The document, presented by the Councillor for Planning and Urban Management, Fabíola Oliveira, will focus “on the area corresponding to the Urban Pressure Zone (ZPU), with particular emphasis on the historic center of Viana do Castelo, which is currently subject to significant urban pressure”.

The proposed regulation will now be open for public discussion for a period of 30 working days.

The approval of the Municipal Regulation for Local Accommodation (RMAL) project “aims to establish containment areas in the parishes with the most urban pressure, with a view to a sustainable balance between the number of residential accommodations available for permanent housing or long-term rental and the establishments available for use in the AL activity”.

“The municipality of Viana do Castelo intends to create a Sustainable Growth Area and a Short-Term Rental Containment Area, within the area designated as the ZPU (Special Urban Planning Zone), based on the ratio of short-term rentals to permanent residential accommodation, in order to guarantee the city's balance and the growth of tourism, believing in the positive social and economic repercussions,” indicates the document.

The proposal states that “no new short-term rental registrations, in any modalities, can be authorized in the area defined as the containment area, according to the ‘numerus clausus’ determined by the defined pressure ratio.”

The containment area covers the parish of Monserrate and the Union of Parishes of the city, Santa Maria Maior and Monserrate and Meadela, in an area covered by the Detailed Plan of the Historic Center of Viana do Castelo (PPCHVC).

In the sustainable growth area, “new AL (Local Accommodation) registrations may be authorized, with the exception of the apartment modality, except in the situations foreseen in this regulation, and the new registrations will be subject to monitoring to verify compliance with the ‘numerus clausus’ determined by the pressure index.”

The “sustainable growth area corresponds to the area of ​​the parishes of Areosa and União das Freguesias da cidade, Santa Maria Maior, Monserrate and Meadela, which integrates the ZPU (Zone of Protected Areas) of Viana do Castelo.”

“Currently, there is a growing trend in tourism activity in the city of Viana do Castelo, particularly in AL activity, which represents a total of 1,627 beds in 484 registrations at the municipal level, representing more than 74% of the installed capacity in the municipality's tourism establishments (58 registrations with 2,173 beds in tourism establishments),” says the proposed regulation.

In December 2024, the Municipal Assembly, on the proposal of the Viana do Castelo City Council, approved the suspension, for a period of one year, of the authorization of new registrations of apartments in the Urban Pressure Zone, until the regulation comes into force.

With the entry into force of the regulation, the effects of the City Council's resolution regarding the suspension cease.