[Following text was automatically translated from Portuguese to English]
+ Habitação” package was already promulgated by the President of the Republic. This will bring major legislative and tax changes to both Short and Long Term Rentals, which will generate dramatic changes in the AL sector, and also with some relevance in Long Term rentals.
Having been presented 6 months ago by the Government, in its general terms,this legislative package has never seemed to bring the faintest glimpse of solving the housing problem. In fact, it has contributed decisively, in recent months, to the rise in rental prices. When ones decide to change rules (some in the middle of the game!), it’s a good idea to know what he’s changing, impacts and results.
The Government has shown total ignorance of the Rental and AL sectors, and total obstinacy as a result of having presented this package as a structural and saving measure. Even though politically it is isolated and economically and socially the ineffectiveness in solving the housing problem has already been demonstrated, and the serious consequences that these measures will bring, nothing has stopped the Government that has now approved exactly the same package that it had approved in July, alone, as a result of its absolute majority, and which was outright rejected by the President of the Republic.
On this topic, I had the opportunity to write in March in Dinheiro Vivo, in a brief analysis of the true causes of the housing problem, as opposed to the persecution of the Local Accommodation sector.
ALEP – Local Accommodation Association in Portugal – has done tireless work since the beginning in defending the maintenance of the Local Accommodation sector. If in terms of public opinion the results were excellent, politically and given the Government’s intransigence, little or nothing was achieved. At this moment, and as the enactment of Mais Habitação seems inevitable, it will proceed to the Constitutional Court and the European Court. Attached, you can consult 3 opinions requested by ALEP from Abreu Advogados on 3 specific topics: CEAL, Constitutionality of the measures and adequacy to European Law.
In order to clarify the impacts of Mais Habitação on both Rental and Local Accommodation, we have attached a document that explains and summarizes the measures, so that it is possible to begin evaluating the situation and possible future steps.
Main Risks in AL:
- Prohibition of new AL registrations
- Cancellation of existing AL registrations by the Condominium
- IRS increase
- IMI increase
- New CEAL “tax” that will mean a significant increase in tax costs
Main Risks in Long Term Rentals:
- Limitation on the increase in new rents
Opportunities:
- Transition of AL properties to rental, with IRS/IRC exemption for 5 years
- IRS reduction on long-term rental contracts
- Exemption from taxation on capital gains on the sale of properties to the State or on the sale of properties with amortization of existing housing credit for Own and Permanent Housing of the person or descendants
