🇵🇹Buying Property in Portugal as a Non-Resident: NIF, 7.5% IMT and What's Left of the Golden Visa

Concept

For ten years, Portugal was Europe's leading "property-for-status" magnet—and the first to abandon this model. Since October 2023, golden visas for real estate are no longer issued. And from September 1, 2026, the country takes the next step: non-resident buyers pay a flat 7.5% IMT instead of the progressive scale. This is not a purchase ban—there is no ban and none has appeared—but rather a tax surcharge, and Portuguese lawyers are already preparing to challenge it on grounds of free movement of capital.

The new tax has important mechanics. The rate applies to the entire base without progression or exemptions, but the overpayment can be refunded—the difference from the standard scale is returned by the state to those who become Portuguese tax residents within two years, or who rent out the property on a long-term basis at a "moderate" rate of up to €2,300 per month for at least three years out of the first five. For luxury properties over €1.15 million, little changes—the same 7.5% applied under the old scale. The surcharge hits the mid-market segment hardest: on an apartment costing half a million euros, the difference between the old scale and the flat rate is tens of thousands.

How the Transaction Works

Without a NIF—tax number—you can't do anything in Portugal: neither open an account nor sign a contract. A non-resident from outside the EU receives a number only together with the appointment of a fiscal representative, which costs €150–400 per year and receives tax correspondence on your behalf. A Portuguese bank account is not formally mandatory, but practically necessary: the purchase tax is paid before the transaction, and settlements often go through bank checks.

Transaction scheme: preliminary contract CPCV with a deposit of about ten percent—and by law, a seller who changes their mind about selling returns the deposit in double—then payment of IMT and stamp duty, then escritura at the notary and registration. The whole process usually takes one to three months, and longer with a non-resident mortgage: the bank appraises both the property and the applicant's income, and the LTV offered to a non-resident sits below the resident one. Notary and registration costs are modest, around one to one and a half thousand euros.

Entry Taxes

Until September 1, 2026—and indefinitely for residents—progressive IMT applies to second homes: from one percent rising to eight at the upper brackets, then flat six percent up to €1.15 million and seven and a half above. Stamp duty of 0.8% is added to this. The base is the greater of the price and the tax valuation of the property. New builds from developers are not subject to VAT for the buyer—the same IMT with stamp duty is paid as on the secondary market.

What Purchase Provides

Direct status—nothing. The golden visa is alive, but without real estate: the main route now is regulated funds from €500,000, which are also prohibited from betting on real estate. For property owners, the working visa routes are different: D7 for passive income, the threshold of which is tied to the minimum wage (€920 per month from 2026), and D8 for remote workers — four times the minimum, i.e. €3,680 per month in 2026. Owning an apartment satisfies the housing requirement in both applications—and also opens the right to IMT refund if relocation happens within the two-year period.

The NHR tax regime closed in 2024. Its successor IFICI—"NHR 2.0"—provides twenty percent and exemption of foreign income, but only for those working in qualified sectors: it is not available to rentiers and pensioners.

Ownership and Rental

Annual IMI is 0.3–0.45% of the tax valuation. On top of that, AIMI—"luxury property tax"—applies: 0.7% on the total tax valuation of housing over €600,000 per person, one percent above one million, one and a half—above two; for spouses the threshold doubles. Rental income of a non-resident is taxed at twenty-five percent, and from 2026 for new long-term contracts at moderate rates, a preferential ten percent regime applies.

Short-term rental—alojamento local—went through drama: the 2023 nationwide license freeze was lifted by the new government, but control was handed to municipalities. In central Lisbon and Porto, new licenses are practically not issued, and old ones are actively revoked. Buying "for Airbnb" in prime locations is no longer possible—first check the district's licensing map, then the property.

For structures, there's a separate rule: real estate held by a company from a blacklisted jurisdiction is taxed punitively—IMT ten percent, IMI and AIMI at seven and a half each. Standard practice is personal ownership; a company makes sense only for rental business and only from white jurisdictions.

Exit and Inheritance

Since 2023, non-residents on sale are equalized with residents: half of the gain is taxed on a progressive scale, and the seller's worldwide income is taken into account to determine the rate. There is no inheritance tax as such: spouse, children and parents are fully exempt, others pay stamp duty of ten percent on Portuguese assets. The mandatory share—legítima—reserves up to sixty percent of the estate for the family, but a foreigner can avoid it by choosing their national law in a will under Regulation 650/2012.

Russian Passport

Buying is possible, banking is the bottleneck. The country's largest bank CGD has been massively closing accounts of Russians without European residence permits since 2025–2026, and the €100,000 limit under Article 5b of Regulation 833/2014 restricts the payment route for Russian citizens without EU residence permits. How to structure payment—in the hub on buying property abroad.