Housing activists in Lisbon are to hand over a petition, signed by more than 6,600 residents, calling on city officials to agree to hold a binding referendum on banning tourist lets in residential blocks.
The effort, months in the making, is aimed at prompting decisive action in a city where the cost of housing has drastically outpaced local salaries. “Short-term rentals take most of the housing space in Lisbon’s historic centre,” said Raquel Antunes, a member the group Movement for a Housing Referendum. “We need to put the brakes on this.”
On Friday, the movement will present the petition to the head of the municipal assembly, in what Antunes said was a “first step”. From there, assembly members are obliged to have a debate. If they give the referendum the go-ahead, the questions on the ballot will have to be vetted by the country’s courts to verify that they are constitutional.
If all lines up, the referendum would be held in the first half of next year and result in a binding resolution to phase out the city’s 20,000 or so tourist flats within six months, as well as barring landlords from setting them up in residential buildings in the future.
For housing activists, it is a glimmer of hope in a house market where prices have nearly doubled since 2015. “We don’t have to give into despair, which I think in these times is very easy to do,” said Antunes.
The group began fanning out across Lisbon at the start of 2023 to collect signatures. As word spread, stories poured in from local people living alongside tourist lets.
Some spoke of not knowing anyone in their building or feeling unsafe as a steady stream of strangers traipsed in and out. Others watched anxiously as housing prices ticked relentlessly upwards.
At the heart of their stories was the question of what lies ahead for those who call Lisbon home. “People told us about what kind of city they want to see,” said Antunes. “What kind of country do we want for youth, for elderly people, for people who can’t get houses?”
Those left behind by the surging housing prices are also represented in the petition; the more than 6,600 signatures from Lisbon taxpayers are bolstered by another 4,400 who backed the call for a referendum but aren’t registered in the city. Many of these signatories are former residents pushed out of the city by rising prices, said Antunes. “Sometimes you just have to say goodbye to a city you love because you can’t afford to live there.”
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As the movement prepared to hand over the petition, Antunes emphasised that the aim was not to rid the city of tourist lets. Antunes said short-term rentals could still happen, but in buildings registered for commercial use such as hotel apartments and hostels.
Ultimately, she saw the referendum as a means of giving residents an unprecedented say over how the city’s housing was used. “It would be a great step in the right direction,” she said. “Not only to listen to people but also to give them hope that we can make a city that is for everyone, not just for those who have money.”
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