.
This week, The Resident
contacted Aníbal Moreno,
president of the Almancil
Business Association to find
out the latest situation.
“There is no news at all
yet,” he said. “It is very
disappointing. Dr. Vítor
Neto, the former Secretary
of State for Tourism has
made contact with members of
the government as has José
Mendes Bota, the Social
Democrat MP for the Algarve
and head of the
Parliamentary Sub-Commission
for Tourism and others, but
nothing has happened yet,”
he said.
“In the meantime, I am aware
that villa owners have been
submitting projects to their
local câmaras to try to
obtain the necessary
licence, in accordance with
the legislation currently in
place. The câmara has sent
the paperwork to the
Direcção Geral de Turismo (DGT)
for its opinion, which has
then been sending back
responses recommending the
câmaras to fail the
projects. The câmara then
forwards the paperwork to
the property owner for them
see what changes the DGT is
demanding.
“I know of a case where a
house did not have an
office. The current
legislation says that the
house must have an office/
reception to receive
tourists, while the owner
says that the office is at
the villa agency. Other
similar problems have arisen
and so we are back at square
one. It is impossible to
follow this legislation and
obtain the licence. Property
owners are spending good
money to have all the
necessary drawings made by
architects and changes made
to their property to try and
get the project passed to
obtain the licence. However,
they seem to be doing this
for nothing, as the DGT is
still coming back finding
reasons to fail the
applications,” says Aníbal
Moreno.
For now, it seems that no
inspections are being made
by ASAE – Aníbal Moreno says
he has not heard of any in
the Almancil area recently.
Also, those that received
notification of the fines
they would be charged have
yet to receive the official
demands. Moreno believes
that these will be issued
for payment at some point by
the end of the year.
Hotel owners to blame?
“I sincerely believe that
the reason the legislation
has not been changed is
because of a powerful lobby
of hoteliers, probably in
the Lisbon area. I believe
they are behind this and are
putting pressure on the
government to make this
difficult. They want people
to stay in the hotels in
Lisbon and not come to the
Algarve and rent villas”,
Moreno said.
“I maintain my position. We
need to have legislation so
that standards are
maintained and controlled at
rental properties, but the
current legislation is not
appropriate.”
The Resident also contacted
Shirley Dunne, the owner of
a villa management and
rental agency in the
Almancil area.
“We have written letters to
the President, the Prime
Minister, the Tourist Board
and to the cãmara, but we
are not getting a response,”
she said. “A lot of my
clients have stopped renting
out their properties because
of this legislation. They
don’t want to turn their
private homes into
commercial looking
properties with signs
everywhere, a reception and
illuminous pictures of green
men and arrows pointing to
doors all over the house!
“Also it is very expensive
to have the plans to the
house re-drawn and have lots
of alterations made.
Registration is a good
thing, but it does not make
sense to apply hotel
legislation that relates to
a 500-bedroom building to a
private two-bedroom villa.”
Shirley is insistent that
the legislation is
unworkable. “Loulé Câmara
does not have the staff to
cope with applications from
6,000 plus villa and
apartment owners in the
Quinta do Lago and Vale do
Lobo areas. What we need is
sensible legislation and a
simple registration form.
“In Albufeira, some owners
are managing to license
their villas as B&B’s, with
a Licença de Utilisação para
Hospedagem, but this option
is not available at Loulé
Câmara,” she said.
“It is fine for those people
who do not have a mortgage,
but some people take the
rental income into
consideration when making
financial arrangements to
purchase a property in
Portugal. With the problems
currently existing to
license their home for
rental use they will buy in
Spain, Turkey or elsewhere.”
Villa holidays versus
hotel breaks
When The Resident asked
Shirley what she thought
about Aníbal Moreno’s
suspicions concerning hotel
owners she said: “If they
think this will make the
tourists stay in hotels
instead, they are wrong. If
people like villa holidays,
they like villa holidays. It
is a completely different
holiday experience to that
of staying in a hotel.
“If this problem continues
there are going to be less
and less villas being rented
out for tourists and so
people will just choose to
take a villa holiday in
Spain, France or Turkey, for
example, they won’t book a
hotel in Portugal instead.
“The government seems to be
intent on damaging tourism.
I think it will only wake up
in 18 months or so when
income and tax revenue is
down due to lower number of
tourists and tax coming in
from businesses and property
owners. Then we will see a
knee-jerk reaction.”
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