On 1 October 2026 Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026, de 29 de maio enters into force in Portugal, and the document that transfers a property must state the position of its urban-planning title (título urbanístico). Omitting that statement makes the transaction voidable. Lacking the title does not: the seller is expressly permitted to declare that no title exists, and the sale stays lawful. English-language coverage of this reform is wrong in two directions at once. It reports a commencement date that was superseded on 31 July, and it credits DL 108/2026 with removing the municipal check at sale. That removal was Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024, de 8 de janeiro, effective 1 January 2024. DL 108/2026 adds a disclosure duty back. Nobody starts checking the building against what was authorised, which is what a Simplex Safe inspection from InspectOS exists to do.
Table of Contents
- What changes on 1 October 2026?
- Why is "planning permission" the wrong translation?
- How does the título differ from the licença de utilização?
- What does English-language coverage get wrong?
- Does the declaration mean anyone checks the building?
- What happens if the statement is omitted?
- How long can an urban-planning act be declared void?
- The one-year figure in circulation is a different rule
- Do older properties become safer on 1 October?
- What changes if you are buying from abroad?
- What to ask before 1 October
- Frequently Asked Questions
What changes on 1 October 2026?
From 1 October 2026 the professional titling a Portuguese property transfer must state the position of the property's urban-planning title, under penalty of voidability.
The obligation sits in article 4.º-A, n.º 14 of the Regime Jurídico da Urbanização e Edificação, the urban planning and building code approved by Decreto-Lei n.º 555/99, de 16 de dezembro (RJUE), as amended by DL 108/2026. It applies to transfers of building land, of buildings completed or under construction, and of individual units within them.
Two roles matter and English summaries tend to merge them. The seller makes the declaration. The professional titling the transaction puts it in the document, and that professional is the registrar, the notary, the lawyer, the solicitador, or another legally competent entity. Portuguese purchases do not always pass a notary. A transfer can be titled by an authenticated private document or through the Casa Pronta one-stop procedure, and the duty attaches to whoever titles it.
Three statements are permitted:
- That the corresponding title exists, where the seller presents it.
- That the seller declares holding it, without producing it at that moment.
- That the seller declares not holding one.
The third option is the one most coverage misses. It exists because selling without an urban-planning title remains lawful in Portugal. What the law no longer permits is saying nothing.
Until 30 September 2026 the RJUE applies in its earlier wording, which is the position established by DL 10/2024. The Simplex Urbanístico guide covers that regime in full.
Why is "planning permission" the wrong translation?
A título urbanístico is a documentary set whose composition changes with the procedure followed, and no single English term maps onto it.
English coverage reaches for "planning permission", "building licence" or "planning consent". Each of those describes a single permit. The Portuguese instrument is a bundle, and the bundle is different depending on which procedure the works went through.
Where the works were licensed, the title comprises proof of payment of the fees, the last properly completed application containing the summary of the urban operation, and either notification of express approval or, where approval was tacit, proof of submission.
Where the works went through prior communication (comunicação prévia), the title comprises proof of payment of the fees, the completed form, and proof of submission. In the timed variant, where the municipality gave a formal opinion or carried out an inspection, a declaration of conformity is added.
Where land was ceded to the municipality, proof of those cedências forms part of the title as well.
The practical consequence for a buyer reading in English is direct. Asking the seller for "the licence" stops being a complete question. The useful question is which procedure the property went through and which documents make up its title under that procedure. A single fee receipt is not a título urbanístico, and a seller producing one has not answered.
Portaria n.º 320/2026/1, de 31 de julho approves the standard forms required under article 4.º-A and takes effect with the diploma on 1 October 2026. Documents issued on the earlier forms remain correct through 30 September.
How does the título differ from the licença de utilização?
The urban-planning title records that construction was authorised. The use licence records that occupation is authorised. They answer different questions.
Conflating the two is the single most common error in English-language material on Portuguese property, and it costs buyers money because it makes them think a document they have already seen covers the ground.
A licença de utilização, the use or habitation licence, states what the property is authorised to be used as. It is issued by the Câmara Municipal and it is the document a buyer is usually shown. The habitation licence guide sets out how to read one and how to check it against the tax and land registry records.
A título urbanístico records that the building operation itself was legitimately authorised. It sits upstream of the use licence and it is the document the new declaration concerns.
One related rule closes a common worry. Under article 4.º-A, n.º 13, the use title transfers automatically with ownership. A buyer does not apply for a fresh one on acquiring the property, provided the use stays the same.
What does English-language coverage get wrong?
