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Selling Your House in Portugal

How to sell a home in Portugal, from documents and deed to capital gains tax, the reliefs you can claim, and declaring the sale.

Selling Your House in Portugal

Last verified: September 2026.

Who this is for

  • You own a home in Portugal and plan to sell it, whether you live here or abroad.
  • You want to know the steps, the costs, and how much capital gains tax you will owe.
  • You sold a home this year and must declare the gain on next year's tax return.

Not for you if: you are buying, not selling. Read "Buying Property in Portugal as a Foreigner" instead.

Updated September 2026. A new relief removes the tax if you reinvest in homes let at moderate rents, and from 1 October 2026 the deed must say whether the home has a use licence.

Selling a home in Portugal has four stages. You gather documents, sign a promissory contract, sign the deed, and declare the gain on next year's tax return. Allow two to three months from an accepted offer to the deed. You pay the estate agent. Capital gains tax (mais-valias) is paid the year after the sale. Residents and non-residents both pay income tax on half the gain, at rates from 12.5% to 48%. Reinvesting in a new main home can remove the tax altogether.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Property gains can be large, so for your own sale check the figures with a certified accountant (contabilista certificado), a solicitor (solicitador), or a lawyer.

The steps, in order

  1. Collect your documents. Do this before you list. The buyer's lawyer will check them before paying any deposit.
  2. Get an energy certificate. You need one before you advertise the home.
  3. List the home and accept an offer. Most sellers use a licensed estate agent. Check the agent's licence (AMI number) on the IMPIC register.
  4. Sign the promissory contract. The buyer pays a deposit, and both of you commit to a deed date.
  5. Settle your mortgage, if you have one. Your bank tells you the exact payoff figure and releases the mortgage at the deed.
  6. Sign the deed. Ownership passes, the buyer pays, and the sale is registered.
  7. Declare the sale on your income tax return between 1 April and 30 June of the following year, even if no tax is due.

Documents to gather before you list

  • Property tax record (caderneta predial). Free to download from the Portal das Finanças. It shows the tax value and description of the property.
  • Land registry certificate (certidão permanente). It shows the owner, any mortgage, and any other charge. Order it online from the Predial Online service. It costs €15 and is valid for six months.
  • Energy certificate (certificado energético). Issued by an expert registered with ADENE, valid for ten years.
  • Use licence (licença or autorização de utilização). It confirms the home can legally be lived in. Buildings from before August 1951 may not have one; the council can confirm this. See the next section for the October 2026 change.
  • Condominium debt statement. For a flat, ask the building administrator for a written statement of any charges you owe. The administrator must issue it within ten days.
  • Mortgage payoff letter. If you have a mortgage, ask your bank for the balance due on the deed date and its release of the mortgage.
  • Your purchase papers. Your original deed, the receipts for the property transfer tax (IMT) and stamp duty you paid, and every invoice for improvements. You need these for the tax calculation, not for the buyer.

Check that the description on the tax record matches the land registry. Areas, floors, or annexes that differ must be put right before the deed, and that can take weeks.

The promissory contract and the deposit

Once you accept an offer, you and the buyer usually sign a promissory contract (contrato promessa de compra e venda, or CPCV). It is a private contract, but it binds you both.

The buyer pays a deposit (sinal), often 10% to 20% of the price. If the buyer walks away without good reason, you keep the deposit. If you walk away, you must pay back double the deposit.

Agree these points in the contract:

  • The latest date for the deed, often 60 to 90 days away.
  • What happens if the buyer's mortgage is refused. Usually the deposit is returned.
  • Who pays for which certificates and searches.
  • Whether IMI for the year is shared, and which furniture stays.

Do not sign until your bank has confirmed the mortgage payoff figure. A fixed deed date with an unknown payoff can leave you short.

Signing the deed

The deed transfers ownership. You can sign it in three ways:

  • At a notary (notário). The traditional route. The notary reads the deed aloud before you sign.
  • At a Casa Pronta counter. A one-stop service at land registry offices that does the deed and the registration together. It costs €375 for a simple sale and €700 when the buyer also takes a mortgage. The buyer usually pays.
  • By an authenticated private document. A lawyer or solicitor prepares and certifies the contract and then registers it.

