Short-term letting (Alojamento Local) in Lisbon: the 2026 rules

Short-term letting to visitors in Lisbon is governed by two layers of rules. The national Alojamento Local (AL) regime, Decreto-Lei 128/2014 as amended by Decreto-Lei 76/2024, decides how a registration works anywhere in Portugal. On top of it, Lisbon's own municipal regulation, the Regulamento Municipal do Alojamento Local (RMAL), published as Aviso n.º 29926-A/2025/2 and in force since 6 December 2025, decides where new registrations are allowed in the city. For a buyer, the municipal layer is the one that changes the price of a flat.

Who can register a short let in Lisbon?

Any owner, or any operator with the owner's authorisation, can register an AL establishment in a part of the city that is not in containment. The registration is a prior communication filed on the Balcão Único Eletrónico, and the establishment then appears in the national register (RNAL) with its own number. The property needs a valid usage permit (autorização de utilização), and civil-liability insurance is compulsory: missing insurance is the reason most cancellations in Lisbon happened, as shown below.

The registration belongs to an establishment, which may be a whole flat, a house, rooms in the operator's home or a hostel. The rules below concern mainly flats and houses, which is what most international buyers have in mind.

Absolute and relative containment: what the 10% and 5% ratios mean

The RMAL measures, for each parish and for some individual neighbourhoods (bairros) within parishes, the number of AL establishments as a share of permanent dwellings. Where that ratio is 10% or more, the area is in absolute containment and no new registration is accepted. From 5% to under 10%, it is in relative containment, and a registration is possible only by exceptional municipal authorisation. Below 5%, the ordinary national procedure applies.

When the regulation took effect on 6 December 2025, six parishes were at or above the 10% line. The ratios below are the ones published with the regulation; they have not been republished since.

The April 2026 column reflects press reports that the city lowered three parishes to relative containment after it had cleaned up the register. We have found no formal publication of that change and no list by bairro to go with it. One parish outside the table, Avenidas Novas, was placed in relative containment as a whole on 6 December 2025; ECO reported on 6 April 2026 that it had left relative containment, but that change has not been formally published either. The other parishes are not in containment as a whole, but the regulation also names bairros inside them, including in Campo de Ourique, Penha de França, Belém, Ajuda and Parque das Nações, so the exact street matters.

The exceptions

Inside an absolute containment area, a new registration is possible only where two conditions are met together: the building is being rehabilitated from a derelict state or after three or more years of vacancy, and the project is of demonstrated special interest to the city, such as social or cultural use or the inclusion of affordable housing. In a relative containment area, either condition is enough, and the owner of a home of two or more bedrooms that has been their permanent residence for at least three years can register one or two rooms. Two exclusions apply in both kinds of area: a property that was under a residential lease in the previous five years, unless the tenant applies on the basis of that lease, and a property bought after 6 December 2025 at a public auction held by the municipality, a Lisbon parish or a municipal company.

What happens to a registration when the property is sold?

This is the point that most often decides whether a price makes sense, and the honest answer has two parts.

Under national law, a registration now transfers with the property. Decreto-Lei 76/2024, in force since November 2024, reversed the 2023 rule that had made registrations personal: article 5(a) of the decree repealed that non-transfer rule (article 7(2)–(4) of Decreto-Lei 128/2014). Outside Lisbon's containment areas, a buyer can therefore take over an existing registration and update the operator details.

Inside a containment area, the RMAL provides that the transfer of a flat or house registration "determina a caducidade": the registration lapses on the sale. The family cases protected by national law are excepted: inheritance, a gift to a spouse or partner, children or parents, and a transfer on divorce or separation. The buyer would then need a new registration, which in Santa Maria Maior, Misericórdia or Santo António will not be granted outside the exceptions above.

