Thirty-five homes on Farol Island were formally handed over for demolition on Wednesday, leading to cries of fury and frustration from locals.
The take-over commenced at around 9am on Wednesday morning and by 9.05am the first home had been earmarked for knocking down.
A number of the homes are currently protected by injunctions invoked by the owners.
The razing of the Farol Island home is part of a wider regeneration project named Polis, that will see around 50 buildings on the natural Ria Formosa sandbank that stretches between Loulé and Vila Real de Santo António demolished. The intervention was drawn up in 2008 and aims to improve and restore the area, but following a series of protests and legal wranglings is only now coming to fruition.
The ups and downs of the proceedings drove the President of the Ria Formosa Coastal Polis Society to quit the post in October 2016. He was replaced by José Pacheco on 28 November 2016.
Initially, 81 buildings along the Ria Formosa were due for demolition; that number has since dropped to around 50.