PIP, building permit or comunicação prévia: which procedure your project needs in Portugal

The building permit and the comunicação prévia (a notification-based procedure in which you file the complete design and the council checks it afterward) are the control procedures that allow work to go ahead under the RJUE (Regime Jurídico da Urbanização e Edificação). The PIP is a request for information from the council: on its own it does not authorize work, except for a full PIP that assesses every applicable item, which exempts the work from a permit and from comunicação prévia.

Decision deadlines generally run after an initial completeness check (saneamento liminar) of up to 20 days, are counted in business days in practice and, if the council does not decide in time, the request is tacitly approved (deferimento tácito). The PIP timeline, stage by stage, is in PIP deadlines.

Article 4 of the RJUE assigns each type of project to a procedure. Projects subject to comunicação prévia include work in an area covered by a detailed plan (plano de pormenor), an execution unit or a subdivision (loteamento) that fixes the building parameters (footprint, height, floors, number of units, floor areas and uses); work in a consolidated urban area that complies with the plans, does not exceed the prevailing facade height on the street and involves no land cessions; and swimming pools serving a building (Art. 4(4)).

A permit is required for other new construction, alterations and extensions, for work on listed buildings and in their protection zones, and for work in areas under easements or public-interest restrictions not already provided for in a detailed plan, subdivision or execution unit (Art. 4(2)). In practice, a house on a plot with no detailed plan or subdivision, outside a consolidated street frontage, generally needs a permit.

Exempt from both permit and comunicação prévia are, among others, maintenance work, interior alterations with no exterior impact, minor works, reconstruction and projects preceded by a favorable full PIP (Art. 6). Where a project is subject to comunicação prévia, you cannot opt for a permit (Art. 4(6)). If in doubt, a favorable PIP always states which procedure applies (Art. 16(4)).

Some guides say that after you file a comunicação prévia, work can start if the council does not respond within 20 days. That is not the rule in force. Since October 1, 2026, a comunicação prévia is a declaration that, when filed with all the required documents, lets you carry out the work after paying the fees and giving notice that work will start, with no approval decision at all (Art. 34(2)). The article on rejecting a comunicação prévia has been repealed, and there is no initial check or decision deadline to wait for.

In practice, you file the comunicação with the complete design, including the engineering designs, statements of responsibility and any required outside opinions; you pay the fees, which can be self-assessed with a payment deadline of no less than 60 days from filing (Art. 34(3)); you post the site notice within 10 days of filing (Art. 12); and you notify the council at least 5 days before work starts (Art. 80-A).

The council checks afterward. It can ask you once to supply a missing document within 10 days and, if the work breaks the rules or lacks a mandatory opinion, it declares the comunicação defective, stops the work and takes steps to restore compliance (Art. 35(8) and (9)). These follow-up checks lapse one year after the fees are paid, or when the building comes into use if later, but site inspections can happen at any time (Art. 35(10) and (11)).

A permit application goes through the initial check of up to 20 days and two decisions. The council first assesses the architectural design, within 30 days of the end of the initial check or of the last outside opinion, and if it does not decide, the design is tacitly approved (Art. 20(3) and (12)). You then have 6 months, extendable once by up to 3, to file the engineering designs if you did not file them at the outset (Art. 20(4) and (5)).

The final decision on building works is due within 20 days of filing the engineering designs, failing which the permit is tacitly approved (Art. 23(1) and (2)). For subdivisions the deadline is 45 days and for infrastructure works 30 days, extendable once in especially complex cases.

The title is no longer the old alvará (permit certificate): legal references to an alvará are now read as references to the project's title (Art. 9 of Decree-Law 108/2026). A permit gives you an express decision before you build, at the cost of a longer timeline than comunicação prévia.

A simple PIP makes sense when you do not yet know whether the project is possible or on what terms: before buying land, when the municipal master plan (PDM) can be read in different ways, when constraints such as REN, RAN, the public water domain or heritage protection apply, or for an extension at the limit of the planning ratios. It needs only a few documents and the council decides within 15 days of the initial check.

A favorable answer binds the authorities when they decide on the permit or review the comunicação prévia (Art. 17(1)), and outside agencies that have already given a favorable opinion are not consulted again (Art. 13(2)). But it does not replace the next procedure: within 2 years you must apply for the permit or file the comunicação prévia. The effects are explained in our guide what is a PIP.

With a full PIP you ask the council to rule as well on items a) to f) of Article 14(2): massing, alignment, height (cércea) and footprint; architectural design and project description; the use program; utilities; estimated development charges; and land cessions. If the favorable decision assesses every item that applies to the project, the work is exempt from a permit and from comunicação prévia, provided it is carried out exactly as assessed, and no new outside consultations are needed (Art. 17(2) and Art. 6(1)(h)).

There are limits. The exemption does not cover use or a change of use (Art. 6(1)(h)); for listed buildings and their protection zones, a full PIP does not exempt the work but moves it from a permit to comunicação prévia (Art. 4(4)(l)). And exempt work still requires, before it starts, the engineering designs, statements of responsibility, payment of fees, land cessions and notice of the start of work 5 days in advance (Art. 80-A(4)).

It pays off when the design is already settled and you want certainty and speed from a single decision. It costs more up front, because it needs a topographic survey and design work, and you must start work within 2 years, as explained in our guide to PIP validity.

The cases below are illustrative; the right answer depends on the PDM, the constraints and the history of each property. In every case the practical question is the same: what does a mistake cost if you go ahead without a written answer from the council?

• You are buying land with a ruin and want to know whether you can rebuild and extend it: a simple PIP before the promissory contract (CPCV), with the purchase conditional on the answer.
• You have a lot in a subdivision that fixes every parameter, and the design is ready: go straight to comunicação prévia; a PIP rarely adds anything.
• You want to build an apartment building on an urban plot with no detailed plan, and the program is settled: a full PIP to obtain the exemption, or a simple PIP followed by a permit if the design is still going to change.
• You want to extend a house in the protection zone of a monument: a building permit, or a full PIP to move to comunicação prévia, always with the heritage authority's opinion.
• You want to turn a shop into a home with no works: a comunicação prévia com prazo, with use allowed after 10 days unless the council rejects it or orders an inspection (Art. 64); a simple PIP can confirm beforehand whether the PDM allows the use.
• The work was already done without a title: the route is legalization, which has its own rules; see how building legalization works.

First: is the project clearly compliant with the plan and the constraints? If so, and the design is ready, go to the procedure the law prescribes. Second: is there a purchase or investment decision that depends on the council's answer? If so, a simple PIP is the cheapest way to get that answer in writing. Third: is the design stable, and do you want to start work on the strength of a single decision? Consider a full PIP.

A PIP is not mandatory, and it adds at least the initial check and the decision period to your timeline. But a refused permit, or a comunicação prévia declared defective halfway through the work, costs far more than a few weeks. Our PIP service starts with exactly this classification analysis.

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

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