Buying land to build in Portugal: steps, checks and taxes

Order matters. The planning and title checks come before you pay the deposit, because that is when your money is at risk; taxes and the deed come last. The table sums up the path and what you should have in hand at the end of each stage.

Write down what you want to build before you visit plots: use, approximate floor area, number of stories, footprint and, if relevant, number of units. Without that brief, you can't compare plots or tell whether a price is reasonable.

Add everything that comes with the price: IMT, stamp duty, deed and registration, analysis and PIP, design, planning fees, any land dedications, utility hookups and construction. A cheap plot without a paved road or sewer connection can end up costing more than one with services. For the cost of the request to the council, see how much a PIP costs.

The first question is whether the PDM allows what you want to build. Since Law 31/2014 and the RJIGT (Portugal's regime for planning instruments), land is classed as either urban or rustic; the "urbanizável" (developable) class was abolished, although plans not yet updated may still show it. On rustic land, building is the exception: see what you can build on rustic land.

Next, check the constraints on the PDM's constraints map. The REN (Reserva Ecológica Nacional, the national ecological reserve) is managed by the CCDR (Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional, the regional planning authority). In the RAN (Reserva Agrícola Nacional, the national farmland reserve), non-farm uses need a binding prior opinion from the regional RAN bodies, which now sit within the CCDR and issue it within 20 days. Water margins are 50, 30 or 10 m wide depending on the type of water, and there are also easements for roads, power lines and heritage.

Finally, estimate building capacity: the índice de utilização (floor area ratio, formerly called "índice de construção"), the índice de ocupação (site coverage), height and setbacks, applied to the area that actually counts. Our guide on how to tell if you can build on your land shows how to read the PDM, and the land planning analysis guide has the full feasibility checklist.

The certidão permanente (online land registry certificate) shows the owner, the plot's description and any liens, such as mortgages or attachments. The caderneta predial is a tax record: it says whether the property is rustic or urban for tax purposes and gives its valor patrimonial tributário (VPT, the assessed tax value), but that classification is not the PDM's.

Don't read buildability into the caderneta either. Since Law 56/2023, land counts as "terreno para construção" (building land) for tax purposes only if it has a permit or an accepted comunicação prévia for subdivision or construction, or if the municipality has notified the tax authority that it is buildable; a favorable PIP is no longer enough.

Compare the area on the certificate, the caderneta and the listing, and order a topographic survey if they differ. Confirm access by public road or a registered easement, and ask the utilities for connection terms for water, sewer and electricity, whose distribution grid is run by E-REDES across most of mainland Portugal.

The CPCV (contrato-promessa de compra e venda, the promissory purchase contract) sets the price, the deadlines and usually the deposit (sinal). Under article 442 of the Portuguese Civil Code, a buyer who defaults loses the deposit; a seller who defaults must pay back double. So anything that could sink the purchase should be checked before you sign or written into the contract as a condition.

When the price depends on what can be built, file a PIP before signing or make the deed conditional on a favorable answer. Anyone with an interest can file, even before owning the plot, and the council decides within 15 days (simple PIP) or 30 days (extended PIP) after an initial check of up to 20 days; if it misses the deadline, the PIP is deemed approved. Our guide to a PIP before buying land explains which PIP to choose, which condition to discuss with your lawyer and how to verify an "approved PIP" in a listing.

Watch out for handing over the land before the deed. If the CPCV gives you possession of the plot (known as tradição), IMT may become due at that point under article 2(2)(a) of the IMT Code; the exception covers a buyer's own permanent home, not land.

IMT (Imposto Municipal sobre as Transmissões Onerosas de Imóveis, the property transfer tax) and stamp duty (Imposto do Selo) are charged on the higher of two values: the declared price or the VPT. IMT is assessed before the deed, and the rate depends on the property's tax classification, not on the PDM.

For building land, which the Property Tax Code classes as urban property, IMT is 6.5% (article 17(1)(e) of the IMT Code); for rustic property, it is 5% (item (d)). The sliding rates and the exemption for young buyers apply to housing, not land, and the rate rises to 10% when the buyer is an entity based in a listed low-tax jurisdiction. Stamp duty under item 1.1 is 0.8% in both cases and is paid by the buyer. Confirm the figures with whoever prepares the deed before you lock in your budget.

A loan to buy land doesn't work like a mortgage on a finished home. Many banks lend a smaller share of a plot's value, or only lend on land together with the construction. Confirm terms with the bank before the CPCV, and don't assume you get the deposit back if the loan is turned down unless the contract says so.

For a construction loan, banks usually ask for the design, the construction budget and the planning title (permit or comunicação prévia) before releasing funds, which are typically paid out in stages as the work progresses. A favorable PIP helps show the project is feasible, but it doesn't replace those documents.

The deed, or an authenticated private document, completes the purchase. Since October 1, 2026, the document transferring building land, a building or a unit must state that the planning title was shown, or that the seller declares having it, or declares not having it; without that statement, the sale can be annulled (article 4-A(14) of the RJUE, Portugal's planning and building code). Read that statement: it tells you on what planning basis you are buying.

No law bars selling a property without a planning title, but a bank or the buyer may refuse it or knock it off the price. After the deed, confirm that the purchase is registered in your name at the land registry (conservatória do registo predial); as a rule, whoever formalizes the sale files the registration.

As the owner on December 31, you pay IMI, the annual municipal property tax, on the VPT: between 0.3% and 0.45% for urban property, at the rate the municipality sets for that year, or 0.8% for rustic property. Building land also counts toward the additional IMI (AIMI), with rules and deductions that depend on who the owner is; check your position on the Portal das Finanças. In areas the law calls zonas de pressão urbanística (high-demand housing areas), the IMI rate on building land zoned for housing can be raised sharply (Article 112-B of the IMI Code), so check whether the municipality has designated one.

If you hold a favorable PIP, you have 2 years from notification or deemed approval to file the permit application or the comunicação prévia or, if an extended PIP waives them, to start work. After that, you can ask once for a declaration that the conditions still hold, which gives 1 more year. Plan your design schedule from that date.

The official sources are in Portuguese. Check the version in force before preparing a notice, project or application.

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