Renting a home in Portugal: contracts, deposits, your rights and scams

INE, the national statistics institute, measures the rent agreed in new leases. In the second quarter of 2026 the national median was €10.17 per square metre a month, 10.2% more than a year earlier. Lisbon was the most expensive municipality at €17.79, followed by Cascais (€17.50) and Oeiras (€16.12); Porto was €14.66, Coimbra €9.77 and Braga €9.05.2 sources

Since the first quarter of 2020, new-lease rents have risen 80.6% nationally, 61.3% in Porto and 48.3% in Lisbon, which started from a much higher level. Growth is now fastest outside the two big cities: Funchal rose 17.0% in a year and the Algarve 9.8%.1 source

Listing portals show higher figures because they measure asking prices for homes on the market rather than signed contracts. Idealista's index put Lisbon at €24.5 per square metre in August 2026 and the country at €18.1, both well above INE's figures for signed leases.2 sources

For towns with fewer than 100,000 people, INE publishes a 12-month median instead. To mid-2026 it was €12.77 in Lagos, €12.33 in Loulé, €10.29 in Faro, €9.75 in Aveiro, €8.72 in Évora and €6.83 in Viseu, against €9.76 nationally.1 source

Most homes are advertised on Idealista and Imovirtual, either by owners or by estate agents. Agents must be licensed by IMPIC, the construction and real-estate regulator, and must keep a complaints book (livro de reclamações) that you can ask for.3 sources

A landlord may not refuse you, or impose different conditions, because of your nationality, origin or language, and adverts may not state such restrictions. The ban is in article 1067-A of the Civil Code.1 source

Furnished flats on mid-term platforms are usually let on temporary leases: for work, study or tourism, written into the contract. These are exempt from the one-year minimum term and do not renew automatically unless agreed. Only one tourist-purpose lease per calendar year is allowed for each home.1 source

A temporary lease is a practical way to land and look around in person, but it has limits: the IRS rent deduction only applies to a lease for your permanent home, and a consulate may not accept it as proof of accommodation for a residence visa.2 sources

Fake rental listings are a large and steady business. The PSP police recorded 4,553 rental-fraud crimes in three years: 1,542 in 2023, 1,511 in 2024 and 1,500 in 2025, and 325 in the first quarter of 2026.1 source

The PSP's advice: ask for interior photos and copies of the home's electricity, water or gas contracts, and check that the name and address match. Run a reverse image search on the listing photos. Check that the name on the IBAN you are asked to pay matches the owner or advertiser. Avoid transfers to advertisers whose legitimacy you cannot confirm, and keep every email, photo and message.1 source

A genuine lease is written and names the landlord, who must then report it to Finanças. Once it is registered you can see it in your own Portal das Finanças area, which is the final check that your landlord is who they say.3 sources

A residential lease must be in writing. If it is not, and that is not your fault, you can prove it by any means: living in the home without objection from the landlord and paying rent for six months is enough.1 source

A lease is either for a fixed term (prazo certo) or open-ended. If the contract does not say, it is a fixed term of five years. A fixed term must be between one and thirty years, except for temporary leases for work, study or tourism.1 source

Unless the contract says otherwise, a fixed-term lease renews automatically for periods equal to the original term, or for three years if the term was shorter. A one-year lease that says nothing about renewal therefore renews for three years.1 source

The home must have a valid energy certificate when it is let. All formal notices, such as ending the lease, a rent update or works, must be sent as a signed letter by registered post with proof of receipt, or handed over against a signed copy.2 sources

Running costs such as water, power and gas are yours, and the contracts should be in the name of whoever pays them. In a flat, condominium charges are the landlord's unless the lease says otherwise. Unless agreed otherwise, the first rent is due when you sign and each later rent on the first working day of the month before the one it covers.1 source

Since 1 January 2023 the Civil Code limits what a landlord can take up front. Advance rent is allowed only with written agreement and for no more than two months, and the deposit (caução) cannot exceed two months' rent. Before 2023 the law allowed three months in advance and set no limit on the deposit.3 sources

The first month's rent is due at signing by default, and the law does not say whether it counts inside the two-month advance limit. CGD's guidance gives two months' deposit plus the first month paid in advance as a typical example, and press explainers describe clauses above the limits as void.3 sources

