Seguro Promulgates the Pacote Fiscal Habitação on Monday Evening 12 May — IVA on Moderate-Price Construction Drops to 6%, IRS on Moderate Rents Falls From 25% to 10% Through 2029, Non-Resident IMT on Habitação Locks Fixed at 7.5% Without Isenções

The Presidência da República confirmed late on Monday evening, 12 May 2026, that António José Seguro had promulgated the decree-law that regulates the Pacote Fiscal Habitação — the executive instrument that activates the legislative authorization given to the Governo under Lei n.º 9-A/2026 of 6 March (promulgated by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in the final weeks of his mandate before the Belém handover). The decree-law walks four headline measures into force: the IVA-on-construction reduction to 6% for moderate-price-or-rent residential projects, the IRS autonomous-rate cut on rental income from 25% to 10% through 2029 for monthly rents up to €2,300, a fixed-rate Imposto Municipal sobre Transmissões Onerosas (IMT) at 7.5% for non-residents acquiring residential property, and capital-gains and Imposto do Selo carve-outs for proceeds reinvested in the rental market. Diário da República publication is pending; the measures enter into force on the day following the DR publication.

The IRS Rental-Income Cut — 25% to 10% Through 2029

The headline item on the senhorio side: the taxa autónoma de IRS sobre rendimentos prediais (Categoria F) drops from the long-standing 25% to 10% for monthly rents that do not exceed €2,300 — the equivalent of 2.5 times the 2026 Salário Mínimo Nacional of €920. The rate cut runs as a transitional measure through 2029, after which the regime is scheduled for parliamentary review. Above the €2,300 threshold the standard 25% taxa autónoma continues to apply. The Governo's institutional brief frames the measure as a supply-side stimulus on the formal-rental tape, where the mercado paralelo (informal sub-letting on the cash channel, outside the Portal das Finanças contract registry) has historically been the structural drag on Portuguese rental supply.

For business-rental operators (corporate landlords on the IRC side or self-employed landlords in Categoria B of IRS), the parallel measure: only 50% of rental income counts toward IRC or IRS Categoria B taxation on the moderate-rent envelope through the same 2029 window — a structurally distinct mechanism since IRC operates on a 21% (general) and 17% (PME first-€50,000) tape with municipal-derrama adders, but with the practical effect of halving the marginal-rate burden on the corporate-rental side.

The IVA-on-Construction Cut — 23% to 6% on the Moderate-Price-or-Rent Envelope

The construction-side intervention is the reduction of the IVA on new-build residential construction from the standard 23% rate (Lista I of the CIVA) to the 6% reduced rate — but conditional on the project's commercialisation envelope landing inside the moderate-price or moderate-rent definitions. A new-build apartment block sold below the €660,982 per unit moderate-price threshold (indexed annually to the IMT bracket schedule) qualifies, as does a build-to-rent operation where the contracted rents stay below the €2,300 monthly moderate-rent threshold. Above either threshold, the standard 23% IVA applies. The reduced rate cascades through the construction-input chain — labour, materials, sub-contractor work — provided the prime-contractor invoice carries the reduced-rate flag.

The parallel obras de remodelação regime, in force since 25 September 2025 and running through 31 December 2029, provides for partial IVA refunds on renovation works to primary residences for individual taxpayers, anchored on the same moderate-price framework. The reembolso is granted up to a ceiling per fiscal year and processed through the Portal das Finanças within the IRS Modelo 3 declaration cycle.

The Non-Resident IMT — Fixed at 7.5% Without Isenções or Reduções

The measure with the most direct impact on the foreign-resident purchase tape: for non-residents acquiring residential property in Portugal, the IMT rate locks at a fixed 7.5%, with no isenções (exemptions) or reduções (rate reductions) for any property-value bracket. This breaks the prior IMT structure, which ran a progressive 1%-8% bracket schedule on the resident side with full exemption on first-residence acquisitions up to the lower bracket floor (~€101,917 in the 2026 IMT-table baseline) and a graduated taper into the 8% top bracket above ~€659,754. Non-resident buyers — defined under the standard CIRS Article 16 residence test (≤183 days in Portugal across the fiscal year) — now pay 7.5% flat on the entire acquisition price, regardless of whether the buyer is acquiring their first or fifth Portuguese property.

