Chaos in Portugal

The Algarve Resident highlights the issue of new government regulation in Portugal. Owners of holiday villas in the Algarve have been told to register with local tourism authorities apparently to allow regulation of standards. New rules state that owners who want to let their villas to holiday makers must ensure that they have a similar standard of safety and amenities to hotels.

Apart from the fact that most of the holiday villas in the Algarve are not intended to be hotels but second homes for their owners, there is a practical problem in that most of the local tourist authorities do not have manpower necessary to issue the permits required, and so some reports have it now that any house for which an application has been made and which then cannot be inspected should be considered to have passed inspection. Or something.

There is a great deal of confusion among owners and property managers as to what the regulations are and what is expected of them. Rumours abound and MPs and ministers have been lobbied but to no avail. Many letting agents have been heavily fined, but of course there is nothing that can be done, because it is impossible to register a villa.

Any sensible person welcomes any regulation that will ensure the safety of holiday makers, but the level of confusion surrounding this is leaving owners and managers exposed and seems certain to cause damage: anything that makes the letting of holiday acccommodation more difficult is likely to have a neg: ative impact on tourism on which the Algarve relies. It may seem blase to say that there was not a problem originally, but the new season will start with no houses actually having been registered, although frequently their owners have tried.