Lisbon
residents call for vote on banning tourist lets in residential blocks
Petition
demands council hold binding referendum on issue after local people say they
have been priced out
Ashifa
Kassam European community affairs correspondent
Fri 8 Nov
2024 08.00 CET
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.”
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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