Key takeaways
- Lisbon's amended AL regulation (Aviso 29926-A/2025/2), in force since 6 December 2025, puts an area in absolute containment when AL units reach 10% of permanent-residence dwellings and in relative containment from 5%.
- The thresholds were 20% and 10% under the 2019 rule, but the 2025 rule replaced a November 2024 suspension that had blocked new registrations across almost the whole city.
- Absolute containment bars new registrations except five-year rehabilitation authorisations for ruined or long-vacant buildings of special interest to the city; relative containment also allows one or two rooms in an owner's long-term home.
- In both containment zones an apartment or house registration lapses when the property is sold, and properties let residentially in the previous five years cannot be registered.
- At approval Santa Maria Maior's ratio was 66.9%, Misericórdia 43.8% and Santo António 25.1%; the city-wide ratio was 7.2% against a 10% trigger for city-wide containment.
- After 6,765 registrations were cancelled for missing insurance in February 2026, São Vicente, Arroios and Estrela moved to relative containment and Avenidas Novas left containment; no post-purge ratio values have been published.
- The 5%/10% rule is Lisbon's own: national law (DL 76/2024) sets no percentage, Porto uses a single 15% threshold and Catalonia caps tourist flats per inhabitant.
- The widely quoted 24–32% 'Airbnb effect' in Lisbon is a 2015–16 house-price estimate (Franco & Santos, 2021), not a rent figure; the parish-level effect is about 3.2% per percentage point of Airbnb share.
In December 2025 Lisbon halved the share of homes at which it stops new short-term rentals, from 20% to 10%. Airbnb welcomed the change.
Both facts are true because of what the new rule replaced. Since November 2024 the city had suspended new alojamento local (AL) registrations in every parish where rentals reached 2.5% of permanent homes, and in the whole city once the city-wide ratio passed 5%. It stood at 7.5%, so almost nothing could be registered anywhere. The rule in force since 6 December 2025 sets tighter thresholds and a smaller map. After an April 2026 revision, 18 of Lisbon's 24 parishes are outside parish-level containment, although some neighbourhoods inside them are still restricted.
The thresholds are easy to state and hard to check. Santa Maria Maior, the parish that holds the Baixa, Alfama and Mouraria, was measured at 66.9% when the rule was approved, more than six times the absolute limit. The city recalculates the ratios monthly, yet no parish ratio has been published since February 2026 removed 6,765 registrations from the register. This article explains how the 5%/10% rule works, what it allows in each zone, how it got here, and which of the figures repeated about it hold up.
How the 5%/10% rule works
The rule is an amendment to Lisbon's 2019 Regulamento Municipal do Alojamento Local (RMAL), not a new regulation. The city council approved it on 27 November 2025 by 10 votes to 7, with the governing PSD, CDS-PP and IL coalition joined by Chega. The Municipal Assembly passed it on 2 December. It was published as Aviso n.º 29926-A/2025/2 in the Diário da República on 5 December and took effect the next day.
The test is a single ratio: registered AL establishments in an area divided by the number of permanent-residence dwellings there. The denominator comes from the most recent census whose results INE has released, which today means the 2021 Census. The 2019 version of the rule used the 2011 Census and counted 325,676 dwellings in the city.
Two thresholds sort each area into a zone. Where the ratio reaches 10%, the area is in absolute containment. Where it is at least 5% but below 10%, it is in relative containment. Below 5%, there is no containment and national rules apply. If the city-wide ratio itself reaches 10%, the whole municipality goes into absolute containment automatically. At approval the city-wide ratio was 7.2%, measured at 1 November 2025.
The ratio is applied at three levels: the municipality, the 24 freguesias (parishes) and the bairros (neighbourhoods). RTP reported that 274 bairros are monitored. This matters because a neighbourhood can be in containment inside a parish that is not, and the bairro map is where most of the April 2026 changes happened. The council's monitoring division tracks the ratios monthly, and the regulation is reviewed every two years or whenever the council decides.
