Registering an Alojamento Local, from filing to cancellation

Article 5.º(1) defines the act: «O registo de estabelecimentos de alojamento local é efetuado mediante comunicação prévia com prazo dirigida ao presidente da câmara municipal territorialmente competente» — registration is made by prior notice with a deadline addressed to the territorially competent mayor.

The technical wording matters. This is not a «mera comunicação prévia», the species where the effect arises on filing. It is a prior notice with a deadline: the mayor has a period in which to object, and the number only consolidates if he does not. Treating the step as automatic misreads what is happening.

Paragraph 2 fixes the channel, exclusively: the notice is filed through the Balcão Único Eletrónico of article 6.º of Decree-Law 92/2010, which assigns each request a number. Paragraph 3 closes the question of necessity: the prior notice is mandatory and a necessary condition for operating the establishment.

Registration is required before operating, not after starting. Offering, listing, advertising or brokering an unregistered establishment is by itself an administrative offence under article 23.º.

Article 6.º(1) lists the mandatory information. It opens at sub-paragraph a) with «A autorização de utilização ou título de utilização válido do imóvel» — the property’s use permit or a valid title of use — and continues with the operator’s identification and address, the establishment’s name and address, capacity in rooms, beds and users, the intended opening date, and an emergency contact.

Paragraph 2 adds the documents that must accompany the filing: the operator’s identity document or permanent certificate access code, a statement of responsibility as to the building’s suitability, the property tax record, the lease or an authorisation to provide accommodation services, the declaration of commencement of activity with the matching economic activity code, and the chosen modality.

One sub-paragraph deserves careful reading because it is often over-generalised: the minutes of the condominium meeting authorising the installation are required only for hostels located in buildings held in horizontal property. It is not a document asked of every apartment.

The objection period is 60 days from filing, and rises to «um prazo máximo de 90 dias, no caso de pedidos para exploração de alojamento local em áreas de contenção» — a maximum of 90 days for filings in containment areas.

During that period the mayor may object on grounds that include incorrect preparation of the filing, breach of municipal restrictions on installation, or the absence of an adequate use permit for the building. An objection prevents the registration number being assigned.

Once the period passes with no objection, the number the Balcão Único Eletrónico assigned to the filing becomes the establishment’s registration number. That is why the filing date is the date worth keeping: the period runs from it.

• General rule: a 60-day objection period.
• Containment areas: up to 90 days.
• An objection prevents the registration number being assigned.

There is no separate licence. Article 7.º(1) is explicit: «O documento emitido pelo Balcão Único Eletrónico dos serviços contendo o número de registo do estabelecimento de alojamento local constitui o único título válido de abertura ao público» — the document issued by the electronic counter, carrying the registration number, is the only valid title to open to the public.

Only valid title means exactly that. There is no permit to apply for afterwards, and no certificate issued by Turismo de Portugal. Turismo de Portugal, I. P. receives the data and publishes the information in the national Alojamento Local register, but it neither registers nor licenses.

The number is not only for the file. Article 17.º(2) requires advertising, commercial documentation and merchandising to state the name or logo and the registration number — which covers listings on booking platforms.

Advertising an unregistered establishment, or one with an out-of-date registration, is a free-standing administrative offence under article 23.º, and it also engages whoever lists and brokers the offer.

This is the part where out-of-date information costs money, because it leads hosts to renew what needs no renewal, or to fear an expiry that no longer exists. Law 56/2023 («Mais Habitação») inserted an article 6.º-A giving the registration a five-year duration, renewable. Decree-Law 76/2024 repealed that article with effect from 1 November 2024, and in the consolidated text it now reads simply «(Revogado.)».

Three rules of the same origin fell with it: the reappraisal, during 2030, of existing registrations; the lapse of inactive registrations, which required proof that the activity continued; and the nationwide suspension of new registrations in the apartamento and hospedagem-in-a-unit modalities.

The personal and non-transferable character of the registration number also fell. Paragraphs 2 to 4 of article 7.º, which provided for it and made the title lapse on transfer, are repealed: the registration follows the establishment again.

The word «caducidade» — lapse — does not appear in the consolidated text of Decree-Law 128/2014 today. A valid registration has no end date: it ends by act of its holder or by decision of the council, as the next section sets out.

Law 56/2023 required a condominium decision before registration. That requirement disappeared with the repeal of paragraphs 4 and 5 of article 5.º, and Decree-Law 76/2024 added an article 6.º-B saying the opposite as a matter of civil law: installing and operating an AL in an autonomous unit «não constitui uso diverso do fim a que é destinada» for the purposes of article 1422.º(2)(c) of the Civil Code.

The condominium keeps one route, but it is prospective and demanding. It may prohibit Alojamento Local by amending the building regulation, approved by a majority representing two thirds of the building’s permillage, and that decision «produz efeitos para futuro, aplicando-se apenas aos pedidos de registo submetidos em data posterior à deliberação». It does not catch those already registered.

The surviving exception is hostels: they may not be installed and operated in buildings held in horizontal property where housing coexists without the owners’ authorisation.

• Condominium authorisation is not a general requirement of registration.
• A prohibition by regulation needs two thirds of the permillage and only applies going forward.
• Hostels in horizontal property with housing still need authorisation.

There are two routes, and they are different in kind. The first belongs to the holder: cessation of the operation is notified through the Balcão Único Eletrónico within 10 days of it happening, and it entails cancellation of the establishment’s registration.

The second belongs to the council. The mayor may order cancellation, preceded by a prior hearing under the Administrative Procedure Code, on grounds of non-conformity in the information or documents of the registration, breach of restrictions on installation or the absence of an adequate use permit, breach of the requirements of articles 11.º to 17.º, absence of valid mandatory insurance, and the repeated, proven practice of acts disturbing the normal use of the building.

In that last case the condominium meeting cancels nothing by itself: it may object by a reasoned resolution approved by more than half the building’s permillage and ask the mayor for a decision. As an alternative to cancellation, the mayor may invite the parties to reach an agreement.

Where cancellation rests on the disturbance ground, the decision may bar the property from being operated as Alojamento Local for a period that may not exceed five years.

The national suspension is gone, but municipal competence was reinforced. A council may approve, in the regulation foreseen in article 4.º(5), containment areas and sustainable-growth areas, by parish or union of parishes.

In containment areas, article 15.º-B lets the council refuse new registrations in buildings or units that were subject to a residential urban lease in the preceding two years, set limits on the number of establishments against available dwellings, provide for exceptional admissions, and set proportionate limits on the transferability of new registration numbers — with mandatory carve-outs for succession, gratuitous transfer to a spouse, de facto partner, descendants or ascendants, and divorce or dissolution of a de facto union.

And there is a temporary brake: to secure the effectiveness of the regulation, the municipal assembly may suspend, by reasoned resolution and for a maximum of one year, the authorisation of new registrations in specifically delimited areas, until the regulation comes into force.

Outside Decree-Law 128/2014, Decree-Law 151/2026 of 30 July approved temporary measures: councils that had passed a thousand registered establishments by 31 December 2025 have until 31 December 2026 to resolve on exercising their regulatory power, and a running suspension may be extended exceptionally and once only, never beyond that date. It is a temporary regime and does not amend Decree-Law 128/2014.