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Design & Architecture Partners
The work that begins after the deed is signed.
For most of our clients the acquisition is the easier half. What follows — permitting, design, contracting, and the long coordination of trades in a country they do not live in — is where value is either created or quietly lost.
We do not sell design services and we take no position between our clients and the studios they engage. What we provide is access to a small, tested network of architects and interior designers, and the coordination that keeps a project moving while the owner is abroad.
Scope of Coordination
What we coordinate.
Engagements are shaped around the asset. A turnkey apartment in Lisbon and a rehabilitation inside a protected zone are not the same project, and we do not pretend otherwise.
Pre-acquisition feasibility
Before you commit, an assessment of what the building will actually allow — structural condition, permitted use, and the licensing exposure that can turn a renovation budget into an entirely different number.
Architect selection and brief
Matching the asset and the client to the right practice, and translating an owner's intent into a brief a Portuguese studio can price and build against.
Licensing and municipal process
Submissions through the Plataforma Eletrónica dos Procedimentos Urbanísticos, coordination with the technical team, and realistic sequencing of the approvals that govern the timeline — with our legal partners where the matter warrants it.
Contractor tendering
Structured tendering rather than a single quote. Comparable scopes, comparable numbers, and a clear view of what each contractor has actually priced.
Cost control and reporting
Budget tracked against the original envelope, variation orders reviewed before they are approved, and periodic reporting for owners who are not on site.
Furnishing and handover
Specification, procurement, and installation through to a property that is genuinely ready — including the occupancy documentation a completed renovation requires.
The Network
Our design and architecture partners.
Our partners work by referral and do not market themselves publicly. We name them in private, to clients with a live mandate — which is precisely why they work with us.
Interior Design
Luxury interiors studio
A Doha-based practice with an international portfolio spanning high-end residential, private yachts, and exclusive hospitality. Fluent in the expectations of Gulf clients, and now extending into the Portuguese market alongside us.
Suited to owners who want a single design language carried across properties in more than one jurisdiction.
Architecture
Architecture studio
A Portuguese studio with deep Iberian roots, working across residential projects of very different scale — from urban rehabilitation in protected fabric to bespoke new builds — with a philosophy balancing artistic expression and function.
Suited to owners buying a building rather than a finished home, where the municipal process is the project.
How Access Works
Introductions are made, not published.
There is no directory to browse. The sequence is deliberately short.
Consultation
A private conversation about the asset, the intent, and the timeline. If a partner is not the right answer, we say so.
Introduction
We share the relevant profile, portfolio, and references, and convene the parties. The engagement is contracted directly between client and studio.
Coordination
Where instructed, we remain the client's point of coordination across design, legal, and construction through to handover.
The Rules Have Moved
Portugal's licensing regime is mid-reform.
Anyone renovating in Portugal is working across two versions of the same law within three years. The 2024 Simplex reform changed what requires permission and introduced tacit approval. Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 — the twenty-first amendment to the building regime — then rewrote much of it again.
Guidance written before either is unreliable, and a good deal of what is still published in English predates both.
Simplex Urbanístico
Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024. Twenty-six measures reforming the licensing regime — narrowing the categories requiring full licensing, widening prior notification, and introducing tacit approval where a municipality fails to decide in time.
Digital submission
The Plataforma Eletrónica dos Procedimentos Urbanísticos became mandatory across all 308 municipalities on 5 January 2026, standardizing submission and tracking nationally.
Prior notification as the rule
Under DL 108/2026 prior notification becomes the general procedure, with the municipality's preliminary documentary screening removed. Assessment periods are reorganized by procedural phase rather than fixed to gross floor area.
Secure titles restored
A defined documentary title evidencing an approved operation is reinstated, addressing the uncertainty developers, banks and notaries faced after 2024.
Nullity limited to three years
The period for declaring a licence or prior-information decision null is reduced to three years, with exceptions for national monuments and their protection zones and for matters of criminal relevance.
The occupancy licence
The former licença de utilização is replaced by a prior-communication mechanism for use and change of use. Property transfers must again reference the urban-planning title in the deed.
RGEU and the Construction Code
Full revocation of the RGEU, originally set for 1 June 2026, has been deferred pending the new Construction Code.
Simplification is not the same as safety. In a system where the municipality verifies less and later, the project, the filing and the signatures on it become the owner's guarantee.
The direction of reform has been to reduce prior control and increase the responsibility carried by the technicians who sign the project and direct the works — false declarations in responsibility terms or the works register are now expressly treated as document forgery under the Penal Code. Less scrutiny at the front end means considerably more consequence if something is wrong.
DL 108/2026 entered into force in phases during 2026, with different provisions applying from different dates and transitional rules governing files already submitted. Published commentary does not agree on every date. Which regime governs a particular project — and whether a pending application is better submitted before or after a given threshold — is a question for the technical team and legal counsel on the specific facts. We raise it at the outset of every engagement rather than assuming.
