Homeowners in Planned Areas Can Now Start Building Work on a Filed Notice, as Portugal's Permit Overhaul Takes Effect With 20-Day Licence Deadlines

A broad revision of the rules for getting building work approved in Portugal took effect on Thursday 1 October. Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 (Decree-Law 108/2026), published on 29 May, amends the Regime Jurídico da Urbanização e Edificação, or RJUE (the legal regime for urbanisation and building). It was due to apply from August, but a second decree, Decreto-Lei n.º 155-B/2026, moved the date to 1 October to leave time for the implementing regulations and for councils to adapt their online platforms.

The decree was approved by the Council of Ministers on 27 March. Its preamble says it corrects the 2024 "Simplex" licensing reform, Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024, which was applied very differently from one council to the next.

Despite headlines about simpler municipal planning, the decree does not amend the law on plans. Its first article lists what it changes: the RJUE, the urban rehabilitation regime, the 2024 Simplex decree and the 1951 Regulamento Geral das Edificações Urbanas, or RGEU (general urban building regulations). It is also a different instrument from the single code for licensing businesses that the government is still drafting. We reported on the decree when it was published at the end of May; this is the date it starts to apply.

File, pay, notify, build

The central change concerns the comunicação prévia (prior notification). The decree's preamble says that, in practice, it had already stopped being a form of prior control, since councils only checked that the documents had been handed in. Under the new Article 34 of the RJUE, a correctly completed notification lets the owner start work once the fees are paid and the start of works is reported, "dispensing with any permitting act". Fees can be self-assessed, and councils must allow at least 60 days from submission to pay them.

Prior notification applies to building, alteration, extension and demolition works in areas where a detailed plan, an execution unit or an approved subdivision already fixes the key parameters: building lines, footprint, height, number of floors, maximum number of homes, floor area and uses. It also covers works in a consolidated urban area that respect the municipal plans and rise no higher than the most common façade height on that stretch of street, and pools attached to a main house. Where prior notification applies, the owner cannot choose a full licence instead.

The council checks afterwards. It can ask once for missing documents, due within 10 days, and can declare the notification inept if the rules were not met. That after-the-fact check now expires one year after the fees are paid, or when the building starts being used if that is later. Inspection of the works themselves remains possible at any time.

Shorter licensing deadlines, with tacit approval

Where a full licence is still needed, the decree drops the overall deadlines that the 2024 reform tied to gross floor area. Under the new Article 23, the council must decide within 20 days for building and demolition works, counted from the submission of the engineering projects, 30 days for urbanisation works and 45 days for subdivisions. If it does not, the application is tacitly approved. The last two can be extended once for especially complex cases.

The preliminary check of a licence application now has a 20-day window. If the council does not reject the application, ask for corrections or extend the deadline within that time, the file is deemed complete and the decision deadline cannot be stretched. Outside opinions not tied to the site's location must be attached by the applicant at the start, and only one round of project changes is allowed after the applicant is heard on a draft refusal.

What it means for a homeowner

Conservation work and interior alterations that leave the exterior unchanged (and either do not touch the structure or come with a signed stability project) remain exempt from both a licence and a notification. Reconstruction stays exempt, but it is now defined as restoring the building to its "last valid antecedent". Rebuilding with more volume or floor area counts as an extension and needs approval. Replacing window frames with more energy-efficient ones that keep the same geometry and outside finish is classed as minor work, now also in the protection zones around listed buildings.

Once licensed or notified works are finished, the owner submits a simple notification, with a statement from the site director that the work matches the project, and can use the building straight away. Where no such works preceded a new use, a "prior notification with deadline" applies instead so the council can inspect.

The paperwork matters for buyers. The application form itself, with the fee receipt and the approval (or the proof of submission, where approval was tacit), now serves as the legal title. In any sale of building land, a finished home or one under construction, the notary, lawyer or registrar must record whether a planning title exists, whether the seller declares having one, or whether the seller declares having none. A deed without that mention can be annulled.

Challenges are also time-limited. A council's power to declare a licence or favourable prior information void now lapses three years after the decision was issued, as does the right of the Ministério Público (Public Prosecutor's Office) or citizens to sue, except for national monuments or where the facts amount to a crime.

Applications already in the system

The new rules apply to procedures started from 1 October and to earlier ones still at the preliminary-check stage. The shorter deadlines for declaring nullity also apply to existing licences, counted from 1 October, unless the old period would end sooner. The standard forms are set out in Portaria n.º 320/2026/1 (Ordinance 320/2026/1), which took effect on the same day. The repeal of the 1951 RGEU now waits for new technical building rules.

The Associação Nacional de Municípios Portugueses, ANMP (National Association of Portuguese Municipalities), told the Lusa news agency, in a report carried by Observador, that councils will need "more robust and capable inspection teams" and that "only in a few months" will it be possible to judge the impact. The Ordem dos Arquitetos (Order of Architects) asked for a "permanent and real-time" monitoring committee to oversee the transition.