There is a legal question behind that rule. The power the RMAL relies on, article 15-B(1)(e) of Decreto-Lei 128/2014, allows municipalities to limit the transfer of "novos números de registo", new registration numbers. Registrations issued before the RMAL took effect may therefore arguably remain transferable, and we have found no court ruling or official clarification that settles the point. Until one exists, assume that a registration in a containment area does not survive your purchase, and have a lawyer give you a written opinion on the specific number before you pay for income it may not produce.

The 6,765 cancellations

In the months after the RMAL took effect, Lisbon cancelled 6,765 of roughly 19,000 registrations, about 36%, because the operators had not shown proof of the compulsory civil-liability insurance. The process was completed on 1 February 2026. Fewer registrations mean lower ratios, which is why three parishes were later reported to have dropped from absolute to relative containment. The clean-up also means that an old listing or a registration number quoted by a seller proves little on its own: check the number in the RNAL and ask for the current insurance policy.

Tourist tax

Lisbon charges a municipal tourist tax of €4 per guest per night, up to a maximum of seven nights per stay. Children under 13 are exempt. The operator collects it from guests and pays it to the city, so it is a cost of running the business, not of owning the flat, but it belongs in any income forecast because it is added to the guest's bill.

The condominium

Since November 2024 the condominium of a building in horizontal property can no longer block a new registration simply by withholding consent. It can ask for an existing registration to be cancelled where there are repeated and proven acts that disturb the normal use of the building: that needs a reasoned resolution backed by more than half of the building's permilagem, and the mayor then decides. A cancellation bars a new registration in that unit for up to five years. Separately, the owners can change the building rules by a two-thirds majority to prohibit short lets in future, which binds new applications but does not end an existing one. Before buying, read the building rules and the minutes of recent assemblies for any complaint or vote about AL.

How is short-let income taxed?

Under the simplified regime for personal income tax, AL income is taxed on a share of gross receipts rather than on profit. For a flat or house the coefficient is 0.35, and 0.50 where the property is in a containment area; for rooms and hostels it is 0.15. For a non-resident, whose Portuguese income is taxed at 25%, a coefficient of 0.35 works out at roughly 8–9% of gross receipts, and 0.50 at 12.5% (our arithmetic). The extraordinary AL contribution (CEAL) created in 2023 was revoked and is not a cost to plan for.

EU rules and national deadlines

The EU regulation on data collection and sharing relating to short-term accommodation rental services, Regulation (EU) 2024/1028, has applied since 20 May 2026. We have not found a Portuguese act implementing it, so we do not describe any new national procedure under it.

Decreto-Lei 151/2026 of 30 July 2026 is a temporary measure, running to 31 December 2026, for municipalities with 1,000 or more registrations: it lets them adopt a regulation or extend or add a suspension of new registrations, and it does not affect existing registrations. We have found no direct effect on Lisbon, which already has its regulation.

The alternative: a long-term lease

For many buyers in the central parishes, a residential lease is the plan that survives contact with the rules. From 2026 to 2029, rent from leases for housing of up to €2,300 a month is taxed at 10% under Decreto-Lei 97/2026, instead of the standard 25% rate for non-residents, and the measure does not apply to AL. Gross long-let yields in Lisbon are around 4–5%, closer to 4% in the dearest parishes. A long lease also opens a refund route for buyers who paid the flat 7.5% IMT as non-residents: if the home is let for housing within six months of the purchase, at up to €2,300 a month, for at least 36 months within the first five years, the difference can be reclaimed by a claim filed within six months. The figures are worked through in our guide to the cost of buying a home in Lisbon.

If you are comparing parishes for letting, our guide to where to buy in Lisbon puts the AL status next to the INE price for eight areas, and the area pages for Alfama and Baixa, Chiado and Bairro Alto, Príncipe Real and Lapa and Santos describe what the rules mean street by street.

General information on the rules known on 19 October 2026, not legal advice. The status of individual parishes and bairros may change; ask the Câmara Municipal de Lisboa and a Portuguese lawyer to confirm the position for a specific property.