The price on the listing is not the price you pay. In Portugal, the gap between the agreed price and the money that leaves your account is wider than most foreign buyers expect, and it is full of taxes with acronyms nobody explains at the viewing. So here it is: every line of the cost stack, the actual 2026 figures, the order the steps happen in, and three worked examples so you can see your own purchase in them.
I check these figures against current sources every time I publish. Tax rules change, and older guides on the internet are full of stale numbers. Figures below were checked in October 2026.
The myth to kill first: buying property no longer buys you a Golden Visa
If an agent, a developer or a website still implies that buying a Portuguese apartment gets you a residence permit, close the tab. The real-estate route of the Golden Visa (ARI) ended in October 2023, when the Mais Habitação law (Lei 56/2023) removed property acquisitions from the qualifying investments. The property-fund route and the €1.5 million capital-transfer route went with it.
The Golden Visa programme itself still exists: investment funds, scientific research, cultural donations and company incorporation are the current routes. But no property purchase, at any price, in any city, qualifies today. Buying a home in Portugal is buying a home. If you need residency, that is a separate application, and anyone who bundles the two is selling you something that no longer exists.
The cost stack, line by line
Budget roughly 9 to 10% on top of the purchase price if you are not a Portuguese tax resident, and 7 to 9% if you are. Here is where it goes.
| Cost | What it is | 2026 figure | When you pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMT (transfer tax) | Municipal tax on the purchase, paid by the buyer before the deed can be signed. Calculated on the higher of the purchase price or the property's tax value (VPT). | Non-residents: flat 7.5%. Residents: progressive 0 to 8% (0% up to €106,346 for a primary residence). | Before the escritura |
| Imposto do Selo (stamp duty) | Tax on the acquisition itself, also on the higher of price or VPT. | Flat 0.8% | Before the escritura |
| Casa Pronta / notary and registration | The deed and land-registry formalities. Casa Pronta is the one-stop-shop route; traditional notaries cost their own fee schedule. | About €375 for a single act, up to about €700 for multiple acts | At completion |
| Legal fees | Your independent lawyer: due diligence, the CPCV, and completion. This is the one line buyers are most tempted to skip, and the worst one to skip. | Typically around 1% of the price (indicative; quotes vary) | Through the process |
| IMI (annual municipal tax) | The yearly holding tax, paid by whoever owns the property on 31 December. Set by each municipality. | Urban: 0.3 to 0.45% of the VPT (up to 0.5% in exceptional cases). Rural: up to 0.8%. | Annually, in instalments |
The 2026 change to IMT is the big one, and it is the reason so many older guides are wrong. Since 25 May 2026, under Decreto-Lei 97/2026, buyers who are not Portuguese tax residents pay a flat 7.5% IMT on urban residential property, with no bands, no exemptions and no reductions. It replaces the progressive scale entirely, and it applies by tax residency, not nationality: a Portuguese citizen living abroad pays the flat rate too. There are refund routes, but only specific ones: if you become a Portuguese tax resident within two years of buying, or if you put the property on a qualifying long-term lease at a moderate rent, you can reclaim the difference from the tax authority. Worth knowing about. Not a reason to budget less.
The steps, in the order they actually happen
Six steps, always in this order. Skipping one or doing them out of order is how people lose deposits.
1. NIF. The Portuguese tax number comes before everything: no NIF, no contracts, no purchase taxes paid. Non-EU nationals generally need a fiscal representative to get one. It is routine and inexpensive, and it takes days, not months, if someone does it properly.
2. Lawyer. Engage your independent lawyer before you make an offer, not after. The lawyer who works for the seller or the developer does not work for you.
3. Offer. Written, with the price and the key conditions: what is included in the sale, the completion timeline, and what happens to the deposit if either side walks away.
4. Due diligence. This must be finished before the promissory contract is signed, not after. Your lawyer pulls the land-registry certificate, confirms the tax position at Finanças, checks the building permits and the use licence, and verifies there are no debts or charges on the property. This is the boring part that saves the most money.
5. CPCV. The promissory contract, signed with a deposit of typically around 10%. It is binding: you walk away without legal cause, you lose the deposit; the seller walks away, they owe you double. IMT and stamp duty are paid between the CPCV and the final deed.
6. Escritura. The final deed, signed before a notary or at Casa Pronta, the mortgage is registered if there is one, and the property is yours.
Three worked examples: what €500,000, €1,000,000 and €2,000,000 really cost
These assume a non-resident buyer purchasing an urban apartment, with the taxes calculated on the purchase price. They are illustrative, not quotes, but the tax lines are computed from the verified 2026 figures above.
| €500,000 | €1,000,000 | €2,000,000 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMT (flat 7.5%) | €37,500 | €75,000 | €150,000 |
| Stamp duty (0.8%) | €4,000 | €8,000 | €16,000 |
| Casa Pronta (multiple acts) | €700 | €700 | €700 |
| Legal fees (about 1%) | €5,000 | €10,000 | €20,000 |
| Total on top of the price | €47,200 | €93,700 | €186,700 |
| All-in cost | €547,200 | €1,093,700 | €2,186,700 |
All three land at roughly 9.3 to 9.4% over the price. For comparison: a Portuguese tax resident buying that €500,000 apartment as a primary home would pay about €26,237 in IMT under the progressive scale instead of €37,500. That gap is exactly what the refund routes exist for, and it is why the order of your steps matters: if you plan to become tax resident anyway, the timing of the purchase against the residency application can be worth more than any negotiation on the price.
If you are not (yet) a Portuguese tax resident: the notes that matter
Your mortgage will be smaller. Portuguese banks lend to non-residents routinely, but the terms are tighter: loan-to-value ratios of roughly 60 to 70% are commonly cited for non-residents, against up to 80 to 90% for residents. Assume you will need a 30 to 40% deposit in cash, plus the closing costs above. Most Portuguese mortgages track Euribor with the bank's margin on top, and banks usually require life insurance as part of the loan. Terms vary bank by bank, so get a real quote early, before the offer, not after the CPCV.
Your tax position is its own project. The NIF, the fiscal representative, the IMT flat rate, the IMI bills that follow you every year: none of this is a reason not to buy, but all of it rewards planning. A Portuguese accountant is as important as the lawyer, and the honest ones will tell you that the cheapest time to ask is before the offer.
The exchange rate is part of the cost. If you are buying from dollars, pounds or reais, the currency move between the CPCV and the deed can dwarf the notary fee. Locking the rate, or at least having a plan for it, is part of the budget.
How I help
The numbers above are public. What is not public is the position underneath them: whether your tax residency is set up so the IMT refund is even available, whether the lawyer's quote includes the checks that actually matter, whether the price you are about to pay is supported by real transaction data. That is the part I sit inside with my buyers, from the NIF to the deed.
Sources
- Golden Visa property routes ended October 2023 under Lei 56/2023 (Mais Habitação); the programme continues via funds, research, cultural donations and company routes (connaughtlaw.com)
- Flat 7.5% IMT for non-resident buyers of urban residential property since 21 May 2026 (Decreto-Lei 97/2026), replacing the progressive scale; refund routes on becoming tax resident within two years or a qualifying moderate-rent long-term lease; resident progressive bands verified at Portal das Finanças (portugalmortgage.pt; re-locant.com)
- 0.8% stamp duty, Casa Pronta fees of about €375 to €700, legal fees of around 1%, IMI of 0.3 to 0.45% on urban property (spotblue.com)
- Official references: diariodarepublica.pt (the legislation), portaldasfinancas.gov.pt (tax rates and IMT payment), aima.gov.pt (residency and visa routes)