The structural intent on the Governo's side is the rebalancing of the buyer-pool composition. The IMT progressive schedule on the resident side has continued to operate as a relative incentive for resident acquisitions; the 7.5% flat on the non-resident side both raises the marginal cost for foreign buyers on lower-priced units (the €100k-€500k tape that previously enjoyed bracket-floor exemption or low-bracket rates) and walks the tax-cost-of-ownership higher for the second-home / golden-visa-adjacent / D7-D8 portfolios that have shaped the post-2020 foreign-buyer pattern in Lisbon, Cascais, Sintra, Comporta and the Algarve.

Capital-Gains and Imposto-do-Selo Carve-Outs

Two structural exemptions on the seller side: IRS capital-gains exemption for proceeds from the sale of residential property where the seller commits to reinvesting the proceeds into the rental market at rents below the €2,300 moderate-rent threshold, with a documented contract trail through the Portal das Finanças within a defined reinvestment window (typically 36 months under the precedent IRS Capital-Gains reinvestment provisions). And IMT and Imposto do Selo exemption for acquisitions of residential property destined for the rental market, again under the moderate-rent threshold and with binding-occupancy declarations registered on the AT portal.

The two carve-outs work in series with the IRS-on-rental cut and the IVA-on-construction cut to push capital toward the long-term moderate-rent supply pipeline — a structurally distinct objective from the prior Mais Habitação package (Lei n.º 56/2023), which leaned heavily on the limitation-of-Alojamento-Local-licences and short-term-rental restriction track. The Pacote Fiscal Habitação 2026 instead prices supply through fiscal mechanics, leaving the AL framework largely undisturbed.

The Tenant-Side Deduction Increase — €700 → €900 → €1,000

For tenants under residential lease contracts registered on the Portal das Finanças (the contrato de arrendamento with the AT stamp), the IRS Categoria F deduction on rental expense rises from €700 in the prior fiscal year to €900 for the 2026 fiscal year and to €1,000 from 2027 onwards. The deduction operates inside the standard IRS Modelo 3 declaration cycle, with the documentary trail running through the AT-portal rental-contract registration and the monthly recibos de renda issued by the senhorio under the formal-rental rail.

The Legislative Chain — Lei 9-A/2026 and the Council-of-Ministers Approval

The decree-law promulgated 12 May 2026 sits inside a multi-stage legislative chain. The autorização legislativa (the parliamentary authorisation under Article 165 of the Constituição da República for the Governo to legislate by decree-law on a matter of parliamentary reserve) was approved by the Assembleia da República in February 2026 with Chega's abstenção as the decisive vote — the PS-and-BE bench voted against, IL voted for. That authorisation was Lei n.º 9-A/2026 of 6 March, promulgated by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and published in Diário da República in March. The corresponding decreto-lei, which operationalises the authorisation, was approved at the Conselho de Ministros of 27 March 2026, and walked through the Belém technical-and-political review through April and into early May before landing on the presidential desk for promulgation in the second week of May. Seguro signed on Monday evening 12 May. DR publication is pending; entry into force runs the day following the DR publication, in line with the standard vacatio legis norm for fiscal-decree-law promulgations under Lei n.º 74/98 (Lei Formulário) and the Código de Procedimento Administrativo.

The Conjuntura Read — Inflation, Construction Costs, Garantia Jovens Cliff

The promulgation lands inside a complex fiscal-and-housing conjuncture. The April 2026 INE preliminary-print read CPI inflation at 3.36% homóloga (final confirmation print due this week), the highest since September 2023, with energy inflation at 11.69% and unprocessed-food inflation back at 2.42%; the underlying inflation rose to 2.21%. The March 2026 INE new-housing-construction-cost print read +5.8% homóloga, with the labour component at +8.2% and materials at +3.7% — the structural cost-of-build pressure that the IVA reduction is intended to offset. The Garantia Jovens youth-buyer mortgage rail walks into its December 2026 €1-billion cliff with 32,338 contracts signed and €905 million already drawn (per Sunday evening's coverage); the new Pacote Fiscal Habitação intersects with the Garantia Jovens rail on the moderate-price-buyer side of the housing-tape architecture.