Two errors dominate: a commencement date superseded on 31 July 2026, and the attribution of the 2024 removal of municipal checking to the 2026 reform.
The date. DL 108/2026 was published on 29 May 2026 and originally commenced on 3 August 2026. Decreto-Lei n.º 155-B/2026, de 31 de julho, published in Diário da República n.º 147/2026, 5th Supplement, Series I, gave new wording to the commencement provision of DL 108/2026 itself and moved it to 1 October 2026. Any summary reporting 3 August is out of date. So is any summary reporting a 1 September date for the declaration, because no 1 September date appears anywhere in this diploma. The declaration commences on 1 October along with everything else.
Separately, and confusingly for anyone reading two articles side by side, 1 September 2026 does carry a real Portuguese property rule: the flat 7.5% IMT rate on acquisitions of urban residential property by non-tax-resident buyers, under Decreto-Lei n.º 97/2026. That is a different diploma with a different subject, and it is untouched by any of the above. A shared month has produced a good deal of merged reporting.
The attribution. Coverage in both languages describes DL 108/2026 as the reform that shifted verification risk onto buyers. It did not. DL 10/2024 removed the use licence from the set of documents required at the deed with effect from 1 January 2024. From that date the notary stopped verifying urban-planning legality and the Ficha Técnica da Habitação stopped being handed over at completion. Unlicensed works, missing certificates and defects have transferred to the buyer at the deed for two and a half years already. DL 108/2026 moves in the opposite direction on one narrow point, by requiring the position to be stated.
Getting the attribution right changes what a buyer does, because it changes the date from which their own exposure runs.
The exception worth knowing. The amendments DL 108/2026 makes to DL 10/2024 took effect on 1 May 2026 and were not affected by the deferral.
Does the declaration mean anyone checks the building?
Nothing in article 4.º-A requires any party to confirm that the building matches what was authorised, so physical conformity stays unverified.
The reform creates no inspection obligation, for the seller or the buyer. No engineer is engaged for the declaration to be made and no technical examination sits behind it. The professional titling the transaction records what the seller states. Nobody measures a room, opens the municipal file, or walks the property.
That gap is not rhetorical. According to INE, Censos 2021, 35.8% of Portuguese buildings need repair, split into 21.8% light, 9.4% medium and 4.6% deep, which puts serious condition problems at 14%. None of that appears in a declaration about a title, because the declaration describes an administrative process rather than a building.
Where the building and the authorised project have diverged, the cost is real. Legalising a wall runs €750 to €1,400. An annex runs €850 to €1,500, rising to €2,000 to €8,000 for a standard 50 m² structure. Alteration works to a house typically run €2,500 to €4,000, and legalising an unlicensed construction €5,500 to €7,000, with municipal fees varying under each município's own schedule. RJUE penalties for works without a title run from €498.80 to €99,759.58 for individuals and up to €249,398.95 for companies.
Enclosed balconies, converted garages, added floors and extra rooms are the divergences that surface most often, and how to spot illegal extensions covers the physical signals. In the Algarve the pattern has its own regional profile, set out in unlicensed construction in the Algarve.
Buyers arriving from the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Spain or the Netherlands usually assume some stage of the process performs this check, because in their home markets a stage does. Portugal against Europe on mandatory diagnostics sets out how the source markets differ. The short version is that the assumption does not travel.
The declaration tells you what the seller says about the paperwork. A Simplex Safe inspection from InspectOS compares the building as it stands against the authorised project and documents every divergence, in a dated bilingual report signed by an engineer registered with the Ordem dos Engenheiros. Set against RJUE exposure reaching €249,398.95 for a company, it is the smaller number.
→ Book a Simplex Safe inspection · get a quote at inspectos.pt/en/home-inspections
What happens if the statement is omitted?
Voidability attaches to omitting the statement, not to the property lacking a title, so a declared absence produces a valid transaction.
A voidable transaction (anulável) is not a void one. It produces effects and can be challenged within the legal period. A deed that carries the required statement is sound whichever of the three positions it records. A deed that carries no statement at all is exposed to challenge for years, including where both parties acted in good faith.
Read the direction of that rule carefully, because it is regularly reported backwards. A property without an urban-planning title, sold with that absence declared, produces a valid sale and an informed buyer. A property with a perfect title, sold in a document that forgot to mention it, produces the defect.
How long can an urban-planning act be declared void?
Article 69.º, n.º 4 of the RJUE sets a single three-year period running from the act's issue, replacing a previous ten-year period.
