Fifteen steps from your first question to the day you sell, each one short, and each one linked to the article in this journal that goes deeper. Start at the top and work down: this is the sequence my clients follow.
Before anything
Ownership is open to foreigners. The real work is your tax position, proof of funds, and, if you need one, a mortgage a Portuguese bank can actually read: foreign income puzzles lenders until it is documented properly.
Before anything
The selling agent works for the seller. Your own adviser and an independent lawyer work for you, and if you are buying from abroad, a power of attorney lets that lawyer sign in your place, from the NIF to the deed.
The search
Asking prices hit a record €3,228 per square metre in September 2026. Understand what that number is, and what it is not, before you start falling for photographs.
The search
Prices are asking more while fewer homes actually sell. That gap is where a buyer’s leverage lives, and it changes how you should pitch an offer.
The search
Knight Frank counts Lisbon and Comporta among Europe’s serious prime addresses. Useful context when a seller prices a house like a trophy.
The search
In Portugal the asking price opens a negotiation; it is not a valuation. Learn to spot what a listing is hiding, and what it is honestly telling you, before you offer.
Securing it
A small, refundable reservation, usually a few thousand euros for a week or two, takes the property off the market while your lawyer prepares the contract. It is a commercial gesture, not a legal commitment to buy, so get its terms in writing: the amount, the period, and exactly when the money comes back.
Committing
IMT, stamp duty, notary and legal fees sit on top of the price, and they are big enough to change what you can afford. Run the real numbers before you sign anything.
Committing
The promissory contract fixes the price, the date and the conditions, with a deposit of around 10 percent. If you walk away you lose it; if the seller walks away, they return it double. The mortgage clause is your safety net.
Committing
Before the CPCV is signed, your lawyer verifies the title at the land registry, hunts for mortgages, charges and debts, checks the licences and plans at the câmara, and confirms the condominium position. Nothing is signed until all of that is clear, and a fresh registry extract is pulled before the deed to make sure nothing has changed. Anything found now is cheap to fix; anything found later is not.
Completing
Deed day takes about an hour when the weeks before it were done properly: the deed is read and signed, the balance moves, and the keys change hands across the same desk.
Owning
Registration confirmed, utilities in your name, the condominium, insurance and the tax calendar. The unglamorous month that decides whether ownership feels easy.
Owning
Nine Portuguese property rules that surprise foreign owners, from inherited debts to rustic land. Better read here than learned at a cost.
Owning
Some works skip the bureaucracy entirely, and some projects eat budgets whole. Know which is which, and how to check a contractor’s licence before money moves.
Selling
Capital gains tax applies to residents and non-residents alike, and the old 28 percent shortcut is gone. Model the bill before you list, and selling stops being a leap.
Tell me how you want to live, and we will work down the list together, step by step.