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Medina: After the pandemic, Lisbon will get rid of Airbnb – Coronavirus

The Mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, affirms in an opinion article that he intends to return the capital to citizens, transforming local accommodation into more affordable rental homes.

“Like many cities, we are reevaluating our post-pandemic priorities and putting the workers who headed to Lisbon during the covid-19 crisis at the top of the list,” writes Medina, in an opinion article published in The Independent.

The mayor stresses that, although Lisbon has “benefited enormously” from the influx of tourists, “a social price” was paid, at a time when one third of the city of Lisbon was taken over for vacation rentals.

“Essential workers and their families were increasingly forced to leave as Airbnb-style vacation rentals took over a third of properties in central Lisbon, raising rental prices, emptying communities and threatening their unique character,” he says Medina.

In this sense, the mayor explains that Lisbon is already offering to pay landlords to make thousands of short-term accommodations in rent houses more accessible.

“It is a bold strategy that offers landlords stable long-term revenues, and that gives us the chance to recreate a more vibrant, healthy and equitable city”, he argues, while stressing that there is more than one way to achieve this objective: “we are working closely with private individuals to renovate some of the neglected buildings to ensure that they create the much needed affordable rental homes”.

Despite these plans, the speech does not mean that “we do not want to receive tourists as soon as possible”, assures the mayor.

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