Building a house in Portugal has the same advantages as in France or elsewhere: it is an excellent investment, which allows you to obtain a property to which you are sentimentally attached, in a pleasant style and well optimized for daily life. There are, however, some disadvantages specific to Portugal. One of these is the complexity of the administrative procedures. Obtaining a building permit in Portugal is more complicated than in France. It is necessary to be helped by an architect to simplify life, save stress and save a lot of time. Let’s see it in detail.
Buying a land in Portugal
Buying land in Portugal is certainly a good investment. If you move away from the big cities, in the hinterland, you will find building plots for a pittance, with incredible locations: breathtaking views, direct access via a good quality road network, 4G to stay connected etc.
But beware! In Portugal, there is no definitive building permit. A piece of land can change its status in a few years. So the constructability of the land is studied on a case by case basis. For example, the cadastral zones are redefined every 10 years. The properties are only cadastralized since January 1, 2016. It is therefore possible that the surface area of the land is different from that given by the seller, even in good faith, as the neighbors may take liberties.
It is therefore necessary to take some precautions BEFORE buying your land. To do this, you must complete a process called PIP “Pedido de Informaçao Prévia”. This PIP will allow you to know if your land is buildable.
The city hall will check if it is legalized. Indeed, some land is not declared in the plans of the cadastre. However, since 2017, the Portuguese government has given a 15-year deadline for unlegalized land to become legal. After this period, they will be officially owned by the city hall (so some nice land deals are on the horizon for 2032).
To realize your PIP, you should know that in each municipality there is a department of urbanism, where architects study the construction projects. It is therefore necessary to make an appointment with this department “Divisao de Gestao e Administraçao Urbanistica” of the Camara Municipal on which depends – apriori – your land. The DGAU will also tell you if the water and electricity connections have been made, which can be quite practical.
Another interest of the PIP. It is a lighter procedure than the building permit and allows you to know if your construction project as a whole is acceptable. If the municipality validates your PIP, you save what has already been filed and when it comes time to file the building permit, you save precious time.
Obtain a building permit
First of all, you’ll have to be patient before you move into your brand-new home. Professionals usually announce a delay of 9 to 12 months for construction… and it is better to add 4 months of safety margin. The Portuguese are however excellent builders and at the cost of stone, you will get your money’s worth: qualitatively, we do not do better in Europe, it is solid.
Yes, for starters, building permits take a long time to be issued and certificates of compliance are often issued late. The town halls are overwhelmed with the real estate boom and savings force, they lack staff.
Besides, it’s not just the town halls that are concerned. All building permits must be approved by the City Hall, but may also have to be approved by other entities such as the DGPC, or the Directorate General of Heritage or the “Estrutura Consultiva” which controls the protection of the interiors of classified buildings or finally the REN which watches over the ecological reserves, the protection of the coast, not to mention the army which can also have its say!
To carry out your project, it is almost mandatory to go through a local architect because he knows the teams in place, the procedures and he speaks Portuguese. It will analyse the local urban plan and carry out two mandatory operations.
To obtain a building permit in Portugal, a contract must be signed with a certified construction company which must be registered with the INCI, the national building and real estate institute. Construction must be supervised by an architect or engineer.
First, he will apply for an architectural permit with project drawings, descriptions, certain technical drawings and specific administrative documents. This step should normally be approved within 45 business days, but sometimes it actually takes more than 6 months.
Then, he will file the engineering licence with other technical drawings concerning electricity, plumbing etc. These documents must be validated by independent organizations for each specialty and then filed at the Town Hall who in turn validate them. This stage is supposed to last a month. In reality, it should take at least 3 months.
And it’s not over yet. Once these two phases have been approved by the Camara Municipal, you must obtain the Alvara de Construçao which is the final building permit. You have a maximum of one year to do so. You will have to pay taxes to the municipality to get it. Here, you can start the work without forgetting to notify the Camara Municipal of the start of the operation at least five days before.
Once construction is complete
Once your villa is finished, the Camara Municipal will come to inspect the premises to verify that the final realization is in accordance with the architectural projects and specialties it had accepted. If not, Camara Municipal will assess what needs to be changed. If everything goes well, at the end of this inspection, the Camara Municipal will give you a «licença de habitaçao», this is the authorization… to live in your house.
Then, all you have to do is register your new house with the land registry and register it in the local finance register so that you can pay the property tax called IMI (Imposto Municipal sobre Imovéis).
Among the costs to be taken into account during the construction do not forget to add the VAT on the construction of 23%, the architectural costs of 10,000 €, the construction tax of about 58 € / m2 of building area and the costs of urbanization: or approximately €15,000. Variable indicative figures depending on the municipality.