Before You Renovate
Four things foreign owners underestimate.
None of these are reasons not to buy. They are reasons to sequence the work properly.
The municipal process sets the timeline
Anything structural, anything touching the façade, and any change of use passes through the câmara municipal. Statutory periods now exist and tacit approval is available where they lapse, but municipal capacity still varies materially between councils. Build the calendar around the licensing, not around the construction.
Protected buildings carry a different rulebook
Much of the stock foreign buyers want — Lisbon's historic center, Porto's Baixa, the older Algarve villages — sits inside protected or heritage-classified zones. That constrains what may be altered and which materials may be used, and requires consultation beyond the municipality. National monuments and their protection zones are also carved out of the new three-year nullity limit.
Urban-planning status is a transaction question
The 2024 reform removed the occupancy licence from the deed; the 2026 amendment brings the urban-planning title back into it and replaces the old licence with a prior-communication mechanism. Whichever regime applies to your purchase, an irregular or absent title still surfaces at resale, at financing, and in due diligence. Verify it before you commit rather than after.
Apartments answer to the condominium
In a multi-unit building, works affecting common parts or the exterior require the condominium's consent as well as the municipality's. A common source of delay for owners who assumed their title was the only permission they needed.
Common Questions
Frequently asked.
Do I need a license to renovate a property in Portugal?
It depends on the works. Purely internal alterations that do not affect structure, the façade or the use of the building are frequently exempt. Structural work, façade changes, extensions and changes of use require either licensing or prior notification through the municipality. Since the 2024 Simplex Urbanístico reform more categories fall under prior notification, and Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 makes prior notification the general procedure. The classification of a specific project should be confirmed by the architect or engineer signing it.
How long does building approval take in Portugal?
Statutory periods apply, and where a municipality fails to decide within them a licensing application may proceed by tacit approval. DL 108/2026 reorganizes those periods by procedural phase rather than tying them to gross floor area, and shortens several of them. In practice timelines still vary considerably between municipalities, and projects inside protected zones require additional consultations that sit outside these periods.
Is the licença de utilização still required?
Not in its previous form. The 2024 reform removed the requirement to present it at the purchase deed, and DL 108/2026 replaces the old occupancy licence with a prior-communication mechanism for use and change of use, while requiring property transfers to reference the urban-planning title in the deed. The underlying point is unchanged: a building still needs valid urban-planning status, and an absent or mismatched title surfaces at resale, when arranging finance, and in due diligence.
How long can a building licence be challenged?
DL 108/2026 reduces the period for declaring a licence or prior-information decision null to three years, and the same limit applies to administrative and popular actions seeking that declaration. National monuments and their protection zones are excepted, as are matters of criminal relevance, where the applicable limitation period governs instead.
Can I renovate a building in a protected or historic zone?
Generally yes, but under materially different constraints. Properties in protected or heritage-classified areas face restrictions on what may be altered and which materials may be used, and require consultation with heritage authorities beyond the municipality. These consultations are largely unaffected by recent simplification measures and should be factored into both budget and timeline from the outset.
Do you charge for introductions to your partners?
Introductions are made as part of a client relationship. We do not sell design services, and design engagements are contracted directly between the client and the studio. Where a client instructs us to coordinate a project through to handover, that is agreed separately and in advance.
Can you coordinate a renovation if I am not in Portugal?
That is the principal reason clients ask us to. Where instructed, we act as the owner's point of coordination across the design team, legal counsel and the contractor — tracking budget against the original envelope, reviewing variation orders before they are approved, and reporting periodically through to handover.
A Private Consultation
Tell us about the asset.
If you are acquiring — or have already acquired — a property in Portugal and want the work that follows handled properly, a line on the property, the stage and the intended scope is enough to begin. Introductions to our design and architecture partners are arranged through Luznur Capital, and enquiries from advisers acting for a client are handled with the same discretion as the client's own.
Transparency · Confidentiality · Execution
Luznur Capital is the commercial name of Lusomena Investments, Unipessoal Lda., a licensed real estate brokerage holding AMI 22354. It is not an architecture practice, engineering firm or law firm. Design and architecture services are contracted directly between the client and the studio, and Luznur Capital takes no position between them.
This page is provided for general information only and reflects the position understood as at July 2026. It does not constitute legal, tax or technical advice. Portugal's urban planning and building regime is undergoing sustained reform — Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024 and Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 among others — with provisions entering into force in phases and transitional rules governing procedures already submitted. Licensing requirements vary by municipality, by asset, by protected-zone status and by the nature of the works, and which regime governs a particular project depends on its specific facts and on when the procedure was initiated. Owners should obtain advice specific to their project from a licensed Portuguese architect or engineer and, where the matter warrants it, from qualified legal counsel.
Lusomena Investments, Unipessoal Lda. · AMI 22354 · info@luznurcapital.com
Design & Architecture Partners
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