Free BUPi Registration of Rural Land Has Ended: Regularising a Plot Now Costs Up to 250 Euros, but Mapping It Online Stays Free
The free regime for mapping and registering rural plots through BUPi ended on 30 September. Registry procedures now cost 200 or 250 euros, with a 65 percent cut for plots worth under 10,000 euros. Mapping your land yourself online is still free.
Owners of rural land who have not yet mapped and registered their plots through the BUPi (Balcão Único do Prédio, the government's one-stop land counter) now have to pay to do it. The free regime ended on 30 September 2026, and since 1 October the main registry procedures cost 200 or 250 euros, ECO reported on Wednesday. Mapping a plot yourself online stays free.
The change matters to anyone who owns a prédio rústico (rural plot) or prédio misto (mixed rural and urban property) in a municipality with no land cadastre, including immigrants who bought a smallholding or inherited land from a Portuguese family.
What the law says
The end date was set by Decreto-Lei n.º 87/2026 of 15 April (Portuguese only), which extended the free regime for the last time. Its new wording says the acts and procedures under the BUPi law are free "until 30 September 2026" for rural or mixed plots of up to 50 hectares. ECO notes the exemption had already been extended once, to 31 December 2025, by Decreto-Lei n.º 90/2023.
From 1 October, the same decree sets these charges:
- Mapping with help at a BUPi counter: 15 euros per RGG (representação gráfica georreferenciada, the GPS-referenced outline of a plot) for the first nine, then 10 euros each from the tenth.
- Special justification procedure (used when an owner cannot show a registered title): 200 euros, plus 50 euros for each extra plot.
- Special registration procedure: 250 euros, plus 50 euros for each extra plot. Both prices include the resulting registry entries.
- A 65 percent reduction on these registry fees where the act concerns only rural plots worth less than 10,000 euros. It does not apply to the mapping charge.
According to ECO, simplified inheritance procedures for rural plots, which were also covered by the free regime, now pay the same rates. Heirs can group several plots in one procedure, paying 50 euros for each extra plot.
Why it is worth doing
The decree also requires the RGG number to appear in deeds that transfer ownership of rural and mixed plots, with exceptions such as enforcement and insolvency sales. ECO adds that applications for subsidies and grants tied to such plots, including EU funds, must now include an RGG. Land with no registered owner can end up in the procedure for property with no known owner if the person listed in the tax register does not act when notified by the IRN (Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado, the registry institute).
Days before the deadline, BUPi figures cited by ECO showed 43 percent of rural tax-register entries on the mainland identified, covering 46 percent of the area of municipalities without a cadastre.
What it means for you
- Find your caderneta predial (tax register record) and a title document, such as a purchase deed or a deed of heirship, BUPi's step-by-step page says.
- Map the plot yourself on the BUPi platform or app: an RGG submitted fully online costs nothing.
- If you need help, book a qualified technician at your municipality's BUPi counter (15 or 10 euros per plot).
- Then register the plot at a Conservatória do Registo Predial (land registry office), and confirm the fee there.
Families sorting out an inheritance should also note the planned succession reform on undivided estates.
