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A wide daytime view over the dense apartment blocks and red-tiled roofs of Odivelas on the northern edge of Lisbon, rising up a green hillside towards transmitter masts on the ridge.

Buying a Repossessed Property at Auction in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Two Separate Systems, the 85 and 70 Percent Opening Prices, the 15 Days to Pay, and the Charges That Vanish

Judicial sales open at 85 percent of a base that is the higher of tax value and market value. Tax sales open at 70 percent of the tax value and can fall to 20. The mortgage disappears; the preference rights and the missing habitation licence do not.

The Portugal Brief 04 Sep 2026

A Portuguese PSP police station on a street corner with its blue Policia sign, a marked patrol car parked outside and a calcada pavement in front.

The PSP Took In 265 Firearms and Nearly Six Thousand Rounds Over Two Months, and Non-Renewal Gives You 180 Days

The third Armas em Seguranca summer tour ran from 29 June to 31 August with 124 officers. It collected more guns than either previous year and more ammunition than the two earlier editions combined, and set out what happens when a licence lapses.

The Portugal Brief 03 Sep 2026

The white facade and glazed entrance of the Policia Judiciaria national headquarters in Lisbon, with the force name in metal lettering and flagpoles by the door.

The Officer Who Told the Prosecutor General That Portugal's Police Chief Lied in Court Has Been Moved to the Training School

David Freitas sent his complaint about Carlos Cabreiro to the Prosecutor General a month before it reached the press. It was reported on 27 August. His transfer order was signed on 28 August, and cites the convenience of service.

The Portugal Brief 03 Sep 2026

The Balcão dos Registos counter at the Campus de Justiça in Lisbon, with a row of people waiting on chairs to the left and staff serving behind the curved reception desk on the right.

Changing Your Name in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Six-Word Limit, the 200 Euro Process, the One Official in Lisbon Who Decides, and the Seven Changes That Need No Permission at All

Portugal lets you give a newborn six words of name and then makes an adult apply to the conservador dos Registos Centrais to alter one letter of it. What article 104 exempts, what marriage and divorce do to surnames, the free route under Lei 38/2018, and why foreign residents cannot use any of it.

The Portugal Brief 03 Sep 2026

The Palácio de São Bento in Lisbon, seat of the Portuguese parliament, its white neoclassical facade and columned portico seen from the street, with the Portuguese flag flying above the roof.

Portugal's Data Watchdog and Its Bar Association Both Back a New Digital Identity Theft Crime, Then Ask Parliament to Rewrite Almost Every Line of It

Two opinions on Chega's Projeto de Lei 697/XVII/1 reached the Constitutional Affairs Committee this week. The lawyers cite 61,798 cyber incidents in 2025, 78 percent of them account takeovers. The CNPD found paragraphs that repeat themselves and a numbering scheme with holes in it.

The Portugal Brief 03 Sep 2026

The entrance concourse of the Campus de Justiça de Lisboa in Parque das Nações, with the signboard listing the registries and people walking through the doors

Crédit Agricole and Its Insurer Take Ricardo Salgado, Morais Pires and Rioforte to a Lisbon Court for Just Over a Billion Euros

Two civil claims filed in July and distributed on Monday to the Lisbon Central Civil Court seek 855 million euros for the bank and 152.8 million for Predica, twelve years after the resolution of Banco Espírito Santo wiped out their stake.

The Portugal Brief 02 Sep 2026

The perimeter wall, iron gate and watchtower of a Portuguese prison, a white crenellated building set back behind stone walls on a quiet street.

Six Months of Strike at Vale de Judeus, and It Is the Prisoners Who Are Locked In 22 Hours a Day

The strike began on 10 March and now runs to the end of September. The union says the yard netting, the security towers and the reorganised activity timetable promised after the 2024 escape have still not arrived.

The Portugal Brief 02 Sep 2026

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