Alojamento Local in Madeira 2026 - the concelho-by-concelho map

What DL 76/2024 changed

Before the July 2024 decree, AL licensing was national. National containment zones existed but enforcement was inconsistent, and transferability of AL licences between owners was restricted. DL 76/2024 moved the rules to the 11 concelhos. Each municipality can now:

• Declare containment zones (áreas de contenção) with parish-level or sub-parish granularity.
• Suspend new registrations in delimited areas for up to one year while it prepares that regulation (art. 15.º-B of DL 128/2014, added by DL 76/2024). Decree-Law 151/2026 allows one extension, or one new suspension, lasting until 31 December 2026 at most.
• Set quotas on AL per building, per freguesia or per concelho.
• Restore transferability of existing licences with their own stamp-duty rules.

The upside: more responsive local policy. The downside for buyers: a patchwork where the rules in Calheta differ from Funchal, which differ from Machico, which differ from Santa Cruz. The 2023 national suspension of new AL (Lei 56/2023, art. 19.º) never applied to the Autonomous Regions, so in Madeira every restriction in force is municipal.

Funchal: a containment area since 30 June 2026

The Assembleia Municipal suspended new AL registrations on 3 September 2025 and extended the suspension on 25 February 2026. Both ended when Funchal's AL regulation, Regulamento n.º 787/2026, came into force on 30 June 2026. It makes the whole concelho a containment area: in Sé parish no new AL of any type can be registered; in the other nine parishes only detached houses (moradias) or rooms within them, with narrow exceptions such as apartments in buildings wholly licensed for commerce or services. The regulation is due for review within two years.

Practical impact for buyers: if your Funchal purchase thesis depends on registering a new AL in an apartment, stop. If you are buying a property with an existing AL registration, your lawyer must check how the regulation treats it before you sign.

Machico: two parishes suspended, rules in consultation

On 29 April 2026 the Assembleia Municipal suspended new AL registrations in Machico and Caniçal parishes for six months (Aviso n.º 12788/2026/2, published 27 May 2026; the notice does not say when the six months start, so they end in late October or late November 2026). A draft AL regulation, with a containment area for the town of Machico and parking and floor rules for new AL across the concelho, went to a 30-day public consultation on 10 August 2026. Água de Pena, Porto da Cruz and Santo António da Serra are not covered by the suspension.

Santa Cruz: a suspension decided

The Assembleia Municipal decided in June 2026 to draft an AL regulation and to suspend all new AL registrations in the whole concelho for up to one year. Under Edital n.º 618/2026 (4 September 2026), the suspension starts the day after a 30-working-day public participation period; the edital gives no calendar date, and our count puts it around 20 October 2026.

The rest of the island

For Calheta, Ribeira Brava, São Vicente, Câmara de Lobos, Ponta do Sol and Santana we found no municipal suspension, containment area or AL regulation in the Diário da República or in the câmara's published notices (checked 27 September 2026). That rests on not finding a measure: Santa Cruz published its decision only on its own website, so always ask the câmara. For Porto Moniz and Porto Santo we could not check the câmara's notices, so their status is not yet confirmed. Decree-Law 151/2026 gives municipalities with more than 1000 AL registrations until 31 December 2026 to decide on a regulation, so expect changes before the year ends; we re-date this page when a câmara publishes one.