Checking a Portuguese Property Before You Pay

Before you send a single euro to a Portuguese seller, there are two documents that tell you what you are actually buying. One comes from the tax office. One comes from the land registry. They say different things, and most English-speaking buyers have never heard of either. This guide covers what each one is, who is allowed to ask for it, how to read it, and the order to do it all in. The order is the whole point.

Two honest caveats first. Portuguese property rules get reformed from time to time, and the paperwork that must be produced at a sale has changed in recent years. Treat everything here as a map of what to check rather than a substitute for advice on your own purchase. And this is friendly guidance, not legal advice.

Two documents, two completely different jobs

The caderneta predial is the tax authority's file on a property. It sits in the matriz, the tax register, and it exists so the state can value the property and charge tax on it. Portugal's property tax code is blunt about the limits of that: an entry in the matriz counts as a presumption of ownership for tax purposes only.

The certidão permanente do registo predial is the land registry's file. The registry exists to give publicity to the legal situation of properties, so that people can deal in them safely. A definitive registration is a legal presumption that the right exists and belongs to the person registered, exactly as the registry describes it.

Put simply: the caderneta describes the property, and the certidão proves who owns it and what is hanging off it. You need both, and you need them to agree with each other.

The caderneta predial: what the tax office has on file

The matriz registers hold the characterisation of each property, its location and its taxable value. They also carry the identity of the owners, plus anyone holding a usufruct or a surface right over it. There are two separate registers, one for rural property and one for urban property. Every floor or part of a building capable of independent use is entered separately, with its own taxable value. The registers are refreshed once a year against the position at the end of December.

On the caderneta itself you will find the freguesia and concelho, the property type, the areas, the taxable value, the registered owner, and the artigo matricial. That article number is the property's tax identity. Write it down, because everything else in the process points back to it.

The certidão permanente: what the registry says

The certidão shows every registration made about the property and, crucially, every registration request still pending. Pending entries are the ones people skim past. Something lodged last week and not yet completed can change everything underneath it.

Two rules make the registry worth reading closely. First, priority runs by order of registration, so the right registered first beats the ones that come after it. Second, facts that are subject to registration only take effect against third parties from the date they are registered. You are a third party. That is why the registry, not the seller's reassurance, is where you look.

The certidão carries its own identifier, the número de descrição, the registry description number. It is not the same as the artigo matricial, and confusing the two is a common way to end up reading the wrong property's paperwork.

How to get each one, and who is allowed to ask

The certidão is open to anyone. You do not need the seller's permission or a lawyer to request it. You can do it online through the land registry's own service, or in person at any registry office. You will need the district, concelho and freguesia, the description number, and the letter or number of the flat if the building is divided into fractions. It costs €15 online and €20 at the counter, and it stays valid for six months, with renewal available in its final month.

The caderneta is not open in the same way. One is issued to the taxpayer for each property entered in the register, and owners pull theirs electronically through the Portal das Finanças. Notaries, registrars and the professionals who authenticate private contracts can obtain it electronically and hand it over at no charge. Lawyers and solicitadores can access the information in a caderneta where it relates to a client's genuine interest, under a duty of confidentiality.

So the practical route is: get the certidão yourself, ask the seller for the caderneta, and have your lawyer confirm the caderneta is real and current rather than a screenshot from three owners ago.

Reading them side by side

This is the part that catches problems, and it takes about twenty minutes once you know what you are looking at.

• Is the seller the registered owner? If the name on the certidão is not the person selling, the sale cannot be titled at all. Portuguese law does not allow a transfer to be executed unless the property is definitively registered in the name of the person transferring it. Unregistered inheritances are the usual cause. It is fixable, but only before completion.
• Do the two documents point at the same property? The registry description and the tax entry are meant to be harmonised on location, area and the matriz article number. Check the article number on the caderneta appears on the certidão.
• Do the areas agree, and do they agree with the place you walked through? The law tolerates a gap before it forces a correction. Measured against the larger figure, that is up to 10% for urban property and building land. For rural land it is 20% outside the geometric cadastre and 5% inside it. Anything past that has to be put right, and even inside the tolerance it is worth asking why.
• Does the description match the building? Rooms, floor, annexes, terrace, parking space, storage room. A garage or a cellar that appears on neither document is not being sold to you, whatever the agent says.
• Is anything pending? Read the pending entries before the completed ones.