The buyer pays the price by bank transfer or banker's cheque. If you have a mortgage, your bank is paid first from the proceeds. You can sign through someone else with a power of attorney (procuração) if you cannot attend.

From 1 October 2026, the deed must state whether the home has a use licence or other planning title. Since 2024 you have not had to show the licence at the deed. The new rule does not bring that back, but the buyer will see clearly if one is missing. Expect buyers and their banks to ask for it anyway.

If you sell a flat, you must also hand over the administrator's debt statement at the deed. The buyer can waive it only by accepting, in the deed, any debt you owe to the building.

What selling costs you

As the seller, you usually pay:

  • The estate agent's commission. Often around 5% of the price, plus VAT at 23%. It is negotiable, so agree it in writing.
  • The energy certificate. A registration fee of €28 to €65 plus VAT, plus the expert's fee, usually €120 to €300.
  • Certificates. €15 for the land registry certificate.
  • Your own lawyer or solicitor, if you use one.
  • Mortgage release costs charged by your bank, if any.
  • Capital gains tax, the following year.

The buyer pays the property transfer tax (IMT), stamp duty of 0.8% of the price, and the deed and registration fees. Private arrangements to share these do not change who owes them to Finanças.

IMI in the year of sale. The annual property tax (IMI) is charged to whoever owns the home on 31 December. If you sell in July, you still pay that year's instalments, and the buyer pays from the next year. Sharing the cost is customary but not required. Write it into the promissory contract if you agree to it. See "Paying IMI Property Tax in Portugal".

How capital gains tax works

The gain on selling a property is taxed as income under IRS, Portugal's personal income tax. The rule is the same for residents and non-residents:

  • Only 50% of the gain is taxed.
  • That half is added to your other income for the year.
  • It is taxed at the normal income tax rates, which run from 12.5% to 48% in 2026.
  • On taxable income above €80,000, a solidarity surcharge of 2.5% applies, rising to 5% above €250,000.

Your real rate therefore depends on how much else you earned that year. Selling in a year with low income can cut the bill.

Homes bought before 1989. If you acquired the property before 1 January 1989, the gain is not taxed at all. You must still declare the sale.

How the gain is calculated

The taxable gain is not simply the sale price minus the purchase price. The law allows these adjustments:

  • Inflation uplift. If you owned the property for more than 24 months, your purchase price is multiplied by an official coefficient (coeficiente de desvalorização monetária). The government publishes a new table each year. The older the purchase, the bigger the uplift.
  • Buying costs. Add the IMT and stamp duty you paid, plus notary and registration fees.
  • Improvements. Add work that increased the property's value in the 12 years before the sale. You need proper invoices with your NIF on them. Work you cannot prove does not count.
  • Selling costs. Deduct the agent's commission and the energy certificate from the gain.

Routine repairs and maintenance do not count as improvements. Only work that adds value does, such as a new kitchen, an extension, or a new roof.

A worked example. You are resident. You bought a flat in 2014 for €200,000 and paid €13,000 in IMT, stamp duty, and fees. You sell it in 2026 for €320,000 and pay €12,000 in commission.

  1. In the latest official table (for sales in 2025), the coefficient for a 2014 purchase is 1.20. Your adjusted purchase price is €240,000.
  2. Your gain is €320,000 minus €240,000, minus €13,000, minus €12,000. That is €55,000.
  3. Half of it, €27,500, is added to your income.
  4. At a marginal rate of 34.9%, the tax is roughly €9,600.

The table for sales in 2026 is usually published in November, and every figure in it shifts, so use the table for the year you actually sell. Reinvest in a new main home, as explained below, and the tax can fall to zero.

Reliefs that can remove the tax

1. Reinvesting in a new main home. If you are resident and sell your own permanent home (habitação própria e permanente), the gain is exempt when you reinvest the money in another permanent home. The conditions are:

  • The home you sell was your registered tax address for the 12 months before the sale. Exceptions exist for marriage, divorce, or a new child.
  • You reinvest in a home in Portugal or elsewhere in the EU or EEA. Buying land and building also counts.
  • You reinvest between 24 months before and 36 months after the sale.
  • You reinvest the sale price minus the mortgage you paid off on the old home.
  • You move into the new home, and register it as your tax address, within 12 months of buying it.
  • You state the amount you intend to reinvest on the tax return for the year of the sale.