What each zone allows
Absolute containment is a general ban on new registrations with one narrow exception. A new unit can be authorised only where it rehabilitates a ruined building, or fully rehabilitates a building that has been vacant for more than three years, and the project is of special interest to the city, for example because it includes social or cultural uses or affordable housing. Such an authorisation lasts five years and cannot be renewed while the area stays in containment. The council's own February 2025 draft had no exception at all.
Relative containment allows two kinds of exceptional authorisation. One is the same rehabilitation route. The other is for rooms: an owner who has lived in a home of two bedrooms or more as their permanent residence and tax address for more than three years can register one room in a two-bedroom home, or two rooms in a home of three bedrooms or more. Room authorisations last a year and can be renewed. A whole apartment or house cannot be newly registered in relative containment on any other ground.
Some conditions apply in both zones. A property that was let on a residential lease at any point in the previous five years cannot be registered. Nor can one bought at a municipal or parish auction after the amendment took effect. When a registered apartment or house in a containment area changes hands, its registration lapses and the new owner must apply under whatever rules then apply. Outside containment, national law since November 2024 makes registrations transferable.
The regulation also gives existing operators a way out and back. A holder can suspend the registration for up to five years to let the property on a residential lease. Whether it can be reactivated depends on the zone's status at the date of the request, and law firms describe a waiting list. The option does not apply to units registered under the exceptions. Complementary restaurant and bar uses in AL buildings are barred, with an exception for buildings from before 1951.
| Zone | Ratio | New whole flat or house | New room in owner's home | Rehabilitation exception | Transfer on sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute containment | 10% or more | No | No | Yes, 5 years, not renewable | Registration lapses |
| Relative containment | 5% to under 10% | No | Yes, 1 room (T2) or 2 (T3+), owner resident 3+ years, 1 year renewable | Yes, 5 years, not renewable | Registration lapses |
| Outside containment | Under 5% | Yes, by prior notification | Yes | Not needed | Transferable (DL 76/2024) |
How Lisbon got to 10%
Portugal's national framework dates from Decree-Law 128/2014, which created AL registration by prior notification. Lisbon's register then grew quickly. The city recorded 657 new registrations in 2014, 2,136 in 2015, 3,154 in 2016 and 4,288 in 2017, according to its own 2018 urban tourism study. By August 2018 it had 14,461.
Law 62/2018 of 22 August 2018 gave councils the power to draw containment areas, without setting any percentage. Lisbon used it in November 2019 with its first RMAL: absolute containment from 20%, relative from 10% to 20%, measured across 15 "homogeneous tourist zones". The absolute zones were the Baixa and the Avenida da Liberdade, República and Almirante Reis axes; Bairro Alto and Madragoa; Castelo, Alfama and Mouraria; and Colina de Santana. Graça and Bairro das Colónias were in relative containment. On the city's August 2018 data, Castelo, Alfama and Mouraria had 2,498 AL units against 9,024 dwellings, a ratio of 28%.
National policy then swung twice. Law 56/2023, the Mais Habitação package, took effect on 7 October 2023. It suspended new registrations of apartments and units inside buildings across most of the country, made registrations valid for five years, made them non-transferable and added a 15% extraordinary levy. The interior and the autonomous regions were exempt. A new government reversed most of it: Decree-Law 57/2024 abolished the levy, and Decree-Law 76/2024, in force from 1 November 2024, ended the suspension and the five-year limit and handed the power to regulate back to councils.
Lisbon filled the gap with its own freeze. On 30 October 2024 the council unanimously approved a Socialist proposal to suspend new registrations in parishes at or above 2.5% and city-wide once the overall ratio reached 5%. With the city at 7.5%, the suspension covered the whole municipality. It was extended in May 2025 and ran until the new rule took effect. A citizens' initiative to ask voters whether AL should be banned from residential buildings reached the Municipal Assembly in December 2024, but the Constitutional Court rejected it in Acórdão 1/2025, citing defects in the signature checks and the questions themselves.
