And when their shops have no customers and the streets are empty of tourists, well, tough titties said the kittie. (PS - 'lets' in proper English are what we call rentals. Duh) Housing activists in Lisbon are to hand over a petition, signed by more than 6,600 residents, calling on city officials to agree to hold a binding referendum on banning tourist lets in residential blocks.
The effort, months in the making, is aimed at prompting decisive action in a city where the cost of housing has drastically outpaced local salaries. “Short-term rentals take most of the housing space in Lisbon’s historic centre,” said Raquel Antunes, a member the group Movement for a Housing Referendum. “We need to put the brakes on this.” The rest of this foolishness is here.
Portugal and Spain (especially Barcelona) are severely impacted by a lack of rentals due to tourist lets. Because of this, locals can't afford to live in their own cities. So I can understand why locals are doing this. It may be self destructive, but the issue is complicated.
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