When the State Expropriates Your Land in Portugal

Last verified: October 2026.

Who this is for

• You own land or a home in Portugal and a public body has written to say it wants to buy or take it.
• You rent a home, a shop, or farmland that is in the path of a road, railway, or other public project.
• You live abroad but own property here, and a registered letter has arrived about it.

Not for you if: you are selling to a private buyer. Read Selling Your House in Portugal instead.

Updated October 2026. Since August 2026, when a town council wants to expropriate land, the municipal assembly (assembleia municipal) makes the formal decision, not a minister.

Expropriation (expropriação por utilidade pública) is when a public body takes private property for a public purpose, such as a road, a railway, a school, or a water main. It must pay you fair compensation. It usually starts with a registered letter and a purchase offer.

You then have 20 working days to answer, and you can back your answer with a valuation from your own expert. If you do not agree, the price goes to arbitration and then, if needed, to court. The rules protect every owner the same way, whatever your nationality.

How the process works

There are five stages. Most of your leverage is in the first two.

1. The resolution to expropriate. The public body formally decides to seek the land. It must notify you by registered letter.
2. The offer to buy. The same letter includes an offer. You have 20 working days to reply.
3. The declaration of public utility. If there is no deal, the authority declares the project to be in the public interest. This makes the expropriation official.
4. The compensation offer and arbitration. A second offer follows. If you still disagree, three arbitrators set the price.
5. Appeal to court. You or the public body can appeal the arbitrators' figure to the local court.

Deadlines in the administrative stages normally skip weekends and public holidays. Court deadlines follow court rules. Write down the date you receive each letter.

The first letter: what it must contain

The resolution to expropriate must give reasons. It must state clearly:

• the public purpose and the legal rule that allows it;
• the property to be taken, and the owners and others with known rights;
• an estimate of the total cost;
• what the local planning rules say about your land and the area around it.

The land must be identified precisely, by its land registry and tax register entries, or by a plan with boundary coordinates. If you have never checked how your property appears in those records, do it now. See the caderneta predial guide and, for rural plots, registering rural land on BUPi.

The cost estimate is based on a valuation report by an expert from the official list. The public body chooses that expert. Its figure becomes the basis of the first offer.

Your 20 working days to answer the offer

Before it can declare public utility, the public body must try to buy your property by agreement. There are two exceptions: urgent cases, and cases where a private purchase is legally or physically impossible.

You have 20 working days from receiving the offer to reply. If the owners are unknown or the letters come back, the offer is published in notices and newspapers instead. Then the reply period is 30 working days from the last newspaper notice.

Your options:

• Accept. The sale goes ahead by agreement. A private sale can go ahead even if the plot, or what is left of your land, is smaller than the minimum farm plot size that would normally block a split.
• Make a counteroffer. The law lets you base it on a valuation report by an expert you choose. This is the most useful step you can take. Otherwise the only valuation on file is the one the other side paid for.
• Refuse or say nothing. The public body can then go straight to the declaration of public utility. Silence does not slow anything down.

The declaration of public utility

The declaration of public utility (declaração de utilidade pública) makes the expropriation real. It must give reasons. It is published in the Diário da República, sent to you by registered post, and noted on the land registry.

Who signs it depends on who wants the land:

• A town council project: the municipal assembly decides, on a reasoned proposal from the town council (câmara municipal). This includes urgent cases. It needs a majority of all serving members, not just those present.
• A project across two or more municipalities: every municipal assembly involved must vote. The declaration counts from the date of the last vote.
• National projects: the minister responsible for the project signs. Where no ministry fits, the Prime Minister decides.

Municipal assembly sessions are public. If you want to object to a local project, that vote is a moment to do it. See Taking Part in a Public Consultation in Portugal for how to make your point on the record.

Time limits. The declaration lapses if arbitration has not started within one year, or the case has not gone to court within 18 months, both from publication. You can ask the court or the authority to declare that it has lapsed. A lapsed declaration can be renewed once, within a year, with reasons. For long linear works such as railways and motorways, the lapse cannot be claimed once building has started anywhere on the route, unless work stops for more than three years.

Tell them if you move. After you receive the declaration, you must tell the public body in writing if you change your home address. If you do not, steps sent to your old address still count.

Urgent cases and losing possession early

The declaration can make the expropriation urgent. The public body then gets possession of the land straight away, before the price is settled. In a public disaster, or for national defence or internal security, the state can take possession immediately with no prior steps at all.

In other cases, the public body can only take possession once it has:

1. sent you the declaration and the possession authorisation;
2. deposited the expert's figure in a bank, in your name (in urgent cases, within 10 days after taking possession, with interest if late);
3. carried out a survey of the site (vistoria ad perpetuam rei memoriam).

