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Registering Rural Land on BUPi in Portugal

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

How to map and register rural land on BUPi: who can do it, what it costs now the free period has ended, the documents, and why unmapped land is a risk.

The Portugal Brief 10 min read

Registering Rural Land on BUPi in Portugal

Last verified: October 2026.

Who this is for

  • You own, inherited, or share a rural plot or a smallholding in Portugal.
  • You are buying or selling rural land and need its map reference for the deed.
  • You live abroad and want to map a family plot without travelling.

Not for you if: you own only a flat or a town house. Read Getting a Certidão Permanente (Land Registry Certificate) in Portugal instead.

Updated October 2026. The free period ended on 30 September 2026. From 1 October 2026, a council technician charges €15 per plot, and land registration costs the ordinary registry fees again.

BUPi (Balcão Único do Prédio, the one-stop land counter) is the state system for mapping rural and mixed plots and registering them at the land registry. You draw your plot's boundary on a map, online or with a technician. The drawing is called an RGG (a georeferenced map of the plot). You then register the plot at the land registry office (Conservatória do Registo Predial).

Drawing it yourself online has no fee in the law. A technician at a BUPi counter now charges €15 per plot, or €10 per plot from the tenth. You need an RGG to sell rural land and to apply for most farm and forest grants.

What BUPi covers

BUPi deals with two kinds of property:

  • Rural plots (prédios rústicos): land outside towns that is not classed as building land.
  • Mixed plots (prédios mistos): a plot with a rural part and an urban part, such as a farmhouse with land around it.

Flats and town houses are not part of BUPi.

BUPi works in council areas that have no full land survey (cadastro predial). That is most of the mainland. If your council already has a survey, you do not need an RGG. You use the plot's existing survey drawing, called a CGP (Configuração Geométrica do Prédio). The Directorate-General for Territory (DGT) has an online viewer that shows whether your council has a survey. The registration rules at the land registry are the same everywhere.

In the Azores and Madeira, the law lists 20 councils with no survey, where BUPi applies. They include Angra do Heroísmo, Horta, Ponta do Sol, Porto Moniz, São Vicente, and Vila do Porto.

What the end of the free period changes

Until 30 September 2026, mapping and registering plots of up to 50 hectares was free. That period has ended, and as of 2 October 2026 no further extension has been published.

What you pay from 1 October 2026:

StepCost
Drawing the plot yourself online or in the appNo fee set in the law
RGG drawn with a council technician at a BUPi counter€15 per plot, up to the ninth
Each further RGG with a council technician€10 per plot, from the tenth
Registering the plot at the land registryOrdinary registry fees
Registry fees when the act covers only rural plots worth under €10,000Ordinary fees reduced by 65%

For one plot, the counter fee is small. For an inherited holding of five scattered plots, it is €75.

The free boundary settlement service (conciliação administrativa), where a technician helps neighbours agree a disputed line, also stopped being free on 30 September 2026.

When you must have an RGG

The law already requires the RGG number in these cases:

  • The deed or document that transfers ownership of a rural or mixed plot.
  • Registering a purchase, or joining or splitting plots, at the land registry.
  • Any request to a public body that changes a plot's shape.
  • Every application for a grant, subsidy, or co-funding that concerns a rural or mixed plot. This includes EU funds, such as farm payments and post-fire replanting support.

There are two exceptions. You do not need to give the number if BUPi already shows an RGG or the plot is on the official survey map. Sales in court enforcement or insolvency cases, and land already declared for public use, are also exempt.

If you are buying, check before you sign that the plot has an RGG. If it has none, the seller must produce it first. See Buying Property in Portugal.

Step 1: draw the plot (the RGG)

You have four ways to do it:

  1. Online on the BUPi platform. Log in with your Citizen Card (Cartão de Cidadão), which needs a card reader, or with the Chave Móvel Digital (mobile digital key) and its PIN. Draw the boundary over the map.
  2. With the BUPi app. Use any phone or tablet with GPS and internet. You can walk the boundary and mark it as you go, or mark it on the map from home.
  3. With Google Earth Pro. Draw the boundary there, save the file, and upload it.
  4. At a BUPi counter. A qualified technician draws it with you. Every participating council has a counter. Registered survey technicians and certified solicitadores (a kind of legal professional) can also help.

If you upload a file, BUPi accepts KML, GPX, TopoJSON, and Shapefile in a .zip. Download the file from the app or Google Earth Pro before you try to upload it.

If you cannot find the plot. This is common with inherited land. Walk it with the app's GPS. Or use the platform's feature that suggests a likely location from nearby plots. The counter technicians can run the same search with you.

What to bring

For the drawing, online or at the counter:

  • Your Citizen Card and its PIN codes, or the Chave Móvel Digital and the phone linked to it.
  • The caderneta predial (the tax record of the plot), which shows each plot's tax register number. At a counter, you can instead give the tax register number and your NIF, and the technician looks it up. See Understanding the Caderneta Predial in Portugal.
  • Any earlier GPS survey of the plot.

For the registration, you also need one document that proves the plot is yours:

  • A deed of purchase or gift.
  • A deed declaring the heirs (habilitação de herdeiros).
  • A court decision giving you ownership.
  • A law or other legal document giving you that right.

