Airbnb Regulations in Portugal: What Property Owners Should Check

Short-term rentals are still legal in mainland Portugal. What changed is where the restrictions are decided. Most of the national restrictions introduced in 2023 were revoked in November 2024, and the decisions that matter today are taken by each municipality — some of them under a temporary regime that ends on 31 December 2026.

This guide is for owners who live abroad and are deciding whether to let their Portuguese home to holiday guests, often through a manager. It is written by LusiberiaStays, a company that runs holiday homes in the western Algarve, and it is based on the official texts as they read on 5 October 2026. It is a summary, not legal or tax advice.

Short-term rentals are legal, but only with a registration number

In mainland Portugal, a holiday rental — called Alojamento Local — can only be advertised or operated with a registration number. The law calls the registration "mandatory and a necessary condition" for operating.

The operator files a prior notice with the mayor through the online Balcão Único Eletrónico. The operator may be the owner or another person or company entitled to run the property, so check whose name is on the registration. The municipality can object within 60 days, or 90 days inside a containment area. Without an objection, the document with the registration number is the only valid title to open to guests, and the number must appear in every advert.

Since 20 May 2026, an EU regulation also requires booking platforms to make sure hosts present a registration number before they can list a property in an area where a registration scheme applies.

What changed in 2023 — and what was revoked in 2024

The 2023 housing package, known as Mais Habitação, suspended new short-term rental registrations across most of the country, limited new registrations to five years, scheduled a review of existing registrations in 2030 and created an extraordinary levy on the activity.

Most of that no longer applies. Decree-Law 76/2024, in force since 1 November 2024, revoked the suspension, the five-year term, the 2030 review and the expiry of inactive registrations. The extraordinary levy was revoked separately by Decree-Law 57/2024, with effect from 31 December 2023.

The 2024 reform did not remove all limits. It left the main restrictions in municipal hands.

The decision now sits with your municipality

Each municipality can approve a short-term rental regulation, define containment areas and temporarily suspend new registrations in specific zones. For an owner, this is where the real uncertainty lives.

A temporary regime, Decree-Law 151/2026, applies until 31 December 2026. Municipalities that had more than 1,000 registrations at the end of 2025, and have not yet done so, must decide by that date whether to exercise their power to regulate short-term rentals. Separately, where a municipal suspension of new registrations is running, or has ended after its maximum term, the municipal assembly — on the council's proposal — may extend it or impose it once more. It can do so only once, only for the time strictly needed to prepare or revise the regulation, and never beyond 31 December 2026.

One sentence in that decree matters most to a buyer: these suspensions "do not have retroactive effect, nor affect" registrations validly made before the assembly's decision takes effect. That protects an existing registration against these suspensions — not against cancellation for other reasons. A buyer who plans to register later carries the risk.

The western Algarve shows how local this is. On 28 September 2026, the municipal assembly of Lagos unanimously approved a recommendation to create a municipal short-term rental regulation. It is a recommendation to the council, not a rule, and it suspends nothing. In neighbouring Portimão, a municipal tourist tax has applied since March 2024: €2 per person per night from April to October and €1 from November to March, for guests aged 13 and over, up to seven nights. Lagos, where we also operate, does not charge a tourist tax as of 5 October 2026.

What to check before you buy or hand over the keys

The most useful checks happen before the deed or the management contract.

• The registration. Is there a valid number, for which modality, and in whose name? If you are buying a registered property, ask the municipality in writing how the registration applies to you as the new holder.
• The municipality's position. Ask in writing whether the address is in a containment area, whether a suspension of new registrations is in force or under discussion, and whether a municipal regulation is being prepared.
• The building. In an apartment building, the condominium can ban short-term rentals by a vote representing two thirds of the building's ownership shares, but only for registrations requested after that decision. For an existing registration, owners representing more than half of the shares can ask the mayor to cancel it, with reasons, on grounds of repeated and proven disturbance; the mayor decides, and a cancellation on these grounds can bar the property from short-term letting for up to five years. Read the condominium rules and recent minutes.
• Insurance. Civil liability cover of at least €75,000 per claim is mandatory, plus fire cover when the unit is in a building divided into separately owned flats. The municipality can ask for proof at any time, to be delivered within three days. Missing insurance is grounds for cancelling the registration.
• The house itself. Capacity is capped at nine rooms and 27 guests. Properties for up to ten guests need a fire extinguisher, a fire blanket, first-aid equipment and the 112 emergency number on display; larger ones follow the general fire-safety rules. An information book is required in Portuguese, English and at least two other languages, and the complaints book is required too, with the electronic version mandatory.

If you do not live in Portugal

The short-term rental law sets the same requirements for foreign and Portuguese owners. Registration requires a declared accommodation activity with the Portuguese tax authority, which in turn requires a Portuguese tax number (NIF).

What differs is tax. Whether you need a fiscal representative, how the rental income is taxed and whether VAT applies depend on where you live — inside or outside the EU — and on how the letting is set up. These rules deserve their own guide; until then, confirm your position with an accountant before the first booking.

Distance matters too. Foreign guests must be reported within three working days of arrival and of departure, changes to the registration within ten days, and insurance proof delivered within three days of a request. The condominium must also have the operator's phone number and email address. Each of these is a short deadline that is easy to miss from another country.

The red flags with legal consequences

The problems that carry legal consequences in short-term rentals are usually process failures.

Operating or advertising without a registration, or with an outdated one, is a serious economic offence: €650 to €1,500 for an individual and €1,700 to €3,000 for a micro-company, with possible suspension of the activity for up to two years. Breaking the advertising rules — for example, an advert that omits the registration number — is a minor offence. Missing insurance, documents that do not match the property, or repeated disturbance in the building can lead to the registration being cancelled, after which the operation must stop. Late guest reporting is fined under the foreigners' law, and false statements in the registration declaration are a criminal matter.

The "90-night rule" is not Portuguese

Many owners have heard of a rule limiting holiday lets to 90 nights, or three months, a year. That limit is London's: a whole home there can be let for short stays without planning permission for a maximum of 90 nights per calendar year.

We found no equivalent cap in Portugal's short-term rental law. What the law does contain is a presumption: a property advertised as accommodation for tourists, or a furnished home offered with services such as cleaning for stays under 30 days, is presumed to be a short-term rental — a presumption that can be rebutted, for example with a registered long-term lease. In Portugal, the line that matters is the registration, not the number of nights.

How we work with these rules

At LusiberiaStays we run holiday homes in the western Algarve, and most of the work these rules create is calendar work. Every arrival and every departure opens a guest-reporting task with its own deadline. Insurance renewals, registration updates and the complaints book are tracked as dated tasks rather than left to memory, and changes in municipal rules are checked against the official texts before we act on them.

The rules are continuous rather than complex, and an owner abroad experiences them as a steady stream of small deadlines.

Conclusion

Portugal has not closed the door on short-term rentals. It has left the main restrictions to the municipalities, and some of them have until 31 December 2026 to decide how to use them. For an owner, the practical question is no longer "is it legal?" but "what does my municipality allow at this address, and is the registration already in place?".

If you are comparing managers, our guide to holiday rental management fees explains how to read a proposal.

Verified against official Portuguese and EU sources on 5 October 2026. This article summarises the law for mainland Portugal and is not legal or tax advice; confirm your specific situation with your municipality and an accountant. Next scheduled review: January 2027.