The thresholds themselves were the last thing to be settled. The council's February 2025 consultation draft proposed absolute containment from 5% and relative from 2.5%. After the October 2025 local elections the governing coalition rewrote them to 10% and 5%, and a Socialist amendment to keep the lower figures was voted down. Measured against the 2019 rule the thresholds were halved. Measured against the freeze they replaced, the new map opened most of the city.
The register barely moved through all of this. Lisbon counted 17,937 registrations in January 2019, 19,651 in January 2022, of which the AL association ALEP said about 3,500 were inactive, and 19,259 active in May 2024. An ISCTE researcher's database put the total at about 18,500 in October 2025. Three different regimes in six years held the count within a band of about 1,700 units.
The containment map, parish by parish
When the rule was approved, six parishes were in absolute containment and one in relative. The ratios, as reported from the council's figures with reference to 1 November 2025, were Santa Maria Maior 66.9%, Misericórdia 43.8%, Santo António 25.1%, São Vicente 16.1%, Arroios 13.5% and Estrela 10.8%. Avenidas Novas, at 6.6%, was in relative containment. Press reports also named nine neighbourhoods in absolute containment outside those parishes, among them Belém, Ajuda, Alcântara, São Bento and Parque das Nações.
| Parish | Ratio Mar 2022 | Ratio Nov 2025 | Status Dec 2025 | Status Apr 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Maria Maior | 52% | 66.9% | Absolute | Absolute |
| Misericórdia | 39% | 43.8% | Absolute | Absolute |
| Santo António | 26% | 25.1% | Absolute | Absolute |
| São Vicente | 16% | 16.1% | Absolute | Relative |
| Arroios | 14% | 13.5% | Absolute | Relative |
| Estrela | 11% | 10.8% | Absolute | Relative |
| Avenidas Novas | 7% | 6.6% | Relative | None |
| Other 17 parishes | 5% or less | not published | None | None |
The ratios moved little between 2022 and 2025 outside the historic core. Santa Maria Maior rose from 52% to 66.9%. One likely reason, on our reading, is the denominator rather than new rentals: the 2025 figures rest on the 2021 Census, and preliminary results showed the parish losing 22% of its residents in ten years, from 12,822 to 9,997, with Misericórdia losing 26%. A ratio built on permanent homes rises when residents leave, even if no new rental opens.
The first big change to the map came from outside the containment rule. In early February 2026 the city cancelled 6,765 registrations whose holders had never uploaded proof of civil-liability insurance, which operators have had to submit electronically since March 2025. Santa Maria Maior and Misericórdia each lost more than 1,000 and Arroios more than 800, according to the councillor responsible. The mayor told the Municipal Assembly that 11,779 registrations remained active on 1 February and that no new licences had been issued since.
Because cancelled registrations drop out of the numerator, the April 2026 recalculation moved São Vicente, Arroios and Estrela from absolute to relative containment, and Avenidas Novas out of containment. ECO reported 22 neighbourhoods in absolute containment and 11 in relative after the revision, with seven neighbourhoods leaving relative containment and five entering it. Santa Maria Maior, Misericórdia and Santo António stayed in absolute containment, and no plausible clean-up brings them near 10%. The detailed effect of the purge on the map is the subject of our next article in this series.
One number is missing from all of this: the ratios themselves after the purge. Coverage in April reported status changes without values, and no update after April has surfaced. On our own arithmetic, if about 18,544 registrations stood behind the 7.2% city-wide ratio and the denominator is unchanged, the purge would take the city ratio to roughly 4.6%, below the relative threshold. That is an illustration resting on two unverified assumptions, not a published figure, and the city has not confirmed it.
What the regime has and has not done
The clearest measured effect of Lisbon's containment rules is on construction. A Directorate-General for Economic Activities paper published in April 2026 compared the 2019 containment zones with the rest of the city and found that building-licence applications fell by about 21 a year per treated zone, or about 35 on an alternative method. On that evidence, restricting the most profitable use of a rehabilitated flat also reduced rehabilitation.
