BUYERS GUIDE
Below are the basic steps that are involved in acquiring a property in Portugal:
Obtain a Tax number Card (Cartão de Contribuinte) from any Tax Office Repartição de Finanças).
You will need your passport and provisory address. You are welcome to use our address.
Arrange for finance at early stage.
Arrange for legal advice from lawyer or Solicitor, if you wish.
After choosing property, a Promissory Contract is signed between owner and purchaser, it's called "Contato Promessa de Compra e Venda" and a deposit is paid by purchaser, between 10 and 20% of total purchasing value.
In the event of either party withdrawing from the sale, the law requires the seller to repay twice the deposit.
Likewise, if the buyer fails to complete he will forfeit all his deposit.
Then normally, a period of 90 days is allowed to set up all necessary documents that will be delivered to the chosen Notary for him to verify before setting up a meeting for final Contract with Notary named "Escritura de Compra e Venda".
Property Tax (IMT) must be paid to Community Tax Office before signing the contract. Notary will ask for proof of payment prior to celebrate "Escritura".
Properties up to 82 500€ are tax free and from this amount by scale ranging as following:
|
PURCHASING AMOUNT
|
TAX |
AMOUNT TO SUBSTRACT |
|
From 85.501€ to 117.200€ |
2% |
- 1 710€ |
|
From 117.201 to 159.800€ |
5% |
- 5 226€ |
|
From 159.801 to 266.400 |
7% |
- 8 422€ |
|
From 266.401 to 532.700€ |
8% |
- 11.086€ |
|
Up from de 532.701€ |
6% |
- |
"Escritura" takes places in front of the selected Notary and this is when the balance of purchase money must be paid.
Then a copy of "Escritura" will be issued and delivered to Buyer.
The property should then be registered in the Land Registry (Conservatoria do Registro Predial) in new owner's name.
The new owner has then 60 days to present original of "Escritura" to Municipality Tax Office (Finanças) for registration.
Congratulations on your new property in Portugal!