Go to the survey. Its job is to record what is on the land before it disappears. An expert named by the Court of Appeal (Tribunal da Relação) carries it out. You must get at least five working days' notice. You can attend and hand in written questions, and the expert must answer them in the report. The report describes the buildings, their age and condition, and anything that affects the value, with plans and photos. Once the site is cleared, this report is often the only evidence left.

How compensation is worked out

Fair compensation (justa indemnização) is meant to make good your loss, not to share the public body's gain. It is the real, current market value of the property, based on its actual or possible normal use, on the date the declaration is published. The figure is then updated for inflation (consumer prices excluding housing, from the national statistics office, INE) up to the final decision.

Some increases in value do not count:

• any increase caused by the declaration itself;
• improvements you make after you receive the first letter;
• licences or planning information you apply for after that letter;
• anything done just to raise the compensation.

Planting an orchard or applying for a building permit after the letter arrives will not raise the price.

Land classification matters most. Land is either "fit for building" (solo apto para construção) or "for other purposes". Land counts as fit for building if any of these apply:

• it has road access, water, electricity, and sewerage;
• it has some of these and sits in an existing urban area;
• local plans zone it to get them;
• it has a valid building licence or subdivision permit, applied for before the first letter.

Everything else is valued as land for other purposes, which is usually worth much less. For more on plot licensing, see Building Your Own Home in Portugal.

How the value is found. The starting point is recent sale prices and tax valuations of similar properties in the same and nearby parishes (freguesias). The tax office must give this data to the public body when it asks. Where there is not enough data, building land is valued from construction costs, and other land from what it earns or could earn. Buildings are valued on their cost, age, location, condition, size, and rents.

If the standard formulas do not reach the real market value, either side, or the court, can ask for other methods.

The state guarantees payment. If the public body cannot pay, the state pays and recovers the money from it.

If only part of your land is taken

You can ask for the whole property to be taken if the part left over:

• no longer gives you, in proportion, the same use the whole property did; or
• has no economic value to you, judged objectively.

If you keep the rest, the valuers must work out separately the value of the whole property, the part taken, and the part left. Any loss in value of the remainder is added to your compensation. So is the cost of new fences and any loss of buildable area. A plot cut off from the road is worth less, and the law says so.

Sometimes the public body puts a permanent right over your land instead of taking it. This is an administrative easement (servidão administrativa). You get compensation if it makes your current use impossible, makes any use impossible, or wipes out the land's value. Private rights of way between neighbours are different; see Rights of Way in Portugal.

Tenants and businesses

You do not have to own the property to have rights. Anyone with a registered right over it, and tenants of homes, shops, and farmland, count as interested parties.

• If you rent your home: the default is rehousing. You can choose a similar home, in location and rent, or a single cash payment instead. The payment takes into account the value of the home, improvements you made, and how your rent compared with market rents.
• If you rent premises for a business or profession: you get the cost of moving to new premises, including any higher rent, and your losses while the business is closed for the move.
• If you rent farmland: you get the value of crops lost, improvements you are owed, and other losses from the end of the lease.
• If you own the property and run a business there: you get the same business losses on top of the property value. Farm owners also get compensation for damage to the rest of the farm.

If you do not accept the figure

The steps after the declaration move quickly.

1. The compensation offer. Within 15 days of publishing the declaration, the public body sends you an offer by registered post.
2. Your reply: 15 working days. You can make a counteroffer backed by your own expert's report. You must also answer any written questions within 8 working days.
3. Arbitration. If there is no deal, three arbitrators from the official list, named by the Court of Appeal, set the price by majority. They have 30 days, extendable to 60. The public body pays their fees.
4. Appeal: 20 days. Either side can appeal to the court where the property is. When you appeal, you name your own expert. In court, five experts value the property: one from each side and three named by the court.
5. Final say. The Court of Appeal's ruling on the amount is final. There is no further appeal to the Supreme Court on the value.

You do not wait with nothing. If there is an appeal, the judge releases straight away the part of the money nobody disputes. Within 10 days you can also ask for the disputed part, if you give a bank guarantee or surety insurance (seguro-caução) for the same amount.

If something goes wrong in the procedure, such as the survey or the arbitration, you can complain within 10 days of finding out.

Getting paid

Compensation is paid in money, in one payment. In a sale by agreement you can agree to instalments over up to three years, with interest and inflation updates. You can also agree to receive other property instead.

You are owed interest for delays caused by the public body, in the procedure, the court case, or any deposit. Once the court decision is final, the public body has 10 days to deposit what it owes, with a breakdown. You can withdraw the money and still challenge the calculation. If it does not pay, the court takes the money from the guarantees it gave, and the state covers any shortfall.

Getting your land back

You have a right to get the land back (direito de reversão) if:

• the land is not used for its purpose within two years of being handed to the public body; or
• the purpose has ended.

You must ask within three years of the event, or the right lapses. After that you still have a right of first refusal on the first sale, up to 20 years after the handover. The right ends altogether after 20 years, if you give it up, or if a new declaration gives the land a different public use. If the public body wants to sell leftover plots, it must tell you by registered post at least 60 days before. If you do not respond, you lose the right.