The evidence on housing costs is older and concerns prices more than rents. Franco and Santos, in Regional Science and Urban Economics in 2021, found that a one-point rise in a parish's Airbnb share went with about 3.2% higher house prices in Lisbon and Porto, and that prices in highly touristic parishes were 24.3% higher in 2015 and 32.3% higher in early 2016 than before mid-2014. Those percentages are often quoted as rent increases. They are not. A 2023 University of Surrey discussion paper put the effect of each additional AL establishment in a parish at about 0.17% on transaction values, stronger in Porto than in Lisbon. We found no Banco de Portugal study specific to Lisbon AL.
The rule also operates on a city whose housing demand comes increasingly from residents. Lisbon district had 605,895 foreign residents at the end of 2025, according to the migration agency figures in our AIMA backlog tracker, and the municipality's population estimate has risen since the 2021 Census. A containment ratio fixed to a 2021 denominator cannot see that growth until the 2031 Census is published.
On the market side, the platform data is mixed. AirDNA counted 15,792 active Lisbon listings in the twelve months to August 2026, down 29.4% on a year earlier, with 70% occupancy and an average daily rate of US$143. Listings are not registrations: one listing can be a room, one unit can appear on several platforms, and some listings carry no licence. Eurostat's platform series counted 11.75 million nights booked through Airbnb, Booking, Expedia and Tripadvisor in the Grande Lisboa region in 2025, up 2.0% on 2024. That is a regional figure that includes hotels listed on Booking and should not be read as AL demand in the city alone.
Nationally, the register is shrinking for the same reason as Lisbon's. ECO reported 119,147 active AL registrations in Portugal in June 2026 after councils cancelled 10,324 for non-compliance, against about 126,000 at the end of 2025. On those figures Lisbon holds about one registration in ten in the country (derived from counts four months apart). The Lisbon tourism statistics article sets that against hotel capacity: hotels took 81.4% of Lisbon municipality's 15.7 million overnight stays in 2024.
How Lisbon compares
Lisbon is not the only city to measure rentals against housing. Porto adopted a single threshold of 15% by parish in May 2023 and re-approved it in December 2024. On the 2023 figures Vitória (60.5%), São Nicolau (48.3%), Sé (44.1%), Santo Ildefonso (38.3%) and Miragaia (21.8%) were in containment. Lagoa in the Algarve has drafted a dual test that combines AL against all dwellings with AL against non-permanent dwellings. Funchal suspended new AL in multi-family buildings from September 2025. Councils with more than 1,000 AL units now have until 31 December 2026 to decide on their own regulation under Decree-Law 151/2026; Sintra, Vila Nova de Gaia and Viana do Castelo have used temporary suspensions.
Catalonia's rule is the nearest European relative. It caps tourist flats at 10 per 100 inhabitants in 262 stressed municipalities, and Barcelona has said it will not renew any of its roughly 10,100 licences when they expire in November 2028. Spain's Constitutional Court upheld the Catalan decree in March 2025. The measure counts people rather than homes, so two towns with the same housing stock can face different limits. Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin cap the nights a home can be let. Madrid and Florence ban new units in defined areas or building types. Lisbon's 10% is the lowest housing-based threshold in this set, and it is the only one with two tiers monitored monthly.
The EU layer arrived on 20 May 2026, when Regulation 2024/1028 began to apply. Platforms must display a host's registration number, which in Portugal is the RNAL number, check it at random against the register, and send activity data to each country's single digital entry point. We found no Lisbon figure published under the regulation yet. When it appears it will be the first official count of what is actually trading, as opposed to what is registered.
What to watch
Five dates or releases will change how the rule bites. The first is any publication of post-purge parish and neighbourhood ratios, which would show how close São Vicente, Arroios and Estrela sit to the 10% line and whether the city-wide ratio fell below 5%. The second is the count of new registrations since February 2026: "zero" was the figure in February and April, and a Correio da Manhã report has the Left Bloc warning that new registrations are rising, which we could not read or verify. The third is the two-year review due by December 2027. The fourth is the first EU platform data. The fifth is the 2031 Census, which will reset every denominator in the city at once.
