Short-term rental rules in five jurisdictions: what a listing must show in 2026

A flat that takes guests for three nights is not, in the eyes of any of these five jurisdictions, a rented home. It is accommodation, and accommodation is licensed. The shape of the rule is the same everywhere — register the unit, receive a number, show the number — and the detail differs enough that an owner moving from one market to the next gets it wrong by assuming.

The detail below is read from the authorities that issue the numbers: Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism, Turismo de Portugal and the Balcão Único, Greece's Independent Authority for Public Revenue, the Deputy Ministry of Tourism in Cyprus and the Malta Tourism Authority. Links go to the sources page with the date each text was read.

The one rule all five share: no number, no listing

From 20 May 2026 the four European jurisdictions also answer to Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on data collection for short-term rental services. It does not create licences — it makes the number that already exists travel with the listing. The platform must collect the registration number, display it, check declarations at random, and send the host authority monthly data on nights booked and guest numbers. The UAE sits outside that system and runs its own.

Dubai: the DET holiday home permit and the Tourism Dirham

Dubai has regulated this longer than the others. The framework runs through Decree No. 41 of 2013, Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2014 and Administrative Resolution No. 1 of 2020, with a regulation guide reissued in 2022.

What it means for an owner:

• The unit is registered with the Department of Economy and Tourism before it is advertised. Registration is as a Home Owner or as an Operator, which is the route for companies managing units for others.
• The permit is issued per unit and renewed every year. A tenant subletting may hold one permit only.
• The permit number goes into the listing. Airbnb states the duty plainly to its Dubai hosts: once registration with DET is complete, the Unit Holiday Home Permit Number must be added to the listing.
• Units are classified Standard or Deluxe, and DET inspects them.
• Whole units only. Renting a room while the host lives in the flat is not the model Dubai licenses.

Dubai also charges the guest and makes the host the collector. The Tourism Dirham is AED 15 per night for each occupied Deluxe bedroom and AED 10 for each occupied Standard bedroom; the host collects it from the guest and reports and remits it to DET by the fifteenth day of each month. The rule is strict about wording: it is a fee, not a tax, and must be described that way in the paperwork the guest sees.

If you are buying in Dubai with this in mind, the residence question sits next to it — see residency in the UAE.

Portugal: Alojamento Local, and what changed in 2024

Portugal registers the establishment rather than licensing the operator. Registration is a prior communication to the president of the municipality, filed only through the Balcão Único Eletrónico; where the municipality does not object, the platform issues the registration number. Offering, advertising, brokering or touting for guests in an unregistered establishment is an infringement — the sanction attaches to the advertising, not only to the stay.

The regime was rewritten by [Decreto-Lei 76/2024 of 23 October 2024](/sources#pt-al-regime), and the changes matter to anyone buying:

• Registrations are transferable again as the general rule, with limits where a municipality has declared a containment area.
• The extraordinary contribution on local accommodation (CEAL) was revoked.
• Insurance now keeps the registration alive. The national register shows the expiry date of the obligatory liability insurance, and a lapse is grounds for the municipality to cancel the registration.
• A condominium can no longer cancel a registration by itself. It may oppose the activity by a deliberation carrying more than half the building's permilage, evidenced by disturbance; the decision to cancel rests with the mayor, and a new local accommodation ombudsman mediates.
• Municipal opposition runs to 60 days, or 90 in containment areas.

The buying side of this is covered separately in buying property in Portugal.

Greece: the AMA number and the monthly statement

Greece runs its short-term rental register through the tax authority rather than a tourism ministry, which tells you what it is for. The property is entered in the Register of Short-Term Property Lets and receives an AMA — an eleven-digit property registry number. The rule on display is explicit: the number must be visibly shown when the property is posted on a platform and in any advertising.

Two duties follow the number:

• A Statement of Short-Term Stay for each stay, filed by the twentieth day of the following month.
• The climate crisis resilience fee, which replaced the old accommodation tax under Law 5073/2023 and is charged per night of use, by season and by type of property. The authority publishes the current amounts; check them before pricing a season, because they have changed twice since introduction.

The statutory base is Article 111 of Law 4446/2016 as amended, published in English by the authority itself.

