Portugal puts no restrictions on foreign property buyers. None. A Canadian, a Brit and a Lisbon local sign the same deed and pay the same taxes. What actually trips buyers up is sequence: the tax number comes before the bank account, the lawyer's checks come before the deposit, and the deed means little until it's registered. Get the order right and a Portuguese purchase is one of the more predictable transactions in Europe.
Here's the process as it works in practice, from NIF to notary, including a 2024 tax break for buyers under 35 that most English-language guides still haven't noticed.
Who can buy? Anyone
EU citizen, non-EU citizen, resident, tourist: Portuguese law treats them identically at the point of purchase. There's no foreign-buyer permit, no restricted coastal zone, no extra stamp duty for overseas buyers of the kind Spain has debated and the UK already charges. You don't even have to enter the country; a power of attorney lets your lawyer sign everything on your behalf.
One thing ownership doesn't buy is the right to live in Portugal. More on that below, because the rules changed in 2023 and a surprising number of agents still quote the old ones.
Step one, always: the NIF
The NIF (Número de Identificação Fiscal) is a nine-digit Portuguese tax number, and nothing in this process moves without it. You need it to open a bank account, sign a promissory contract, pay purchase taxes, even set up an electricity contract later.
EU and EEA citizens can get one in person at any Finanças office, often the same day and free. Non-EU buyers must appoint a fiscal representative in Portugal, in practice a lawyer or a specialist service, who requests the number for them. That's routinely done remotely: passport copy, proof of address, a signed mandate, and the NIF arrives within a few days. Online services charge somewhere around €100–150; a lawyer you've already hired will usually fold it into their fee.
Open a Portuguese bank account early
Strictly speaking you can complete a purchase from a foreign account. In practice almost nobody does. Completion payments are normally made by Portuguese banker's draft, utility companies want a local direct debit, the annual IMI bill is easiest paid locally, and no Portuguese bank will give you a mortgage without an account.
Bring your passport, NIF, proof of address and proof of income. Several banks open accounts for non-residents remotely. Start this while you're still browsing listings; compliance checks on foreign-source funds can take two or three weeks, and you don't want the CPCV waiting on them.
Moving the purchase money deserves a day of planning too. Banks run source-of-funds checks on six-figure transfers, so keep the paper trail ready: the sale contract for a home you sold, savings statements, whatever explains where the cash came from. And if you're paying from sterling or dollars, compare your bank's exchange rate with a currency broker's. On €300,000, the difference between the two can cover a good chunk of your legal bill.
A lawyer who answers only to you
Portugal doesn't require buyers to hire a lawyer, and that's exactly why you should. The notary checks that the deed is legal, not that the deal is good for you. The estate agent is paid by the seller. An independent advogado, at roughly 1–1.5% of the price or a flat fee on cheaper homes, is the only person at the table with a duty to you alone.
The stakes are specific. In Portugal, debts attach to the property, not the seller. Unpaid condominium charges, IMI arrears and registered mortgages transfer to the new owner if nobody catches them. Your lawyer's due diligence covers, at minimum:
- the certidão permanente, the land registry certificate proving the seller owns what they're selling and revealing any mortgages, liens or pending court annotations;
- the caderneta predial, the tax office record that fixes the property's fiscal identity and taxable value (the VPT), and should match the physical reality you viewed;
- the licença de utilização, the habitation licence confirming the building is approved for residential use, required for anything built after 1951;
- condominium minutes and accounts, since an apartment's share of unpaid works or fees comes with the keys.
Two to three weeks is a normal window for all this. Rushing it is how people end up buying other people's debts.
The CPCV: where the deal becomes binding
Once the checks clear, both sides sign the contrato-promessa de compra e venda, the promissory contract everyone shortens to CPCV. It fixes the price, the completion deadline, what stays in the house and any conditions, and it's the point where money moves: the buyer pays a deposit, called the sinal, commonly around 10% of the price and occasionally up to 20% on sought-after properties. Some agencies and developers slot a small reservation agreement in front of it, €5,000 or so to take the property off the market while your checks run; make sure that money comes back if due diligence turns up problems.
The sinal cuts both ways. Walk away as a buyer without a contractual excuse and you forfeit the deposit. If the seller backs out, they owe you double it back, under Article 442 of the Civil Code. This is why gazumping is rare in Portugal: dropping a buyer for a higher offer costs the seller real money.
If you're financing the purchase, insist on a clause making the CPCV conditional on mortgage approval. Sign unconditionally with your loan still pending and the sinal is at risk if the bank says no. On fast cash deals the parties sometimes skip the CPCV and go straight to the deed; that's legal, but it strips the protection from both sides, so most lawyers advise against it unless completion is days away.
Buying off-plan changes the shape of the contract rather than the rules. The CPCV then carries a payment schedule tied to construction stages, and the thing to verify is what protects your instalments if the developer stalls: a bank guarantee is the answer you want to hear. The habitation licence won't exist until handover, so on off-plan deals your lawyer checks the building permit and the developer's track record instead.
