What a Portuguese purchase actually costs.

Two at the point of purchase: IMT, the municipal transfer tax, and stamp duty at 0.8%. Both are payable before the deed is signed, not after. On top of those you will have notary and Land Registry costs and your lawyer's fee, and if you are borrowing, a further stamp duty charge on the loan itself. The calculator estimates all of them together, because the tax alone understates what you need at completion.

Since 2026 a single 7.5% rate applies to non-resident buyers of urban residential property, with no entry threshold and none of the reductions available on a permanent home. The exceptions matter as much as the rule. A buyer who has previously been a Portuguese tax resident is understood to fall outside it. Where a couple buys under community of property, the higher rate applies only if neither spouse is resident and neither has ever been. Where co-buyers are not married under communion, each share is assessed on its own.

The test is tax residence, not nationality — a Portuguese national living abroad is a non-resident for this purpose, and a foreign national living in Portugal is not.

There are two routes. If you become a Portuguese tax resident within two years of the acquisition, you can claim the difference between what you paid and the general rates through an administrative complaint, lodged within six months. The alternative is to let the property as a home at a rent of €2,300 a month or less, with the lease signed within six months of purchase and maintained for at least 36 months across the first five years.

Both are conditional and both have deadlines that are easy to miss. If either is part of your plan, it belongs in the structuring conversation before the promissory contract, not after completion.

On the higher of the declared price and the property's registered tax value. For residential property under the general tables the rate climbs through bands, then converts to a single rate on the entire value once the acquisition passes roughly €661,000 — 6% to about €1.15M and 7.5% above it. That conversion is why a purchase just over a threshold can cost noticeably more than one just under.

The Valor Patrimonial Tributário is the Tax Authority's own registered value for the property, found on the caderneta predial. It is usually well below the market price, and it does two jobs: it is the base for the annual taxes, and it sets a floor for IMT, which is charged on whichever of price and VPT is higher. On older properties that have not been revalued it is rarely an issue; on recently reassessed or newly built property it occasionally exceeds the price, and that surprises people at the worst moment.

IMI is the annual municipal property tax, charged on the VPT at a rate each council sets between 0.30% and 0.45% for urban property, and 0.8% on rustic land. AIMI is a separate annual charge on higher-value holdings, applying above €600,000 of VPT per owner, or €1.2M where a couple elects to be assessed jointly. It rises through 0.7%, 1.0% and 1.5% as the holding grows. Companies pay 0.4% with no allowance at all.

AIMI is assessed on your whole Portuguese residential portfolio rather than on a single property, so a second acquisition can push an existing holding into a higher band.

It can change substantially. Residential property acquired by a company is assessed under the general residential tables. Urban property that is not housing is charged at a flat 6.5%, and rustic land at 5%. Where the acquiring entity is domiciled in a jurisdiction on Portugal's list, or is controlled from one, the rate is 10% on the whole acquisition and the annual AIMI position changes too.

Structures assembled years ago for other purposes should be checked against the current list before they are used to acquire here. The decision belongs before the offer, because changing it afterward is expensive.

Yes. A first acquisition of a permanent home by a buyer aged 35 or under carries full relief from IMT and purchase stamp duty up to roughly €330,500, with an 8% marginal rate on the portion above that up to about €661,000. Above that ceiling the regime does not apply. Separately, a permanent own home attracts lower entry rates than a second or investment property under the general tables — but a property bought as a holiday home or to let does not qualify as a permanent home, whatever it is called in the deed.

The rates are identical but the band thresholds sit 25% above the mainland, so the same purchase generally carries a lower charge in Funchal than in Lisbon. Select the region in the calculator and the tables adjust.

They are estimates built on the published 2026 tables and the details you enter, and they are accurate to that input. The final liability turns on the deed value, the current VPT, your residence history, the holding structure and any relief claimed — and several of those are matters of interpretation rather than arithmetic. We confirm the definitive position with our tax and legal partners before completion, and this page is not a substitute for that.