Sustainable Tourism Law

GLOBAL CODE OF ETHICS FOR TOURISM AND CHARTER 445 GLOBAL C DE OF ETHICS AND CHA TER FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM Fig. 2 Estimated evolution of the property’s square meter average selling price Figure 2 represents the same variables as Figure 1, regarding the estimated evolution of the property’s square meter average selling price. This study has concluded that in, both cases, whether selling or renting, the variation of prices is sensible to the changes in the law which simplified the legal regime of alojamento local, Portaria de n.º 138/2012, of 14 th may and Decreto-Lei n.º 128/2014, of 29th august. The dashed line above on both figures represents an alternative scenario without changes in the law. The indicated study estimates a rent increase of 1,48€, per square meter, at 13,2%, and a selling price increase of 651€, per square meter, at 30,5%, on the areas with more alojamento local properties, due to the alojamento local law changes. According to this data, it seems there is a clear danger that the deregulation of the regime governing touristic short-term house rentals can create a risk of gentrification on touristic cities. This gentrification can be caused by factors such as the indiscriminate and uncontrolled use of houses for residents to live in and for touristic rental business, if the only urbanistic registration requirement is for the houses to have a license or authorization of use, for generic purposes. The extremely basic safety requirements demanded by the law 33 , as the municipality has no effective control over the registration procedures, regarding what concerns urbanism or housing issues 34 , which translates into a reduced 33 It is not the purpose of this work to discuss the general and safety legal requisites of the Alojamento Local properties, which can be consulted directly on the law (articles 12 and 13, Decreto-Lei 128/2014, 29/08, redaction of Decreto-Lei 63/2015, 23/4). 34 Oliveira, F, Passinhas, S. Lopes, D., Ob.Cit.