Ónus e encargos: the things that travel with the property

These are the rights and debts registered against the property itself rather than against its owner. Sell the flat, and they come with it unless they are cleared. Portuguese registry law lists them at length. Mortgages, creditor attachments, insolvency, usufruct, rights of use and habitation, surface rights and easements are all on it. So are finance leases, leases running more than six years and preemption pacts given real effect. The list then closes with a catch-all for any other restriction on ownership and any other charge.

A hipoteca, a mortgage, is normal and not a reason to walk away. It is usually settled out of the purchase price on the day, with the bank issuing the release document. Your lawyer sets that up so the money and the cancellation happen together.

A penhora, an attachment registered by a creditor, is a different signal. So is an insolvency entry. Both mean someone else has a claim on the proceeds, and both need resolving before you are anywhere near a deposit.

A usufruto is the one that surprises people most. It means another person holds the right to use and take the income from the property, sometimes for the rest of their life, while the seller holds only the bare ownership. You can buy that. You just need to know you are buying it.

Then there is preemption. Certain public bodies can hold a legal right of first refusal, which matters most for older buildings and protected areas. The seller publishes the essentials of the deal on the Casa Pronta site so those bodies can say whether they intend to exercise it. That notice costs €15, and it replaced the old routine of collecting a separate clearance from each body.

Rústico or urbano, and why the label decides what you can do

Portugal's tax code splits property into rural and urban. Broadly, rural property is land outside an urban settlement that is used, or normally destined to be used, for farming, forestry or livestock. Urban property is everything that is not rural. Where a property has both a rural and an urban part, it is classified by whichever part is the main one, and if neither is, it counts as mixed.

Urban property then splits again into housing, commercial or industrial or services, building land, and a residual category for everything else. Building land has a specific meaning. It is land for which a licence or a favourable prior communication for subdivision or construction has been granted. It also covers land the council has notified to the tax authority as fit for building under the applicable planning rules.

Why this matters more than it sounds. A gorgeous plot with a ruin on it, sold with the words "you can build here", is very often classified rústico. Rural land does not become building land because a seller is confident. Check the classification on the caderneta, then check the council's planning position separately, before any money moves.

The licença de utilização, and why nobody may check it for you

The use licence is the council's title confirming a building may lawfully be used for the purpose it is being sold for. A flat licensed as a shop, a warehouse or an office is not a home on paper, however convincingly it has been furnished as one.

Here is the part that has quietly shifted. Portugal ran a planning simplification reform that removed the obligation to produce the use permission and the housing technical sheet when an urban property is transferred. The rule that used to force proof of the licence in front of the notary was repealed outright. Nobody at the signing is now required to check it on your behalf.

Under the current regime, a building that has been through a controlled planning process gets its use from documents filed with the câmara municipal. Those are a responsibility statement from the site or supervision manager, confirming the works are finished and built to the approved design, plus as-built drawings where the design changed. The building may be used as soon as that is filed. Changing the use of a building or flat is a separate step. Where no controlled works are involved, it needs a prior communication to the council. That communication has to show the intended use complies with the rules and that the building is suitable for it.

So ask for the use title, read the use written on it, and compare it with what you plan to do. If anything is unclear, ask the câmara municipal for the building's file. A property with no use title, or with one for the wrong use, is a mortgage problem, an insurance problem, a letting problem and a resale problem, all at once.

The certificado energético

An energy certificate is required at the moment a building is sold, given in payment, let, or transferred with a business. It is produced by a qualified assessor and registered on the national energy certification portal, and it is the seller's document to provide.

The cost has two parts. The assessor's fee is not fixed and varies with the building. The registration fee is set by government order. For homes it runs at €28 for a studio or one bedroom, €40.50 for two or three bedrooms, €55 for four or five, and €65 for six or more. Tax is added on top. Certificates on homes stay valid for ten years.

Read it rather than filing it. The class, the breakdown of the building's components and the list of recommended improvements together tell you what the place will cost to heat and cool, and what work is waiting for you.