The Expat-Resident Read — Three Distinct Channels

The Pacote Fiscal Habitação hits foreign residents through three structurally distinct channels. First, the non-resident IMT at 7.5% flat is the central change for prospective buyers: foreign nationals on the D7 (passive-income retirement), D8 (digital-nomad), Golden-Visa-track or pure-investor pattern who buy Portuguese residential property before they qualify as Portuguese tax residents (the 183-day test under Article 16 of the CIRS) now pay 7.5% on the entire acquisition value, with no progressive-bracket relief on the first €101,917, and no first-home exemption. Pre-2026 plans that depended on the bracket-floor exemption (a typical move for D7 retirees buying a €200k-€400k Algarve or Cascais property as their first Portuguese home before establishing tax residency) need to be re-priced — the gap is roughly €5,000-€18,000 in additional IMT on the typical envelope.

Second, the resident-side IRS rental cut at 10% from 25% benefits foreign tax-residents on the senhorio side: foreign residents who own rental property on the resident-tax-residency status (post-183-day test, or post-Q3 election under the early-arrival regime), and who let at moderate rents (under the €2,300 threshold), see their marginal effective tax rate drop from 25% to 10% on rental income through 2029. The drop is structurally larger than the headline 15-percentage-point cut suggests because the 25% taxa autónoma was applied on the gross rental basis after the standard deductible-expense haircut; the 10% rate continues on that same basis, leaving the operating-cash-flow line measurably stronger.

Third, the tenant-side IRS deduction increase to €900/€1,000 benefits foreign residents who rent rather than own, particularly the working-age expat population in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and the Algarve who pay rent above €1,000-€1,200/month — the increased deduction at the margin captures more of the rental expense in the IRS Modelo 3 cycle. The documentary chain (Portal das Finanças contract registration; monthly recibos de renda from the senhorio; AT-side declaration via the IRS Modelo 3 Anexo H) is unchanged.

For the NHR / RNH residual tape (the Non-Habitual Resident regime that the IGF audited at €1.74 billion in 2024 with 128,958 beneficiaries — per Tuesday's coverage of the latemorning briefing), the Pacote Fiscal Habitação layers on top of the existing RNH framework without displacing it: a non-resident pre-NHR buyer pays 7.5% IMT today; a post-NHR-registration buyer transitions onto the resident-side progressive IMT once tax residency is established and the property is the first habitação.

What's Next — DR Publication, AT Operationalisation, Q3 IRS Refunds

The remaining operational milestones: Diário da República publication in the days following Seguro's Monday-evening promulgation; AT operationalisation of the new IRS Categoria F autonomous rate at 10% on the Portal das Finanças Modelo 3 cycle (the existing 25% line stays in place for above-threshold rents); IMT-portal update for the non-resident 7.5% rate on Finanças's IMT calculator; and Conselho de Finanças Públicas (CFP) mid-year fiscal-impact assessment of the package, scheduled in the standard summer review window. The Governo estimates the fiscal cost at roughly €400-500 million in 2026, ramping to €700-800 million by 2029, against a structural-supply-stimulus claim that the IL-and-PSD bench has flagged for parliamentary monitoring.

The Pacote Fiscal Habitação is the largest single fiscal intervention on the Portuguese housing tape since the 1994 introduction of the autonomous IRS rate on rental income. It will be read against the next IGCP issuance window, the May-June bank-mortgage origination tape (CGD, BCP, Santander, BPI, Novobanco), the Garantia Jovens 12-month residual disbursement, and the AT-side rental-contract registration flow over the second half of 2026.

Source whitelist compliance: Presidência da República institutional release (Tier 1, presidencia.pt); Diário da República (Lei n.º 9-A/2026 de 6 de março, decreto-lei sob authorisation legislativa) — Tier 1, dre.pt; Constituição da República Portuguesa (Artigo 165) — Tier 1; CIRS Código do IRS, CIMT Código do IMT, CIVA Código do IVA, Lei n.º 74/98 (Lei Formulário) — Tier 1, dre.pt. Conselho de Ministros institutional release of 27 March 2026 — Tier 1, portugal.gov.pt. INE preliminary CPI release (Tier 1, ine.pt); IGF Non-Habitual Residents audit (Tier 1, igf.gov.pt). Conselho de Finanças Públicas — Tier 1, cfp.pt. Observador (observador.pt), Público (publico.pt), ECO (eco.sapo.pt), Jornal de Negócios (jornaldenegocios.pt), Notícias ao Minuto (noticiasaominuto.com), Idealista News (idealista.pt) and Executive Digest (executivedigest.sapo.pt) — Tier 2 — for story discovery and corroboration on the package contents. Portugal Post not consulted (blacklisted).