Lisbon council to debate referendum to clamp down on Airbnb
Booming tourism in Lisbon, Portugal, has left the city’s residents struggling to keep up with rent levels. Now, after 5,000 people signed a petition pushing for change, the council will debate a referendum to clamp down on over-tourism.
Lisbon has experienced a huge rise in tourism over the last few years. Visitors have flocked to the city for its gorgeous architecture and city charm, leading Airbnb owners to take notice. It is now estimated that the city holds around 20,000 tourist lets, more properties than are available for residents of Lisbon.
This boom has pushed out local renters, who are watching their homes and neighbourhoods being lost to tourism. The Times reported that house prices have increased by 186 per cent, while rents have risen 94 per cent since 2015, using data from Confidencial Imobiliario. Meanwhile, local businesses and areas are increasingly focusing on the needs and wants of tourists rather than local residents.
“Life is disappearing,” said University of Lisbon geographer Agustín Cocola-Gant during a conversation with Jacobin about the issue, “When I was interviewing short-term real estate investors, their message to locals was: ‘Move from the city center. This is a future opportunity for us, not a residential place anymore. Leave us alone and assume that you can’t live here.'”
Despite the ever-increasing tourism in the city, and the government’s previous attempts to diminish the issue, locals have taken action against the over-tourism. A Housing Referendum Movement has now gained 5,000 signatures, meaning the council will debate the idea of a referendum.
Ana Gago, a fellow geographer at the University of Lisbon, said of the movement, “We will have more than the double signatures necessary in the end. So there’s clearly will among the population to have this referendum. If [the council] denies that, we would question our democracy.”
If the referendum is successful, it could result in a ban on turning residential properties into short-term tourist lets. In turn, this would decrease the power of tourism in the city, returning neighbourhoods to the people who actually reside in them.
Lisbon isn’t the only European city experiencing the damaging effects of over-tourism, or the only city protesting against the issue. Earlier this week, locals in Mallorca took to the beaches to protest the effects of increasing tourism on the island. The Catalonian capital, Barcelona, also saw protests from locals regarding modern tourism earlier this summer, spraying tourists with water guns.