What a lawyer actually does, step by step

Worth saying plainly, because a lot of buyers assume the notary covers this. The notary is a neutral public official whose job is to execute the deed correctly. Checking the seller's history, the property's charges and the council's records is not their role. We cover the fee side of hiring both in our guide to what buying property in Portugal costs.

• Before you make an offer. Pulls the certidão, reads the chain of ownership, the charges and the pending entries, and gets the caderneta to cross-check the tax record against the registry.
• Before the CPCV. The promissory contract is the binding step and the point where your deposit stops being easy to recover. This is where conditions get written in: clear the mortgage before completion, produce the use title, correct an area mismatch, or you get your money back.
• Between contract and deed. Chases the outstanding items, checks condominium arrears on a flat, confirms nothing new has been registered since, handles the preemption notice, and prepares the tax payments.
• At the deed and afterwards. Makes sure the transfer is actually registered in your name. Registration is what makes your ownership effective against everyone else, so this last step is not admin.

The order that protects your money

• Get your NIF, the Portuguese tax number, before anything else. Our guide to getting a NIF covers the fiscal representative rule for buyers from outside the European Union.
• Ask for the property's identifiers: freguesia, concelho, the número de descrição and the artigo matricial.
• Pull the certidão permanente yourself. You do not need anyone's consent.
• Ask the seller for the caderneta predial and have your lawyer confirm it.
• Read the two side by side against the place you actually walked through.
• Ask for the use title and the energy certificate.
• Only now discuss a reservation, a deposit or a price.
• Sign the CPCV only once your lawyer has reviewed everything and written the conditions in.
• Complete at the notary, then register the transfer in your name.

If you take one rule from this, take that one. Reservation money handed to an agent before the records have been read is money you may struggle to get back, and it arrives at exactly the moment you have the least information.

How Locallista helps

None of this is difficult in itself. It is a lot of Portuguese paperwork, official vocabulary and local process to take on for the first time, often from another country and in a language you are still learning. We are a directory of English-speaking local service providers in Lisbon, Barcelona and Madrid, built so you can find someone who will walk you through it in plain English.

Every business is screened before it is listed, reviews are phone-verified, and the ranking reflects real buyer experience rather than who paid the most. It is free to browse and free to get in touch. When you are ready, find a vetted English-speaking real estate lawyer in Lisbon to pull the records and read them with you. If you also need help with the search itself, an English-speaking real estate agent in Lisbon can filter listings before you fly over, and a notary in Lisbon handles completion day. If you are buying while you sort out residency, our guides to the D7 visa and to finding an English-speaking immigration lawyer in Lisbon cover that side.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between the caderneta predial and the certidão permanente?

The caderneta predial is the tax office's record of a property. It describes it and gives it a taxable value. The certidão permanente do registo predial is the land registry's record. It says who the registered owner is and what is registered against the property. The caderneta describes, the certidão proves.

Can I get these documents myself, or do I need the seller?

Anyone can request a certidão permanente do registo predial, so you can pull that one yourself online or at a registry office. The caderneta predial is not public in the same way. It is issued to the taxpayer, so ask the seller for it, and your lawyer can access the underlying information when acting for you.

The seller's name is not on the certidão. Is that a problem?

Yes, and it stops the sale. Portuguese law does not allow a transfer to be titled unless the property is definitively registered in the name of the person selling it. Common causes are an unregistered inheritance or an earlier purchase that was never registered. It is fixable, but it has to be fixed before completion, not after.

The area on the caderneta is different to the area on the certidão. Does that matter?

Small differences are tolerated by law and get harmonised. Larger ones do not, and they have to be corrected before the registry will accept the transfer. Either way, ask why the two records disagree, and compare both against what you actually walked through.

What are ónus e encargos and why should I care?

They are the rights and debts registered against the property rather than against the owner. Mortgages, creditor attachments, usufruct, rights of use and habitation, easements, long leases and preemption pacts all sit here. Some are routine and get cleared at completion. Others follow the property to you, so read this section of the certidão first.

When should I hire a lawyer, before or after finding a property?

Before. The checks that matter happen between finding a place and signing the promissory contract, and that is the point where your deposit becomes hard to recover. A lawyer who is already instructed can pull the records in days. One instructed the week of signing is being asked to rush the only part of the process that protects you.