The market is becoming increasingly professional, attracting international companies to Portugal that manage hundreds of units. And many of the small owners who used to manage their own apartments for tourism are discovering that if they don’t provide a qualified offer, the excessive competition could wipe out their business.

There are currently around 88,000 units classified as LA. According to Deloitte’s Hotel Atlas, at the end of 2017 there were 51,014 local accommodation spaces. Data from the National Registry of Local Accommodation (RNAL) portal shows that from January 2018 until August 25, in other words, in just a year and a half, 36,609 more registrations were formalized. This number was due to an atypical rush of registrations in 2018, anticipating the obstacles created by the new regulations of October last year, which created containment zones in Lisbon’s historic districts (also currently under discussion in Porto).

What is certain is that, after three years of great euphoria, the market is showing signs of slowing down: between January and August this year, 11,467 new units were registered. In the same period last year, there were more than 17,000. “That idea that used to be sold that local accommodation was a golden goose is not realistic. The market is very competitive. And while it’s true that the creation of the containment zones in the historic centers has caused a sharp drop in new LA applications, the truth is that there has also been greater restraint in opening new spaces outside the historic centers.

Much more than regulation, it’s the market that is more mature and selective,” says Eduardo Miranda, president of the Association of Local Accommodation in Portugal (ALEP), adding that ‘in almost every parish in the country, there were drops in registrations in the first and second quarters of 2019, compared to the same period last year’. That’s why, he stresses, “those who move into this market today are doing so thoughtfully and with a different project”.