Opening an alojamento local in Portugal: what to check before you register

Alojamento local has four categories: moradia (detached house), apartamento (apartment), estabelecimento de hospedagem (guesthouse, including hostels) and quartos (rooms in the owner's home). The category you choose sets the requirements, the capacity and some of the documents. If your project is a tourist development such as a hotel, a different regime applies; see our tourist developments and hostels service.

The process has five steps:

• 1. Register the activity with Finanças: file a start-of-activity declaration with the Portuguese tax authority under activity code (CAE) 55201 or 55204, before registering the AL.
• 2. Comunicação prévia com prazo: file the registration on the Balcão Único Eletrónico (reachable through gov.pt) or at the council's front desk, addressed to the mayor.
• 3. Review period: for 60 days, or 90 in containment areas, the mayor may object to the registration.
• 4. Registration number: if there is no objection, the number is issued; it is the only title that lets you open to guests and is sent to Turismo de Portugal for the national AL register (RNAL).
• 5. Insurance and ongoing duties: have the mandatory insurance in place before you open, upload proof of it and comply with the rules on facilities, signage and operation.

The regime is national, but municipalities can adopt AL regulations and draw containment and sustainable-growth areas by freguesia (civil parish), with caps on new registrations. These areas must be reviewed at least every three years. While they prepare a regulation, municipalities can suspend new registrations for up to one year.

Municipal regulations can also add other restrictions, such as barring registration of properties rented out as homes in the previous two years, setting quotas, or limiting the transfer of new registrations in containment areas. They can also require extra standards, for example a minimum state of repair or a minimum energy rating, with special rules for older buildings.

Check the property's own history too: whether it was registered before, and whether that registration was canceled and why. An earlier cancellation, for example after a condominium objection, can block a new registration for that property for some time, even under a new owner.

Lisbon and Porto both have municipal AL regulations that cap new registrations in parts of the city. In Lisbon, Portugal, an amended municipal regulation published as Aviso 29926-A/2025/2 has been in force since December 6, 2025, replacing the temporary suspensions of 2024 and 2025: it draws absolute and relative containment areas by freguesia and by neighborhood, based on the share of AL relative to housing, accepts AL only in properties with residential use, and requires the insurance policy, floor plans and other documents with the filing itself. In Porto, the municipal regulation (Regulamento 1462/2024) sets containment areas in the historic-center parishes and sustainable-growth areas elsewhere in the city. In both cities, check the rule for your address on the council's website before you buy or invest.

Both cities have also canceled registrations in bulk. According to Essential Business (February 20, 2026), Lisbon's council moved to cancel about 6,700 registrations for missing proof of insurance; according to press reports of May 22, 2026, Porto announced the cancellation of 1,413 non-compliant properties. In containment areas, a canceled registration may not be obtainable again, so the duties after registration matter as much as the registration itself.

The registration must state the property's autorização de utilização (often called the habitation license) or another valid use title. Lacking a suitable use title is one of the grounds on which the council can object. The municipality decides, in its regulation or by resolution, which uses it accepts for AL; the quartos category is only possible in residential properties, and houses and apartments with another use are only accepted if they meet the set requirements.

Compare the use stated in the title with what you plan to do. A shop or office does not become an AL just because it has a kitchen and a bathroom. Since October 1, 2026, a change of use without works is filed as a comunicação prévia com prazo under the RJUE (Portugal's planning and building code), and the new use must be allowed by the PDM (Plano Diretor Municipal, the municipal master plan); our change of use service handles this check.

If the property has no habitation license because it was built before 1951, or has unpermitted work, sort that out before you file: see our guides to old houses without a habitation license and to building legalization. For houses built before the RGEU (the 1951 general building regulation), ask the council what evidence it accepts instead of a title.

In a building under horizontal property (Portugal's form of condominium ownership), running an apartment as an AL is not, in itself, considered a use different from the unit's purpose. The exception is when the constitutive title, the condominium rules that form part of it, or a later resolution prohibit it. So read the constitutive title and the rules before you buy or file.

What the condominium can do depends on the situation:

• Ban AL: changing the rules to prohibit the activity requires two thirds of the building's permilagem (ownership shares) and only applies to later registrations.
• Object to a specific AL: requires a reasoned resolution approved by more than half of the permilagem, based on repeated acts that disturb the use of the building or the residents' rest. The mayor decides on cancellation and may first try to broker an agreement.
• Hostel: in a building with homes, the hostel category needs the owners' authorization, and the minutes form part of the registration.
• House rules: the operator must display the condominium rules and give the condominium a contact phone number.

The filing must include the following, which you must keep up to date (changes must be reported within 10 days):

The statement of responsibility is not a mere formality: the operator declares that the property is fit for purpose and meets the applicable rules, and false statements are a criminal offense. If you are not sure the property complies, check before you sign.

• Identification of the operator, or the certidão permanente (online commercial registry certificate) access code for a company.
• The property's autorização de utilização or another valid use title.
• Statement of responsibility on the building's fitness and compliance with the rules.
• The urban caderneta predial (property tax record), if the operator is the owner.
• A lease or other document entitling you to operate, with express authorization to host guests, if the operator is not the owner.
• Start-of-activity declaration filed with Finanças.
• Condominium minutes with the authorization, for a hostel in a horizontal property building.

Houses, apartments and guesthouses may have at most nine bedrooms and 27 guests; the quartos and hostel categories have their own rules. As a rule, capacity is two guests per bedroom, and the living room may take two more in apartments and houses; extra beds may not exceed 50% of the fixed beds.

Before you file, also check the operating and safety requirements:

• Bedrooms with a window or balcony to the outside and a way to block out light.
• Hot and cold water and a connection to the public sewer or a septic tank.
• Up to 10 guests: fire extinguisher, fire blanket, first-aid kit and the 112 emergency number on display.
• More than 10 guests: compliance with the fire safety in buildings regime (Decree-Law 220/2008).
• A guest information book in Portuguese, English and at least two other languages, and the AL identification plaque by the entrance (the law does not require it for the moradia category).

You must carry third-party liability insurance covering damage to guests and others, with minimum cover of €75,000 per claim and, in a horizontal property building, fire insurance for the unit as well. The policy must be in place before you open and stay valid: gov.pt asks for proof after registration, but Lisbon requires the policy with the filing. The council can ask for proof at any time, with three days to respond, and lacking valid insurance is a ground for canceling the registration.

While operating, keep the registration details up to date, keep the official complaints book (livro de reclamações) available, report foreign guests through SIBA (Sistema de Informação de Boletins de Alojamento, the guest registration system) and collect the tourist tax where the municipality charges one. Offering or advertising an AL without a registration, or with outdated details, is a serious administrative offense.

AL income is taxed under Portuguese personal income tax (IRS) or corporate tax (IRC), depending on the operator; the tax treatment and applicable rates should be confirmed with a certified accountant. If you are tax resident elsewhere, check the rules in your home country too. The extraordinary AL levy (CEAL), created in 2023, was repealed by Decree-Law 57/2024.

Decree-Law 76/2024, in force since November 1, 2024, reversed much of the Mais Habitação housing program (Law 56/2023) and handed control to municipalities. Many articles and listings still describe the old regime; these are the main differences.

The official sources are in Portuguese. Check the version in force before preparing a notice, project or application.

Want to find these guides more easily when you search on Google? Add Apto Group as a preferred source.