Supreme Court ruling affects apartments already within AL regime.
A decision by the Supreme Court has blown a surreal hole in the AL (short-term tourist-lodgings) sector.
As of today, no property owner can rent out a property ‘destined for habitation’ within the AL regime, even if they have a licence to do so and are full of bookings for the future.
Público is running this story as an exclusive, but it is being picked up by other media sources – the simple reason being, this could create a tidal wave of issues.
The Supreme Court decision was unanimous, with almost 30 judges supporting it.
Leading judge Paulo Rijo Ferreira has admitted that the number of cases likely to come denouncing ‘illegal’ AL activity will snowball – while there are real ‘economic risks’ on the horizon.
If people cannot legally rent out apartments they purchased in good faith for this kind of ‘investment’, they may well chose to rent them out illegally – meaning the State could stand to lose hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of euros in tax revenue.
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