That one period covers all the routes: a declaration of nullity by the issuing body itself, the administrative action brought by the Ministério Público, and the popular action (ação popular). Article 69.º ends at n.º 5, and there is no separate five-year track for private parties, despite several published analyses saying otherwise. Where the facts founding the nullity constitute a crime, the period extends to the criminal limitation period. National monuments and their protection zones are the sole exception.
The provenance of the wrong version is worth knowing, because it explains why competent sources disagree. The government's original proposal did set one year for the issuing body. The enabling law, Lei n.º 9-B/2026, then fixed a floor below which the Ministério Público's period could not fall, and the enacted text could not land shorter than three years. Summaries written at proposal stage and never revised still carry the earlier figures. It is an inherited error rather than a careless one, and it is a good reason to check any figure in this area against the consolidated text.
The one-year figure in circulation is a different rule
The genuine one-year period belongs to municipal successive control of a prior communication under article 35.º, n.º 10, not to the nullity clock.
A one-year period does exist in the diploma, and conflating it with the three-year nullity period is the most frequent error in coverage of this reform.
Article 35.º, n.º 10 provides that municipal successive control over the conformity of the projects and supporting documents of a comunicação prévia lapses one year from the date the fees were paid or from the date the building or unit starts being used, whichever is later.
The two periods answer different questions. Article 35.º answers whether the municipality can still review the conformity of a prior communication retrospectively. Article 69.º answers whether the act can still be declared void. They are not two ends of a range and they are not alternative figures for one thing.
One further provision closes the matter. Article 35.º, n.º 11 states that the lapse of successive control does not prevent administrative inspection at any time. Reading the one-year figure as the point after which a property can no longer be questioned is therefore wrong twice over.
Do older properties become safer on 1 October?
Article 12.º of DL 108/2026 applies the new periods to already-constituted legal situations and counts them from the diploma's entry into force.
Intuition says a shorter nullity period is good news for an old licence, and that an act issued in the 1990s must long since be beyond challenge. The transitional rule points the other way.
The diploma applies to procedures begun after it enters into force, and to procedures begun earlier that are still at the preliminary screening stage, where interested parties may take the steps needed to adapt their application. Beyond that, the new nullity and lapse periods reach legal situations already constituted, meaning acts issued before the diploma. Those periods count from the entry into force of DL 108/2026 rather than from the date of the original act, unless the period under the previous regime would complete sooner, in which case the earlier completion date governs.
The practical effect is that the exposure window for an older act restarts rather than closes. A long-standing licence does not become more settled because the reform shortened the period, and a buyer relying on the age of a title is relying on the wrong thing.
The mechanism is clear on the face of the transitional provision. Turning it into a statement about one specific title is work for the buyer's Portuguese lawyer, and it should be treated that way rather than assumed either way.
What changes if you are buying from abroad?
A remote buyer receives the declaration inside a Portuguese-language document at completion, which is the latest possible moment to learn what it says.
Nothing in the reform is specific to foreign buyers, and its practical weight lands on them hardest for reasons of sequence rather than law.
The statement appears in the titling document. A buyer signing in person hears it read. A buyer signing through a representative holding a power of attorney (procuração), or completing remotely, learns the position from a document that arrives in Portuguese after the fact. By then the price is fixed and the deposit has been at risk since the promissory contract was signed.
Three consequences follow, and all three are avoidable.
Ask the question months early. The answer exists now. A seller who already knows they will declare no title can say so in September as easily as in October, and that turns a completion-day surprise into a negotiation.
Do not let a translation stand in for the document. A summary describing "the licence" may be describing the use licence, the urban-planning title, or a fee receipt. Ask which procedure the property went through and which documents comprise the title under it.
Separate the paperwork question from the building question. They have different answers and different people give them. Property due diligence in Portugal covers verifying the documents, and the foreign buyer guide covers the wider purchase sequence.
What to ask before 1 October
Three questions to the seller cover what the declaration will eventually reveal, and none of them waits for completion.
- Which urban-planning procedure the property went through, and which documents make up its title under that procedure. The answer identifies what should be produced, and a missing component is the first useful piece of information.
- Which of the three statements the seller intends to make. A seller who already expects to declare no title hands the buyer months of warning.
- Whether what stands matches the approved project. This is the question the new law asks nobody. A certificate proves an approved file exists. It does not prove the building corresponds to it.
Timing decides how much any of it is worth. Before the promissory contract a finding supports a price reduction, a condition or a decision to walk. Afterwards the deposit is exposed, which the CPCV signing deadline guide covers in detail, alongside what a pre-purchase inspection covers and what comes back in the report.