What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts
Travelers. Nothing in the containment rule stops you renting a registered apartment in Alfama, the Baixa or Bairro Alto: existing registrations remain valid, and those neighbourhoods still have the densest supply in the city. What has changed is how easy it is to check. Since May 2026 platforms must show the RNAL registration number, and a listing in Lisbon without one should be treated with caution. Expect supply to tighten in the historic core rather than grow, and book central apartments for spring and autumn early. Our Lisbon destination page and Lisbon travel guide cover which neighbourhoods suit which trip, and the Lisbon and around page covers the coast and Sintra, where several councils are now writing their own rules.
Tourism businesses and investors. Underwrite a Lisbon AL purchase on the assumption that the registration does not travel with the property if it sits in a containment area, and that a new one is unobtainable in Santa Maria Maior, Misericórdia or Santo António for the foreseeable future. Relative containment allows rooms and rehabilitation projects only. Outside containment, the 5% line is the number to watch: a parish just below it can move up as soon as new registrations accumulate, and the monthly recalculation means no vote is needed. The rehabilitation exception lasts five years without renewal, so price it as a five-year asset. The construction evidence suggests the 2019 rule cost the city rehabilitation; any operator proposing to restore a vacant building has the strongest case for an exception.
Journalists and analysts. Safe to cite: thresholds of 10% (absolute) and 5% (relative) of permanent-residence dwellings, in force since 6 December 2025 under Aviso 29926-A/2025/2; a city-wide ratio of 7.2% at 1 November 2025; Santa Maria Maior 66.9% and Misericórdia 43.8% at approval; 6,765 registrations cancelled and 11,779 active at 1 February 2026; three parishes in absolute and three in relative containment after April 2026; Porto's single 15% threshold. Do not repeat: that Lisbon has banned short-term rentals, that the 5%/10% rule is national, that licences expire after five years, that two-thirds of homes in Santa Maria Maior are rentals, that Airbnb raised Lisbon rents by 24–32%, or that the purge cut 40% of Lisbon's AL. The finding this article adds to the series: Lisbon runs a monthly, neighbourhood-level rule on ratios it has not published since the February purge, and the city still publishes no registration series in accessible form. A rule built to be recalculated continuously is, for now, visible only when the press reports a status change.
Data & sources
Period covered: August 2018 – October 2026
- Diário da República – Aviso n.º 29926-A/2025/2 · Amendment to Lisbon's AL regulation (RMAL), published 5 Dec 2025, in force 6 Dec 2025. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Diário da República – Decree-Law 76/2024 · National AL reform ending the 2023 suspension and the five-year validity; municipal containment powers. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Assembleia Municipal de Lisboa – RMAL 2019 · Text of the 2019 regulation: 20%/10% thresholds, 15 tourist zones, Census 2011 denominator. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Câmara Municipal de Lisboa – RMAL amendment proposal (via Mensagem de Lisboa) · Council draft: ratio definition, monitoring and the February 2025 5%/2.5% proposal. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- PLMJ – Changes to the Lisbon RMAL · Law-firm note quoting the final text: exceptions, durations, transfers, suspension option. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Cuatrecasas – Alteração ao Regulamento Municipal do AL de Lisboa · Instrument number, dates, monitoring and two-year review. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- idealista – parish ratios at approval (19 Nov 2025) · Reproduction of CML parish ratios (Santa Maria Maior 66.9%, Misericórdia 43.8% etc.) and city ratio 7.2%. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- ECO – Lisboa ajusta níveis de contenção (6 Apr 2026) · April 2026 reclassification of parishes and neighbourhoods; 11,774 active registrations. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- RTP – Lisbon issued zero AL licences after cancellations (24 Feb 2026) · Mayor's statement: 6,765 cancelled, 11,779 active, cancellations by parish. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Observador – Lisbon suspension of new AL registrations (30 Oct 2024) · 2024 suspension criteria (2.5% / 5%) and city ratio of 7.5%. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- CML – Estudo Urbanístico do Turismo em Lisboa (2018) · Registrations by year 2011–2018, 14,461 total and zone ratios at August 2018. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Diário da República – Porto Regulamento 495-A/2023 · Porto's 15% single-threshold containment regulation. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- EUR-Lex – Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 · EU short-term rental data regulation, applicable from 20 May 2026. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Franco & Santos (2021), Regional Science and Urban Economics 88 · House-price effects of Airbnb in Portugal: +3.2% per point of parish share; +24.3%/+32.3% in touristic parishes. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Direção-Geral das Atividades Económicas – Tema Económico 128 (Apr 2026) · Effect of 2018–19 Lisbon AL restrictions on building-licence applications. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Eurostat – tour_ce_oan3 · Nights booked through collaborative-economy platforms, Grande Lisboa 2024–2025. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
Methodology
This article draws on the Diário da República (Aviso n.º 29926-A/2025/2, Decree-Laws 128/2014, 76/2024, 57/2024 and 151/2026, Laws 62/2018 and 56/2023, Porto's Regulamento 495-A/2023), the 2019 RMAL text held by the Assembleia Municipal de Lisboa, the council's 2025 amendment proposal, the CML's 2018 urban tourism study, Constitutional Court Acórdão 1/2025, law-firm notes from PLMJ, Cuatrecasas, CRS Advogados and Pares Advogados, press reproductions of council figures in RTP, ECO, Observador, idealista, Executive Digest, Jornal Económico and Dinheiro Vivo, EU Regulation 2024/1028, Eurostat's platform-nights series, AirDNA, Franco and Santos (2021), a University of Surrey discussion paper (2023) and the DGAE's Tema Económico 128 (2026). Comparator rules come from official city and regional sources or law-firm and press summaries as named in the table.
Three limitations govern the article. (1) The final regulation text in the Diário da República and the council's own data portals could not be accessed through our research proxy, so exception terms come from law-firm notes quoting the text and parish ratios from press reproductions of council figures. (2) The council has not published parish or city ratio values since the February 2026 cancellations; the April 2026 status changes are reported without numbers. (3) Registration counts come from different publishers over time and may differ in whether inactive registrations are included.
Where sources disagreed we report both values (11,779 vs 11,774 active registrations; 6.6% vs 6.2% for Avenidas Novas; 9 vs 22 neighbourhoods in absolute containment). Figures we calculated are marked as derived in the text and tables. Claims that failed against primary law or the council's figures are listed in the corrections panel with the evidence.
Notes on the data
No parish, neighbourhood or city-wide containment ratio has been published since the February 2026 cancellations; the April 2026 reclassification is known only from status changes reported by ECO and idealista, and its legal instrument and effective date were not identified. No Lisbon registration count after 1 February 2026 was found, and the only figure for new registrations since then is the mayor's 'zero' (February to April 2026). Penalty provisions and final article numbering in Aviso 29926-A/2025/2 were not checked against the Diário da República text. No EU Regulation 2024/1028 data for Lisbon has been published.
Contested figures: active registrations at 1 February 2026 are 11,779 (CML via RTP and idealista) or 11,774 (ECO); Avenidas Novas' ratio at approval is 6.6% (idealista, Negócios) or 6.2% (ECO); the city-wide ratio is 7.2% (CML via idealista), '7%' (ECO) or 8.62% (the Vizinhos advocacy group's own calculation, not used); neighbourhoods in absolute containment are given as 9 (November 2025 press, outside the six parishes) and 22 (ECO); Lisbon's register in March 2022 is given as 25,718 (DN via idealista), which is incompatible with ALEP's 19,651 in January 2022 and is excluded.
Claims that failed verification: 'Lisbon has banned short-term rentals' (false); 'the 5%/10% rule applies across Portugal' (false); 'AL licences expire after five years' (superseded); 'Portugal banned new AL licences' (superseded, October 2023 to October 2024 only, apartments only); 'two-thirds of homes in Santa Maria Maior are rentals' (misleading reading of a ratio); 'Lisbon's thresholds are 5% and 2.5%' (superseded draft); 'Airbnb raised Lisbon rents 24–32%' (house prices, 2015–16); '18,539 registrations, 11,774 active' from our own research plan (18,539 is a sum, not a published figure); '40% of Lisbon AL cancelled' (36.5% on the implied base); 'Lisbon has the most Airbnbs per capita in Europe' (a 2019 Moody's remark with no comparator data, not used).