For long linear works, such as a railway, starting construction anywhere on the route ends the right to get back every plot taken for it.

You apply to the authority that declared public utility. If it has not decided in your favour within 90 days, you have one year to take the case to the administrative court.

The public body can also drop the expropriation, in whole or in part, until it becomes the owner. You are then compensated for your losses under the general law.

Tax on the compensation

The tax office (Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, AT) treats an expropriation like a sale. Any gain is a capital gain. You declare it on your annual income tax return (IRS) for that year, in Anexo G. If you acquired the property before 1 January 1989, you declare it in Anexo G1 instead, where the gain is not taxed. The sale value is the amount of compensation you receive. The public body reports the figure to the tax office and to INE, so it will not go unnoticed.

For how capital gains on property are taxed, see Selling Your House in Portugal. For the return itself, see Filing Your Annual Income Tax Return (IRS) in Portugal.

Checklist

1. Note the date you receive every registered letter. Almost every deadline runs from it.
2. Read the resolution, not just the offer. Check the purpose, the legal basis, the cost estimate, and what the plan says about your land.
3. Get your own valuation within the 20 working days.
4. Check how your land is classified. It is usually the biggest factor in the price.
5. If only part is taken, value what is left. Decide whether to ask for the whole property to be taken.
6. Attend the site survey and give your questions in writing.
7. Tell the public body if you move.
8. Keep the whole file. You need it for your tax return and for any later claim to get the land back.

A contested expropriation is a matter for a lawyer who has your file. The deadlines are short and start without warning.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; check the official source before you act.

Sources

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

• Procuradoria-Geral Regional de Lisboa, Expropriations Code (Código das Expropriações, Lei n.º 168/99), consolidated: https://www.pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=477&tabela=leis (article 3 total expropriation; 5 reversion, 2 years, 3 years, 20 years, 60 days, linear works; 8 easements; 9 interested parties and tenants; 10 resolution and expert valuation; 11 purchase offer, 20 and 30 days, minimum plot size; 13 lapse at one year and 18 months, renewal, linear works; 15 and 16 urgency; 17 publication and registry; 17-A change of address; 20 and 21 possession, deposit, survey, five working days' notice, 15-day report; 23 fair compensation and exclusions, state guarantee; 24 inflation update; 25 land classification; 26 to 28 valuation criteria, tax office transaction data supplied at the public body's request; 29 partial expropriation; 30 and 31 tenants and businesses; 35 compensation offer, 15 days, 8 days; 38 arbitration and appeal; 45 and 49 arbitrators, 30 and 60 days; 52 appeal 20 days, release of undisputed sum, 10 days, bank guarantee; 54 complaints within 10 days; 58 appellant's expert; 66 no appeal to the Supreme Court on value; 67 payment in money, instalments up to three years; 70 interest for delay; 71 deposit within 10 days; 74 reversion request, 90 days, one year; 88 withdrawal; 97 report to tax office and INE; 98 non-judicial deadlines counted under the Administrative Procedure Code; text as amended to Lei n.º 56/2008), checked 2 October 2026
• Diário da República, Decreto-Lei n.º 160/2026, of 4 August (fifth amendment to the Expropriations Code, new article 14: municipal assembly decides for local government expropriations including urgent ones, cross-boundary votes, majority of serving members, date of last vote, minister informed only): https://files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2026/08/14900/0000800009.pdf, checked 2 October 2026
• Procuradoria-Geral Regional de Lisboa, Administrative Procedure Code (Decreto-Lei n.º 4/2015), consolidated: https://www.pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=2248&tabela=leis (article 87: administrative deadlines pause on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays), checked 2 October 2026
• Procuradoria-Geral Regional de Lisboa, Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, consolidated: https://www.pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=4&tabela=leis (article 62: right to property, expropriation only under law and with fair compensation), checked 2 October 2026
• Portal das Finanças, IRS Code, article 44: https://info.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt/pt/informacao_fiscal/codigos_tributarios/cirs_rep/Pages/irs44.aspx (in an expropriation, the sale value is the compensation), checked 2 October 2026
• Portal das Finanças, frequently asked questions, IRS capital gains, question 5868: https://info.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt/pt/apoio_contribuinte/questoes_frequentes/pages/faqs-00566.aspx (expropriation is an onerous transfer; gains declared in Anexo G, or Anexo G1 under the pre-1989 transitional rule in Decreto-Lei n.º 442-A/88, article 5), checked 2 October 2026
• Portal das Finanças, Modelo 3 Anexo G1 form: https://info.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt/pt/apoio_contribuinte/modelos_formularios/irs/Documents/Mod_3_anexo_G1.pdf (gains on property acquired before 1 January 1989 are not taxed and are declared on Anexo G1; carried from verified guide W2B-28), checked 1 October 2026

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