If you reinvest only part of the money, only that share of the gain is exempt. If you do not complete the reinvestment in time, Finanças taxes the gain and adds interest. If a purchase falls through and you go to court over it, the deadline pauses until the case ends.

Finanças counts your own money put into the new home. Whether money borrowed through a new mortgage counts has been disputed, so take advice if you rely on it.

2. Reinvesting in homes let at moderate rents. This relief is new in 2026 and covers sales from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2029. It applies to your main home and to other homes, such as a second home. The gain is exempt if:

  • You reinvest the proceeds in homes in Portugal, between 24 months before and 36 months after the sale.
  • You let the new home within six months, at no more than €2,300 a month.
  • It is let for at least 36 months in its first five years.
  • You do not sell it within five years.

Break a condition and the gain is taxed, with interest, in the year it happens.

3. Over 65 or retired. If you or your spouse are retired or aged 65 or over, you can exempt the gain on your main home another way. Within six months of the sale, put the proceeds into a life insurance savings contract, an open pension fund, the public top-up pension scheme, or a Pan-European Personal Pension Product. The contract must pay you a regular income for at least ten years. Each year it may pay out no more than 7.5% of what you invested.

Paying off a mortgage. Temporary rules once exempted gains used to pay off the mortgage on your main home. They applied to past sales only and are not open for a sale in 2026. If you think a past sale qualified, speak to a tax adviser.

If you live outside Portugal

If you are not tax resident in Portugal, you still pay tax in Portugal on a gain from Portuguese property.

  • The 50% rule applies to you. Since 2023, non-residents are taxed on half the gain at the same progressive rates as residents. The old flat 28% on the whole gain no longer applies.
  • Your worldwide income sets the rate. You must declare your income from all countries so Finanças can work out the rate. Only the Portuguese gain is taxed.
  • The main-home reinvestment relief is not open to you. Finanças's position is that you cannot claim it once you are non-resident, because the home you sell is no longer your permanent home.
  • The moderate-rent relief does not require residence in the wording of the law. Check with an adviser before you rely on it.
  • Your home country may tax the gain too. A double tax treaty usually lets you offset the Portuguese tax. See "Avoiding Double Taxation in Portugal".

If you live outside the EU or EEA, you need a fiscal representative or electronic notifications switched on at Finanças. See "Appointing a Fiscal Representative in Portugal".

Declaring the sale on your tax return

You declare the sale on your IRS return (Modelo 3) for the year of the sale. You file between 1 April and 30 June of the following year. A sale in 2026 goes on the return you file in spring 2027.

  1. Use Anexo G, the capital gains annex, for a taxable sale or a reinvestment claim.
  2. Enter the sale price and date, the purchase price and date, your costs and improvements, and the buyer's NIF.
  3. If you plan to reinvest, enter the amount in the reinvestment section.
  4. For a home bought before 1989, use Anexo G1 instead.
  5. Check any figures Finanças has pre-filled from the deed against your own papers.

Keep every invoice and receipt. Finanças can ask for them for several years. If you file on time, the tax is usually due by 31 August. See "Filing Your Annual Income Tax Return (IRS) in Portugal".

Special cases

  • Inherited property. Your purchase value is the tax value used for the inheritance stamp duty. If the property is not yet in your name, read "Getting a Declaration of Heirs (Habilitação de Herdeiros)" first.
  • Married couples. If the home belongs to both of you, both of you sign the contract and the deed. Each spouse declares their share of the gain.
  • Property in a company. The company pays corporate tax on the gain, not you. Get advice before accepting an offer.
  • Short-term lets. If the home has a short-term rental registration (alojamento local), ask the council whether it passes to the buyer or must be cancelled. Close the activity with Finanças.
  • Golden Visa homes. If your residence permit depends on the property, selling it early can end the permit. Check with AIMA before you sign.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Losing improvement invoices. Without invoices showing your NIF, the work does not count.
  • Forgetting to state the reinvestment. The exemption is not automatic. You must enter the amount on the return.
  • Missing the reinvestment window. A purchase outside the 24 months before or 36 months after the sale does not count.
  • Moving abroad before selling your main home. Once non-resident, you lose the main-home reinvestment relief.
  • Signing the promissory contract before the mortgage payoff is known.
  • Not declaring an exempt sale. Every sale must go on the return.

Sources

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

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