Licenciamento Zero: what it is, what still applies and how to open a shop, café or restaurant in Portugal

Licenciamento Zero was enacted by Decreto-Lei n.º 48/2011 of April 1, under the SIMPLEX simplification program. The stated aim in its preamble was to cut red tape for citizens and businesses by removing licenses, authorizations, inspections and prior conditions for specific activities and replacing them with after-the-fact inspection and promoter accountability. In the original version, setting up a restaurant or bar, a retail business, a service business or a warehouse was done through a simple prior notice or a prior notice with a deadline, filed at a one-stop online counter, the Balcão do Empreendedor (article 3).

The same decree simplified the use of public space next to businesses and the display of commercial advertising, and abolished licensing for ticket agencies and for auctions (article 1(2)). What people call Licenciamento Zero today is therefore a bundle: one part remains in Decreto-Lei n.º 48/2011 and another moved, in 2015, into a law of its own.

It does, in a different shape. Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2015 of January 16 approved the Legal Regime for Access to and Exercise of Commerce, Services and Restaurant Activities (RJACSR) and repealed, effective March 1, 2015, the articles of Decreto-Lei n.º 48/2011 on opening, changing and closing businesses (article 13(m)). Opening shops, cafés and restaurants became a matter for the RJACSR, which still processes filings through the Balcão do Empreendedor (article 20). Decreto-Lei n.º 48/2011 kept the online counter, the use of public space and the related fines.

In the consolidated versions on the Diário da República, Portugal's official gazette, the latest amendment to the RJACSR is Decreto-Lei n.º 21/2023, and Decreto-Lei n.º 48/2011 has not changed since 2015. The 2026 revision of the RJUE by Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 amended neither, but it changed how the use of a unit is documented, as explained below. The table shows where each rule sits today.

The mera comunicação prévia is a declaration: the business operator tells the câmara municipal, or the Direção-Geral das Atividades Económicas (DGAE) for activities such as funeral services, that it is opening and meets the requirements, and does not wait for any decision. It is filed online before opening, and the electronic filing receipt from the Balcão do Empreendedor is the proof that the obligation was met (RJACSR articles 7 and 20(6)). Opening without it is a minor administrative offense (article 4(7)).

The comunicação prévia com prazo (prior notice with a deadline) was Licenciamento Zero's second route. It applied when opening depended on a waiver of legal or regulatory requirements, or when street furniture exceeded the limits, and it let the operator proceed once approved or, with no reply, 20 days after paying the fees (articles 5 and 12 of the original version). In 2015 it gave way to authorizations with tacit approval (deferimento tácito): 30 days for a restaurant seeking a waiver of requirements (RJACSR article 9) and 20 days for use of public space beyond the limits (article 15 of Decreto-Lei n.º 48/2011). Today the term comunicação prévia com prazo appears mainly in the RJUE, for the use or change of use of a building or unit.

The information a business's simple prior notice must contain is set out in Portaria n.º 206-B/2015 (article 2(1)):

• Identification of the business operator, with name or company name and tax number, and the address of the registered office or tax domicile.
• CAE codes (Portuguese Classification of Economic Activities) for the activities carried out on the premises.
• Address of the premises, business name or sign, and type of location: street, shopping center or other.
• Sales area, floor area or seating capacity, depending on whether it is retail, services or food and drink.
• Number of staff and the date of opening to the public.

Licenciamento Zero simplified access to the activity, not planning law. The RJACSR states that the controls of the RJUE (Legal Regime for Urbanization and Building) still apply (article 3(2)(a)) and that, when setting up involves building work subject to prior municipal control, the simple prior notice must include the planning title (article 7(5)). The notice declares the activity; it does not make the unit fit for it.

The key question is whether the building or unit has a título de utilização (use permit) for the intended use, for example retail, services or food and drink. A unit permitted for retail is not automatically authorized as a restaurant, and a residential unit cannot be used as a café. Using a building or unit in breach of its use permit is an offense punishable by a fine of €500 to €100,000 for individuals and €1,500 to €250,000 for companies, and the mayor can order the use to stop (RJUE articles 98(1)(d) and (4), and 109).

Since October 1, 2026, the câmara no longer issues use permits. Without work subject to a license or prior notice, a change of use is done by comunicação prévia com prazo, with a statement of responsibility from a professional qualified to sign architectural designs confirming that the use is allowed by the rules, such as the PDM (Plano Diretor Municipal, the municipal master plan), and that the unit is fit for that purpose; the unit can be used 10 days after filing, unless the notice is rejected or an inspection is ordered (RJUE articles 62-B, 63 and 64). The use permit guide explains the procedure, and our change of use service handles specific cases.

