Lisbon’s housing crisis is well known to the population. Lisbon is the European city in which housing prices have increased the most in recent years and it is also the city with the highest effort rate – the ration between salaries and the price of housing – in Europe. Furthermore, Lisbon comes first in another alarming ranking: it is the European capital with the most existing homes per resident. This means that we don't face a housing shortage, but rather a problem of misuse of existing housing units for other purposes. We don't need to build more houses because they already exist. We need to change the use to which they are put.

This is especially evident when it comes to holiday rentals. In the last ten years, more than 20,000 houses have been converted into holiday rentals in Lisbon. The tourist use of housing has reached alarming levels, and, in fact, Lisbon is also the European city with the most short-term rental units per resident. This prevents the population of Lisbon from accessing decent housing and contributes to the expulsion of residents, the dismantling of neighbourhood relations and the devitalisation of our neighbourhoods.

In April 2022, the Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice ruled that residential units are for housing purposes and not for tourism accommodation. However, the Lisbon City Council has ignored this ruling and continues to allow the registration of holiday rentals in residential buildings.

The Municipal Regulation on Holiday Rentals (RMAL) is the document that regulates holiday rentals in Lisbon. We want to change the RMAL to prevent this type of tourist accommodation from taking place in residential housing units. We want the Lisbon City Council to recognise the legality of the Supreme Court's decision. Residential housing units must fulfil their social function: they must be inhabited and used for people to live in them.

We therefore invite the public to support a referendum by popular initiative in the municipality of Lisbon: the Housing Referendum. We want to put two questions on the ballot.

The first is:

Do you agree with amending the Municipal Regulation on Holiday Rentals so that the Lisbon City Council, within 180 days, orders the cancellation of holiday rentals registered in residential housing units?

Almost all holiday rental registrations in Lisbon were granted for residential housing units. This means that, according to the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, there are thousands of holiday rentals in an illegal situation. With the approval of this question, the Lisbon City Council will be obliged to return these houses to their residential function.

The second question is:

Do you agree with amending the Municipal Regulation on Holiday Rentals so that holiday rentals are no longer allowed to take place in residential housing units?

The approval of this second question will prevent the Lisbon City Council from allowing the registration of holiday rentals in residential housing units in the future.

The combination of the two questions serves to ensure that housing fulfils its social function.

Reclaiming Lisbon is in our hands.