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Buying a Repossessed Property at Auction in Portugal

Researched and written with AI tools from official sources. How we make our guides

How court and tax auctions of seized homes work in Portugal: where to find them, the minimum prices, the 15 days to pay, and the risks to check first.

The Portugal Brief 12 min read

Buying a Repossessed Property at Auction in Portugal

Last verified: October 2026.

Who this is for

  • You want to bid on a seized home sold to pay its owner's debts, from the EU or outside it.
  • You live in Portugal, or you have a Portuguese tax number and bank account.
  • You want to know the rules, the deadlines, and the risks before you bid.

Not for you if: you are buying a home on the open market from a private seller. Read Buying Property in Portugal as a Foreigner instead.

Homes seized for debt in Portugal are sold through two separate systems. Court cases are run by an enforcement agent (agente de execução) and mostly sold by online auction on e-leiloes.pt. Tax debts are sold by the tax office (Finanças) on its own sales portal.

In a court sale, the lowest price that can be accepted is 85% of the base value. In a tax sale, the starting price is 70% of the property's tax value. On both, you must pay the full price within 15 days of winning, before you get the keys.

The two systems at a glance

Court saleTax sale
Who sellsAn enforcement agentThe tax office (Finanças)
Wheree-leiloes.pt, run by the solicitors' and enforcement agents' professional bodyThe Finanças sales portal (Portal das Finanças)
Base value of a homeThe higher of the tax value (VPT, if assessed in the last six years) and the market valueThe tax value (VPT)
Lowest accepted price85% of the base valueStarts at 70% of the tax value; can fall, but never below 20%
Time to pay15 days after your offer is accepted15 days after the sale is awarded to you
If you do not payYou lose your deposit, may be barred from that property, and can be sued for the shortfallYou are barred from all tax sales for two years

The rules differ a lot, so check which system a listing belongs to before you do anything else.

Court sales: how they work

When a creditor, such as a bank, enforces a debt in court, the debtor's home can be seized (penhora) and sold. The enforcement agent decides how to sell it and sets the base value, after hearing the creditor, the debtor, and other secured creditors. If any of them disagrees, a judge decides.

The base value. For a building, the law says the base value is the higher of two figures. One is the tax value (valor patrimonial tributário, or VPT), if it was assessed less than six years ago. The other is the market value. This stops an old, low tax value from setting the price. See Understanding the Caderneta Predial for how to read the tax value.

The minimum price. The price announced for the sale is 85% of the base value. Offers below that are refused, unless the creditor, the debtor, and every secured creditor all agree.

How it is sold. The law prefers online auction for homes. Other methods exist, such as sealed written offers (propostas em carta fechada) or a private sale by an appointed agent (negociação particular). If a sealed-offer sale gets no acceptable offer, the property usually goes to a private sale.

Bidding on e-leiloes.pt

The official online auction platform for court sales is e-leiloes.pt. The rules below come from the platform rules approved by the justice ministry.

Registering. Only individuals can register, and you need:

  • a Portuguese tax number (NIF);
  • an address in Portugal;
  • a Portuguese bank account (IBAN);
  • your marital status and, if married, your spouse's name, NIF, and property regime.

Companies cannot register directly. A registered person bids for them and declares the right to represent them. If you register with a government digital login, or through a solicitor listed on the platform, you avoid sending a signed paper form. Your login should be active within five days. If you do not have a NIF yet, see Getting a NIF (Tax Number) in Portugal.

What a listing shows. Each listing gives the court case, the base value, the latest bid, and the closing date and time. For a home, it also shows the location, the tax and registry numbers, photos, and the depositary who can show it. It must also say if the debtor has challenged the case, if an appeal is pending, if any charges will survive the sale, and if anyone has a known preference right.

The auction rules.

  1. Each auction closes between 09:30 and 12:30 on a day the courts are open.
  2. Bidding opens at 50% of the base value.
  3. A bid below 85% of the base value is only a conditional bid. It wins only if the parties agree to accept it.
  4. Each new bid must beat the last one by at least 1%, or €10 if that is more.
  5. A bid in the last five minutes extends the auction by five minutes from that bid.
  6. You cannot withdraw a bid once you place it.

The highest bid does not guarantee you the home. The debtor may pay the debt, a preference holder may step in, or the case may be stopped, for example by insolvency.

The platform may update its rules. Read the current rules on e-leiloes.pt before you bid.

Paying, and what happens if you do not

Sealed offers. If the sale is by sealed written offers, you attach a deposit of 5% of the announced price. It can be a certified cheque or a bank guarantee. If your offer is accepted, you have 15 days to deposit the rest of the price.

If you do not pay in time, the enforcement agent can:

  • cancel your sale, keep your deposit, and accept the next highest offer;
  • cancel your sale, keep your deposit, and sell another way, with you barred from buying that property again; or
  • ask the judge to freeze enough of your assets to cover the shortfall and costs, and pursue you for it in the same case, without prejudice to criminal proceedings.

The same rules apply if you win an online auction and do not pay. On e-leiloes.pt, you must confirm that you understand these consequences when you register.

Have the money ready. The 15 days leave no time to arrange a mortgage. If you need one, get approval before you bid. See Getting a Mortgage in Portugal.

Taxes you pay

You pay the property transfer tax (IMT) and stamp duty, as on any purchase. For an auction, IMT is charged on the price you pay, not the tax value. You must pay it within 30 days of the sale record being signed. The home is only handed over once the price is paid and the taxes are settled.

The usual rates apply, including the flat 7.5% IMT rate for buyers who have never been tax resident in Portugal. Stamp duty is 0.8%. See Buying Property in Portugal as a Foreigner. If you are 35 or under, see Claiming the Under-35 IMT and Stamp Duty Exemption.