Derived figures: pre-purge register of 18,544 (11,779 + 6,765); 36.5% share cancelled; Santa Maria Maior upper-bound share of about 40% (0.669 ÷ 1.669, ignoring vacant and second homes); Lisbon's roughly 10% share of national registrations (11,779 ÷ 119,147, counts four months apart); an illustrative post-purge city ratio of about 4.6%, which assumes 18,544 registrations stood behind the 7.2% ratio and an unchanged denominator, and is not an official figure; Eurostat platform nights +2.0% (11,752,334 vs 11,519,684). The use of the 2021 Census as the denominator is inferred from the regulation's reference to the latest published census.
Self-reported and third-party figures: AirDNA listing counts, occupancy and rates are a commercial estimate of platform activity, not registrations; ALEP's count of inactive registrations and its projection of 85,000–90,000 national registrations are industry figures; the Left Bloc's claim of rising new registrations was reported by Correio da Manhã and could not be read or verified.
Frequently asked questions
What are Lisbon's AL containment zones?
They are parishes and neighbourhoods where the city restricts new alojamento local (short-term rental) registrations because rentals are dense relative to permanent homes. Since 6 December 2025 an area is in absolute containment when AL units reach 10% of permanent-residence dwellings, and in relative containment from 5% to under 10%.
What is the 5%/10% rule in Lisbon?
It is the pair of thresholds in Lisbon's amended AL regulation (Aviso 29926-A/2025/2). At 10% or more, new registrations are barred apart from rehabilitation exceptions; from 5% to under 10%, only rooms in an owner's long-term home and rehabilitation projects can be authorised. If the whole city reaches 10%, all of it goes into absolute containment; it was 7.2% on 1 November 2025.
Can I register a new Airbnb or AL in Lisbon in 2026?
Outside containment areas, yes, by prior notification under national rules. In relative containment only a room in your own long-term home or a qualifying rehabilitation project can be authorised, and in absolute containment only the rehabilitation route remains. The mayor said no new licences had been issued between 1 February and April 2026; check the current zone with the Câmara Municipal de Lisboa.
Which Lisbon parishes are in absolute containment?
After the April 2026 revision, Santa Maria Maior (66.9% at approval), Misericórdia (43.8%) and Santo António (25.1%). São Vicente, Arroios and Estrela moved to relative containment, and Avenidas Novas left containment. Some neighbourhoods in other parishes, such as parts of Belém, Alcântara and Parque das Nações, are also restricted.
Does the 5%/10% rule apply in Porto or the rest of Portugal?
No. National law (Decree-Law 76/2024) lets councils draw containment areas but sets no percentage. Porto uses a single 15% threshold by parish, Lagoa has drafted a dual-ratio test, and councils with more than 1,000 AL units have until 31 December 2026 to decide on their own rules.
Do AL licences in Lisbon expire after five years?
Not ordinary registrations. The five-year validity introduced by the 2023 Mais Habitação law was removed by Decree-Law 76/2024 from 1 November 2024. Only Lisbon's exceptional authorisations expire: five years for rehabilitation projects and one year, renewable, for rooms.
What happens to an AL licence when a Lisbon property is sold?
In a containment area, the registration of an apartment or house lapses on transfer and the buyer must apply under the rules then in force, which in absolute containment means a new registration is almost always unavailable. Outside containment, registrations are transferable under national law.
How is Lisbon's containment ratio calculated?
The council divides the number of registered AL establishments in an area by the number of permanent-residence dwellings in the latest published census, currently the 2021 Census. It is applied to the city, its 24 parishes and 274 monitored neighbourhoods, and tracked monthly. A ratio of 66.9% means 0.67 AL units per permanent home, not that two-thirds of homes are rentals.
How can I check that a Lisbon rental is legally registered?
Every legal AL has a number on the national register (RNAL). Since 20 May 2026, under EU Regulation 2024/1028, platforms must display that number and check it against the register, so a Lisbon listing without one is a warning sign.