Step 2: register the plot

When the RGG is done, go to a land registry office. The office already has the location and boundary. Bring your proof of ownership. You can also ask for the registration online.

If you have no document proving ownership. You can start a justification of rights (justificação de direitos), at the land registry or by notarial deed. You show that you live on or work the land in a way that lets it be registered in your name. This is often based on long possession (usucapião). Ask the land registry office nearest the plot.

If the area is wrong. Old tax records often show the wrong area.

  • If the area in the caderneta is wrong, do the RGG first. The tax office is told the new area automatically.
  • If another detail in the caderneta is wrong, such as a neighbour's name, go to the tax office first. Then do the RGG.
  • If the area at the land registry is wrong, do the RGG, then ask the registry to correct the area to match it.

You must ask for a change of area, tax register number, parish, or council at the land registry within two months of the RGG.

Who can do the RGG

You can do it if you are any of these:

  • The person named in the caderneta.
  • The registered owner or holder of a life interest (usufruct).
  • Anyone who may request registration, such as the buyer or seller, the giver or receiver of a gift, a co-owner, or an heir to an undivided estate.
  • Anyone with a power of attorney from one of the above.

Some common cases:

  • The plot is in the name of an estate. Any heir can do it. Bring the caderneta and one of these: the estate's NIF, the deed declaring the heirs, the stamp duty filing, or the will with the death recorded on it.
  • Several co-owners. One co-owner can do it, but all the others named in the caderneta must be listed.
  • The plot is in one spouse's name. The other spouse can do it using the caderneta details. Ownership is dealt with at registration.
  • A company owns it. Give the company number and the access code to its permanent commercial certificate.
  • You act for someone else. A simple power of attorney is enough. It needs only the signature and the ID document details of the person giving it. BUPi publishes a free model. If that person cannot sign, someone signs at their request, and that signature must be certified by a registry office, notary, lawyer, or solicitador.
  • You are not named anywhere. Fill in BUPi's sworn statement of standing (declaração de legitimidade). It covers most cases.

If the plot is not on the tax register

Some plots are missing from the tax register altogether. In councils covered by BUPi, the steps are:

  1. At the BUPi counter, sign a declaration that starts the process and a provisional RGG.
  2. At the tax office, apply to add the plot, with a written acceptance from at least one neighbouring owner.
  3. When you have the tax register number, go back to the counter to finish the RGG. Then register the plot.

Neighbours and overlaps

BUPi works on what owners declare, so conflicts appear. Two rules save time:

  • Never draw over public land. If your drawing overlaps a road or a river, the technician will refuse it.
  • You can still register if you overlap a neighbour who has not mapped their plot. Your RGG is accepted "with reservation" (com reserva).

If every neighbouring owner validates your RGG, it counts as an official survey for all legal purposes once it reaches the official survey map. The DGT tells the owners when this happens.

The state now clears reservations through public consultations. The first opened on 20 May 2026 in Gouveia, for 60 working days. In a consultation you can view the drawings on BUPi's public map and object online or at the counter. Attach every document when you object, because you cannot add any later. Neighbouring plots that nobody identifies during a consultation go into the no-known-owner process below.

What happens to land nobody claims

The state has a process for rural and mixed plots with no known owner, meaning not registered to anyone:

  1. Notice. The Institute of Registries and Notary (IRN) identifies the plot and publishes a notice on its website and on BUPi for 180 days. If nobody claims it, the plot is treated as having no known owner.
  2. Provisional registration for the state. The plot is registered to the state on a provisional basis for 15 years. A state forestry company, Florestgal, manages it. In that time it cannot be sold or charged for good.
  3. Final registration. After 15 years with no owner coming forward, the managing body tells the IRN. A second notice gives interested people 30 days to respond. If nobody proves ownership, the plot becomes state property.

During the 15 years, anyone who proves ownership gets the land back. But the process starts with a notice you may never see.

Other recent changes

  • The state will write to you. BUPi must tell each person named in a rural tax record, every quarter, by email or post, the estimated location of their plot, so they can do the RGG.
  • Joining adjoining plots. You can now ask BUPi to merge adjoining rural plots. The registry starts the process within 90 days if an RGG exists. If something is missing, you have 10 days to supply it, which you can do on the platform.
  • Group mapping. Forest management bodies, landscape management areas, and farmer and forest producer groups may map plots for their members. If your land is in one of these areas, ask whether they are doing it.
  • Public bodies have a deadline. The state, regions, councils, and public institutes must map their own private land by 31 December 2027.

What to do now

  1. List every rural or mixed plot you own or share, and download the caderneta for each from the Portal das Finanças.
  2. Check on the DGT viewer whether each council has an official survey.
  3. Check BUPi's public map for an existing RGG. A co-heir or a forest group may have done it already.
  4. For anything missing, draw it yourself online or book a counter appointment.
  5. Register at the land registry with your proof of ownership, or start a justification if you have none.
  6. If you corrected an area, ask the registry for the change within two months.

If you inherited land, see Making a Will and Handling an Inheritance in Portugal. BUPi information for Portuguese citizens living abroad is also on the Portal das Comunidades Portuguesas.

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

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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