Getting the title and the keys

Once the price and taxes are paid, the enforcement agent awards you the property. The agent issues a title of transfer (título de transmissão) and sends it to the land registry. The registry records you as owner and cancels the charges that ended with the sale.

If someone is still living in the home, you can ask for it to be handed over within the same court case. You do not need to start a new eviction case. It may still take time, and a tenant with a valid lease is a different matter. Ask a lawyer.

Which debts and charges disappear

The Civil Code says a sale in enforcement passes the home to you free of mortgages and other security rights. The creditors are paid from your money instead. Other rights also end if they were registered after the seizure or security that led to the sale.

Some rights survive:

  • rights registered before the seizure or security that led to the sale;
  • a small group of older rights that count against everyone even without registration.

The cut-off depends on the order and dates of the entries. So before you bid, get the land registry certificate and read the dates of every entry. It costs €15 online. See Getting a Property Registry Certificate (Certidão Permanente).

For a flat, also ask about unpaid condominium charges. See How a Condominium (Condomínio) Works in Portugal.

Risks to check before you bid

Preference rights. Some people have a legal right to buy the home ahead of you at the same price. They include co-owners, tenants who have rented the home for more than two years, and some public bodies. They are told the date of the sale so they can use the right. If they do, they take your place. Even if they were not told, they can still go to court later. See Understanding the Right of First Refusal.

No use licence. In a private sale, a home can be sold as it stands, without its use licence or building licence. The missing licence is noted in the sale document, and legalising the home becomes your job and your cost. The e-leiloes.pt rules also warn that auctioned homes may be unlicensed or differ from their records. See Checking a Property's Habitation Licence.

A pending appeal or challenge. The sale notice must say if the judgment is under appeal, or if the debtor has challenged the case or the seizure. If that challenge succeeds, your sale can be undone.

No warranty. Unless the listing says otherwise, the home comes with no guarantee.

Viewing. The person holding the home (the depositary) must show it to anyone who asks, until the sale. They can set the hours, which must appear in the notice. In practice access varies, because the holder is often the debtor.

If a court sale is undone

You can ask the court to cancel the sale and pay you damages if you later find:

  • a charge or limit that was not taken into account and goes beyond what is normal; or
  • that the property does not match what was announced.

A sale can also be undone for reasons that are not your fault:

  • the judgment is cancelled, or the debtor's challenge succeeds;
  • the whole case is cancelled because the debtor was never properly involved;
  • the sale itself is cancelled for a procedural error; or
  • the property did not belong to the debtor, and the real owner claims it.

In the first three cases, the property must be claimed back within 30 days of the final decision. You must be repaid the price and your purchase costs first. If the property belonged to someone else, you can claim the price back from those who received it.

Tax sales: how they differ

When the debt is owed to the State, the tax office sells the property. The sales appear on the Finanças sales portal, which you reach with your Portal das Finanças login.

The price ladder. The base value of a home is its tax value (VPT). Then:

  1. An online auction runs for 15 days, starting at 70% of that value.
  2. If no offers come in, the sale moves at once to sealed offers for 15 to 20 days, at 50%.
  3. If there are still no offers, a new 15-day online auction opens, and the home goes to the highest offer.
  4. The sale can never be awarded below 20% of the tax value.

If the debtor shows the market value is clearly higher, an expert can value the home instead. If no offer meets the base value, the tax office can buy the property for the State.

The debtor's own home. The tax office cannot normally sell a home that is the debtor's or the family's permanent home and is used as one. High-value homes are the exception, and they can only be sold a year after the oldest debt fell due.

Who cannot buy. Judges and tax officials cannot buy, directly or through others. Nor can companies based in a clearly more favourable tax regime, or companies whose owners cannot be identified.

Paying. You receive a payment slip and must pay the whole price within 15 days of the award. For large purchases you can ask, within five days, to pay at least one fifth now and the rest within 12 months. If you do not pay on time, you are barred from bidding in any tax sale for two years. Ownership passes only when the title is issued, after the price and taxes are paid.

Cancelling a tax sale. The deadlines are short:

  • 90 days if a charge was not taken into account, or the property does not match the announcement;
  • 30 days if the debtor raises a new ground they could not raise before;
  • 15 days in the other cases.

The time runs from the sale, or from when you learned the fact, which you must prove. You apply to the regional tax office. If it does not decide within 45 days, the request counts as refused.

Before you bid: checklist

  • Which system is it? Court sales are on e-leiloes.pt. Tax sales are on the Finanças sales portal.
  • Read the registry certificate. The dates of the entries decide which charges survive.
  • Read the notice. Look for a pending appeal, a challenge, surviving charges, and preference holders.
  • Check the licence. A missing use licence becomes your problem.
  • Find out who lives there. Handover is possible within the case, but it is not instant.
  • Have the full price ready. You have 15 days on both systems.
  • Budget the taxes. IMT and stamp duty come on top of the price.
  • Get advice. A lawyer or solicitor can read the case file before you bid. See What a Solicitador Does in Portugal.

If you are the one in debt, you also have rights. You can be heard on how and at what value your home is sold, and take a disagreement to a judge. You can ask for sales to stop once enough has been raised to pay the debt and costs. Get advice early. If cost is a problem, see Applying for Legal Aid (Apoio Judiciário) in Portugal.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Auction purchases carry real risks, so have a lawyer or solicitor check the case before you bid.

Sources

This guide is written from official sources and, where relevant, organisations' own websites.

Last verified October 2026. Rules and fees change; check the official source before acting.

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