One correction belongs here rather than in a footnote. The RGEU, Portugal's general building regulation, has not been repealed. Its revocation was made dependent on a future technical regulation that has not been published, and it remains in force. For the same reason, DL 108/2026 does not exempt pre-1951 buildings from anything: that exemption rests on the RGEU regime and on each município's own deliberation, and it is unrelated to this diploma.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a título urbanístico?
It is the documentary set demonstrating that a building operation was legitimately authorised, and its composition varies with the procedure followed. Under licensing it includes proof of fee payment, the last properly completed application and notification of approval or proof of submission. Under prior communication it includes proof of fee payment, the completed form and proof of submission. It is not the same document as the use licence, which authorises occupation rather than construction.
Can a property be sold without an urban-planning title after 1 October 2026?
Yes. One of the three statements expressly permitted under article 4.º-A, n.º 14 is that the seller declares not holding a title. The obligation created by DL 108/2026 is one of disclosure rather than compliance. What the law does not permit is omitting the statement entirely.
Does the notary now check that the property is legal?
No. The professional titling the transaction records the position the seller declares. Nothing in the provision requires anyone to compare the building against what was authorised, to measure areas, or to consult the municipal file. After 1 October 2026 there is still no technical examination of the property anywhere in the transfer process.
Is 1 September 2026 relevant to this change?
No. No 1 September date appears anywhere in DL 108/2026, and the declaration commences on 1 October along with the rest of the diploma. A different rule does start on 1 September 2026: the flat 7.5% IMT rate for non-tax-resident buyers of urban residential property under Decreto-Lei n.º 97/2026. The two are unrelated.
How long can a planning act be declared void under the new rules?
Article 69.º, n.º 4 of the RJUE sets three years from the issue of the act, and that period applies equally to the issuing body's own declaration of nullity, to the Ministério Público's administrative action and to the popular action. It replaces a previous ten-year period, extends to the criminal limitation period where the facts constitute a crime, and excepts national monuments and their protection zones.
Does the reform apply to licences issued years ago?
Yes, and in a way that surprises most readers. Article 12.º of DL 108/2026 applies the new periods to already-constituted legal situations and counts them from the diploma's entry into force rather than from the original act, unless the previous regime's period would end sooner. An older title does not become immune to a declaration of nullity as a result of the reform.
Does DL 108/2026 require a property inspection?
No. The diploma creates no general inspection obligation for either party. Technical verification of the property remains something a buyer commissions independently, and it is the only stage of the process where anyone compares the building against the authorised project.
Has the RGEU been repealed?
No. Its revocation was made conditional on a future technical regulation that has not yet been published, so the RGEU remains in force alongside each municipality's own urbanisation and building regulation.
Conclusion
DL 108/2026 adds one question to the deed and requires an answer. That is useful, and it is narrow. Verification that the building matches what the municipality authorised left the process on 1 January 2024 under DL 10/2024, and it does not come back on 1 October 2026. The declaration describes the paperwork. No stage of a Portuguese transfer describes the building.
For a buyer, the correct reading of this reform is the plainest one available. Information improves, the risk stays where it has been since 2024, and the period in which an urban-planning act can be challenged restarts rather than expires.
A Simplex Safe inspection from InspectOS puts an engineer registered with the Ordem dos Engenheiros in the property with the authorised drawings and returns a dated bilingual report identifying each divergence between what was built and what was approved. Compared with a legalisation bill after completion, or an RJUE penalty reaching €249,398.95 for a company, it is the cheaper of the two available decisions.
→ Book a Simplex Safe inspection · get a quote at inspectos.pt/en/home-inspections
Updated September 2026 | Reviewed by the InspectOS Engineering Team, Ordem dos Engenheiros licensed | InspectOS Portugal · Legal position last reviewed 16 September 2026
Sources: Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026, de 29 de maio · Declaração de Retificação n.º 29-A/2026/1 · Decreto-Lei n.º 155-B/2026, de 31 de julho, Diário da República n.º 147/2026, 5th Supplement, Series I · Decreto-Lei n.º 555/99, de 16 de dezembro (RJUE), articles 4.º-A, 35.º and 69.º in the consolidated wording · Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024, de 8 de janeiro · Decreto-Lei n.º 97/2026 · Lei n.º 9-B/2026 · Portaria n.º 320/2026/1, de 31 de julho · Decreto-Lei n.º 38382, de 7 de agosto de 1951 (RGEU) · INE, Censos 2021 · Ordem dos Engenheiros · Diário da República.