Order matters: the unit and the building work decide whether the final notice is a simple form or the end of a longer process. In practice, the steps are these:

• Identify the activity and the CAE code. They tell you whether a simple prior notice, an authorization or no procedure at all applies under the RJACSR.
• Check the use in the municipal file before signing the lease. Ask for the use permit and the approved plans and confirm that the use allows the activity.
• Check the sector requirements. A restaurant or bar must meet requirements for service area, kitchen, restrooms and capacity (RJACSR articles 123 onward); if it cannot, it applies for an authorization with a waiver.
• Classify the building work. Interior work that does not change façades, roofs or heights is exempt from a license and prior notice, but work affecting the structure needs a structural design and a statement of responsibility (RJUE article 6(1)(b)).
• Document the use, if needed. Change of use without controlled work: prior notice with a deadline. After work under a license or prior notice: use notice.
• File the simple prior notice or the authorization request at the Balcão do Empreendedor, available on the gov.pt portal, before opening to the public.
• Declare the sidewalk seating, awning or sign if it occupies public space, and pay the municipal fees.
• Keep the details up to date. Changing the line of business, the sales area or the operator requires a new simple prior notice (RJACSR article 4(2)), and closing must be reported within 60 days (article 4(6)).

This is the part of Licenciamento Zero that remains in Decreto-Lei n.º 48/2011. A business operator declares at the Balcão do Empreendedor that it will occupy public space with an awning and valance, open sidewalk seating, a platform and windbreaks, a display case or stand, an advertising support, ice cream freezers or machines, coin-operated rides, a planter or a waste container (article 10). Within the limits below, a simple prior notice is enough and allows the space to be used as soon as the fees are paid (article 12(1) and (2)); beyond them, an authorization is required, which the câmara decides within 20 days, failing which it is tacitly approved (articles 12(4) and 15).

Each municipality sets the criteria for occupying public space and may ban it across the municipality or in part of it; the criteria only take effect once available at the Balcão do Empreendedor (article 11). Failing to file the notice carries a fine of €700 to €5,000 for individuals and €2,000 to €15,000 for companies, and falsely declaring compliance carries a fine of €1,000 to €7,000 or €3,000 to €25,000 (article 28). The câmara can also order the furniture removed for reasons of public interest (article 12(9)). The limits for a simple prior notice are:

• Open sidewalk seating: in the area adjoining the façade, no wider than the business's façade.
• Awnings, planters, display cases, stands, ice cream freezers, coin-operated rides and containers: installed against the business's façade.
• Windbreaks and platforms: next to the seating area, without extending beyond it or exceeding its size.
• Advertising support: adjoining the façade and no wider than it, or with the message placed on the façade itself or on the furniture listed above.

There is no national Licenciamento Zero fee. Each municipality sets its own fees and must publish them at the Balcão do Empreendedor; if the amounts or formulas are not entered in the platforms, they are not owed (article 18 of Decreto-Lei n.º 48/2011 and article 10(2) of Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2015). For public space, the fee may be charged per period of use, and no câmara may charge for a closing notice (article 11(2) of Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2015). Check the amounts in your municipality's fee regulation before budgeting.

For warehouses and wholesale trade in temperature-controlled food of animal origin, the authorization depends on an inspection by the Direção-Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária (DGAV), whose opinion is binding and cannot be tacitly approved (RJACSR article 10). In all other cases, the deadlines are those in the table.

Problems almost always surface after the lease is signed and the work is done. The most frequent are these:

• Leasing a unit without the right use. The permit says retail and the plan is a restaurant, or the unit is residential or a warehouse. A change of use can be rejected if the PDM does not allow it.
• Assuming the notice legalizes the unit. A simple prior notice does not replace the use permit or legalize work done without control.
• Declaring requirements you do not meet. In a restaurant, failing requirements such as the service area, restrooms or capacity is a serious economic offense unless a waiver was obtained (RJACSR article 123(2)).
• Setting up seating wider than the façade without an authorization, or outside the municipality's criteria.
• Buying a going concern (trespasse) without checking the municipal file. The previous operator's notice does not prove the unit has the right use or that the work is permitted, and a change of operator requires a new notice.

A street-level shop with the right use and no building work can often be handled with the form alone. It is worth getting an assessment before you sign when the project is a restaurant with a kitchen and smoke extraction, when the use permit does not match the activity, when there is work on the façade or structure, or when the unit is in a listed building or a protected area.

Apto Group checks the use in the municipal file, identifies the procedure and coordinates the filings through our business premises licensing service. If the question is whether the PDM allows the new use, a pedido de informação prévia, Portugal's prior planning information request, gives you a written answer from the câmara before you invest, and our guide to work exempt from a permit shows which work needs no prior control.

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

Want to find these guides more easily when you search on Google? Add Apto Group as a preferred source.