The Portuguese government has announced sweeping measures, mostly against landlords, which some activists want introduced in the UK too.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa says there will be a structure to limit rent increases, tax incentives for landlords who convert short lets into homes for locals to rent long-term, and stricter licensing of Airbnb and other short let tourist-focussed properties.

Details are sketchy but news agencies report that new licenses for Airbnbs and other short properties will be prohibited except in less populated rural areas, while the government will lease empty properties from landlords for social housing for periods of up to five years.

To address the housing shortage, Costa said the state would rent vacant houses direct from landlords for a period of five years and put them on the rental market.

The country’s controversial Golden Visa scheme – aimed at luring international high net worth buyers – will also be sharply reduced. 

The scheme has been running for a decade and offers EU passports to non-EU nationals in return for investments including in residential property. The largest number of visas has been granted to some 5,000 Chinese citizens while over 1,000 went to Brazilians while Turkey, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates received some 500 each. 

The government has so far left unchanged a scheme introduced just last October called the Digital Nomad Visa which gives foreigners with large monthly incomes from remote work the right to live and work from Portugal without paying local taxes.

A report in the English language The Portugal News says some parts of the country saw mainstream rents rise 4.2 per cent last year and in the past month every region has seen a rent rise, in one case as high as 0.9 per cent in just over four weeks.

Portugal has had a series of housing crises not unlike those in the UK, with low levels of house building leading to rising house prices and rents. General inflation in the country is running at 8.3 per cent.