Completion: the escritura and the registry
The final deed, the escritura pública de compra e venda, is signed before a notary. Purchase taxes have to be paid first, because the notary needs proof of payment before the signing can go ahead; your lawyer generates the IMT and stamp duty assessments through the Finanças portal and settles both a day or two before the appointment. At the appointment the notary reads the deed aloud, confirms identities and documents, and the balance changes hands. Can't be in Portugal that day? A power of attorney covers this too; overseas buyers complete without flying in all the time.
Signing isn't the end. Ownership in Portugal is secured by registration at the Conservatória do Registo Predial, and until your name is on the register, the deed alone won't protect you against a third-party claim registered first. The state's one-stop Casa Pronta service handles deed and registration in a single session for a flat €375, or €700 when a mortgage is involved; the traditional notary route costs broadly the same once registration fees are added. Either way, register immediately.
What buying in Portugal costs
Budget roughly 6–8% on top of the price for a mid-range resale purchase. Where it goes:
- IMT, the property transfer tax. It's progressive: the scale starts at 0% and only reaches 10% in the extreme case of buyers based in blacklisted tax havens, while a typical home lands somewhere between 1% and 6.5% effective. The full brackets are in our guide to property taxes in Portugal.
- Stamp duty at a flat 0.8% of the price, plus a separate 0.6% on the loan amount if you borrow.
- Notary and registration, from a few hundred euros to about €1,000 depending on the route; the Casa Pronta flat fees above are the benchmark.
- Legal fees, commonly 1–1.5% of the price, with sensible minimums on cheap properties.
After completion you'll pay IMI, the annual municipal tax of 0.3–0.45% of the taxable value for urban homes. For most apartments that means a few hundred euros a year, not thousands.
Under 35? You might pay no IMT at all
Now the part most guides miss. Since August 2024, buyers aged 35 or under purchasing their first permanent home in Portugal are exempt from both IMT and stamp duty. Full exemption applies up to the fourth IMT bracket, around €325,000 at the time of writing (the cap adjusts yearly), with partial relief on values up to roughly double that. The conditions: it must be your first home, you'll actually live in it, and you can't have owned residential property in the previous three years. Nationality is irrelevant, so a 30-year-old relocating from abroad qualifies the same way a local first-timer does. Couples buying jointly are assessed one by one: if one of you is 36, the exemption still covers the younger buyer's half.
The numbers aren't small. On a €300,000 apartment, IMT plus stamp duty comes to roughly €13,000. Under the exemption: zero.
Mortgages for non-residents
Portuguese banks lend to non-residents readily, just on tighter terms. Expect loan-to-value of 60–70%, against up to 90% for residents, so plan for a deposit of at least a third. Banks want proof of income, recent tax returns and total debt payments below about 35% of net income, and the loan generally has to be repaid by age 70–75, which shortens terms for older buyers. Rates are Euribor-linked, variable or mixed, and banks will attach a life insurance policy to the loan, priced by your age, so factor that into the monthly cost. Get pre-approval before you sign the CPCV and put the financing clause in it; approval adds four to six weeks to the timetable.
Buying no longer gets you residency
Portugal closed the golden visa's property route in October 2023. Buying real estate, at any price, in any region, gives no right of residence, and an agent hinting otherwise is working from an old script. Non-EU owners get the standard Schengen 90 days in any 180.
The routes that do work are the D7, for people with passive income around the Portuguese minimum wage (about €870 a month right now), and the D8 digital nomad visa, which asks for remote earnings of four times that. Both lead to residence permits and, after five years, to permanent residence or citizenship eligibility. We've broken both down in our guide to Portugal's D7 and digital nomad visas.
How long the whole thing takes
Faster than Portugal's paperwork reputation suggests. The NIF takes days. A bank account, one to three weeks. Due diligence, two to three. The gap between CPCV and escritura is whatever the parties agree, usually 30 to 90 days. A cash buyer who moves briskly can go from accepted offer to registered owner in six to ten weeks; with a mortgage, three to four months is more honest. The slowest link is almost always document-chasing on the seller's side, one more reason to have a lawyer who chases.
When you're ready to look at the market itself, browse the current Portugal listings on HomeNSearch, from Lisbon and Porto apartments to villas across the Algarve.
Frequently asked questions
Can I buy property in Portugal without visiting?
Yes. The NIF can be obtained through a fiscal representative, several banks open accounts remotely, and a power of attorney lets your lawyer sign both the CPCV and the escritura. Legally you never need to set foot in Portugal, though viewing in person before committing six figures remains money well spent.
How big is the CPCV deposit, and can I lose it?
Around 10% is standard. You lose it if you pull out without a condition written into the contract, which is why the mortgage clause matters so much. The flip side favours you: a seller who backs out must repay double the deposit.
Does buying a home in Portugal give me a residence permit?
No. The golden visa's real estate route ended in October 2023, and ownership on its own confers no immigration status. If the plan is to live in Portugal, the D7 and D8 visas are the working routes, applied for separately from the purchase.
What taxes do I pay at purchase?
IMT on a progressive scale plus 0.8% stamp duty, then notary, registration and legal fees on top; around 6–8% all-in for most buyers. First-time buyers aged 35 or under are exempt from IMT and stamp duty up to the fourth bracket, which wipes out most of that bill on a typical home.