Cyprus: registration number in the advertisement and in every transaction

Cyprus took the shortest route to the same place. Under the law regulating the establishment and operation of hotels and tourist accommodation, the operator of a self-service accommodation establishment may advertise or rent it only if it is registered in the Deputy Ministry of Tourism's registry and has received a registration permit and number. That number must appear in the advertisement, in the promotion of the property and in all related transactions.

Registration is done through the Deputy Ministry's own portal; both individuals and companies register there, and the establishment receives a special label alongside the number.

For the purchase itself, the Cyprus material is in buying and holding property in Cyprus.

Malta: the MTA licence, and a three-year ban for skipping it

Malta's short-let regime sits in the [Tourism Accommodation Regulations, S.L. 409.24](/sources#mt-sl-409-24), and it is the strictest of the five about who may hold the paper. The licence is held by the proprietor in title — the owner, an authorised agent, a lessee or another lawful holder of rights over the property.

An application carries more than an identity document: valid development permission from the Planning Authority or a pre-1968 compliance certificate, an architect's certification that the premises meet planning standards and are fit for habitation, third-party liability insurance extending to common parts, a waste management plan, and police conduct certificates. Approval takes around 60 days.

Two provisions are worth reading twice:

• A notice showing the licence number and a 24/7 contact must be displayed outside the property, and the building administrator is notified once the licence is issued.
• Operating without prior MTA authorisation brings a three-year disqualification that attaches both to the operator and to the property. The flat itself is out of the market for three years, whoever owns it next.

What the EU regulation changes on 20 May 2026

Nothing in the paragraphs above is replaced. What changes is the plumbing between the host, the platform and the state:

For an owner already registered, this is a form-filling exercise. For an owner who has been letting quietly, it is the end of the arrangement: the platform will not publish the listing without a number, and the nights are reported whether or not the host files anything.

What it costs to be found without the paperwork

The five jurisdictions punish differently, and the difference is worth knowing before choosing a market:

Your own booking page, and why the number still travels with it

Platform commission is the largest single line in a short-let budget, and the only one an owner can act on. Airbnb publishes its own numbers: in the split-fee model the host pays about 3% and the guest 14.1% to 16.5%; in the host-only model, which most hosts are being moved to, 15.5% comes off the payout, with others typically at 14–16%. On €40,000 of bookings that is roughly €6,000 a year leaving with the platform.

Owners with returning guests or a season longer than a few weeks answer it the same way: keep the platforms for discovery and add a direct channel — a page with a calendar, prices and payment that a guest who has already stayed once comes back to. The obligations do not move. The registration number belongs on your own page exactly as it belongs in a platform listing, and from 20 May 2026 the declaration duties sit with the host whichever channel took the booking. What changes is who keeps the commission. How such a website with online booking is put together — the calendar, the payment, the fields the law wants visible — is written up by Aliaksandr Bandziuk, who builds them.

Questions owners ask before buying

Can I register a property I rent rather than own? In Dubai a tenant may hold one holiday home permit. In Malta the licence goes to the proprietor in title, which includes a lessee with the right to grant the accommodation. Portugal, Greece and Cyprus register the establishment and its operator, so a lease that permits subletting for tourism can be the basis for it.

Does one registration cover several flats? No. Every jurisdiction here numbers the unit, not the owner. Five flats means five numbers, and in Dubai five permits renewed each year.

Is a licence transferable when the property is sold? In Portugal, again yes since October 2024, outside containment areas. In Malta the three-year disqualification for unlicensed operation attaches to the property, which is the mirror image — a buyer inherits that. Ask for the registration or licence status in writing before signing anything.

Do I still need my own page if the platforms bring the bookings? Not for compliance — the number and the declarations are the same either way. The argument is arithmetic: a returning guest booked through a platform costs the commission again, every time. A website with online booking pays for itself at the point where repeat guests outnumber the ones who found you by searching.

What does the EU regulation do to a property in the UAE? Nothing. Dubai runs its own permit and its own reporting. An owner with units in both places files in both systems.

When to get in touch

Write to us if:

• you are choosing between these markets for a property you intend to let short-term, and want the obligations compared before the purchase;
• you already own a unit and cannot tell whether it is registered correctly for 2026;
• you manage several units across jurisdictions and want one list of what each one owes.

Describe the situation in the form below.