A deposit can take any form the law allows: cash, securities, a pledge, a mortgage or a bank guarantee. A personal guarantor (fiador) is a separate promise. If you fall behind on rent, the landlord must tell your fiador within 90 days before claiming from them.2 sources

Your landlord must issue an electronic receipt for everything you pay, including the deposit and any advance. Stamp duty on the lease, 10% of one month's rent, is the landlord's tax and should never appear on your bill.4 sources

The landlord must report the lease to the tax authority (AT) on the Modelo 2 form by the end of the month after it starts, and report changes and its end too. A Portuguese NIF for the tenant helps but is not essential: a tenant resident elsewhere in the EU can be identified by their home tax number, and others by passport.2 sources

If the landlord does not register it, you can. Since 1 August 2025 tenants can file their own communication (comunicação do locatário) on the Portal das Finanças, from the day after the landlord's deadline, attaching the signed lease and supporting documents.3 sources

An unregistered lease is still a valid contract, because the law requires writing, not registration. But without registration and electronic receipts you lose the IRS rent deduction and access to Porta 65, and you have weaker proof of address for AIMA and consulates.4 sources

For a D7 visa the UK visa centre's checklist asks for proof of accommodation in Portugal for 12 months: a deed in your name, a long-term rental agreement, or a statement of responsibility from a host with a notarised signature, the host's ID and their own lease or deed. It does not say the lease must be registered with Finanças.2 sources

Applicants report consulates going further. In 2026 a D7 applicant in London received a notice of intended refusal partly because a promissory purchase contract (CPCV) alone was not accepted as proof of current accommodation, and others report being asked for a lease registered with Finanças. Treat a registered 12-month lease as the safe option.1 source

For residence permits and renewals, AIMA asks tenants for a lease in their name with the previous month's rent receipt, or a loan-for-use (comodato) contract with the land-registry certificate. Without a lease in your name you need a sworn statement with the owner's details and a tax-domicile certificate under 30 days old. Junta de freguesia certificates are no longer accepted.1 source

Unless the lease sets its own rule, rent can be updated once a year by the official coefficient, the first time one year after the lease started, with at least 30 days' written notice stating the coefficient and the new rent. A landlord who skips an update can apply it within the next three years.1 source

The coefficient is the 12-month change in consumer prices excluding housing, published by INE each autumn. For 2027 it is 1.0256, so rents can rise by at most 2.56%; in 2026 it was 2.24%.4 sources

New leases are a different matter. If the flat was let in the five years before October 2023, Lei 56/2023 caps the new rent by reference to the previous tenant's rent, but only above the limits of the affordable-rent programme. The reform bill would repeal this cap.2 sources

The landlord must carry out all the works needed to keep the home fit for living, unless the lease says otherwise. Report defects straight away: a landlord is not liable for defects you knew about, or could easily see, when you signed.1 source

If an urgent repair cannot wait and the landlord is late, you can do it yourself and claim the cost back. While part of the home cannot be used for reasons that are not your fault, the rent is reduced in proportion. If a defect puts your or your family's health at risk, or the landlord fails to do works that leave the home unfit to live in, you can end the lease.1 source

For serious problems, the NRAU gives you a formal notice procedure. You can require the landlord to fix defects that are a serious risk to health or safety, or that cut off water, power, gas or drainage, and ask the câmara municipal for an urgent inspection within 20 days. The landlord has 30 days to respond; after that you can seek a court order with a penalty of €20 a day, 50% more if you are 65 or over or have a disability of 60% or more.1 source

On a fixed-term lease you can stop it renewing by giving notice before the end of the term: 120 days if the term is six years or more, 90 days for one to six years, 60 days for six months to a year. This is the '90 days' people quote, and it only works at the end of a term.1 source

To leave mid-term you must wait until a third of the term has run, then give 120 days' notice (60 days if the term is under a year). Notice periods run from the day your landlord receives the letter, not the day you post it. The lease ends at the end of the calendar month in which the notice period runs out. Leaving with less notice still ends it, but you owe rent for the missing days, unless the reason is involuntary unemployment, permanent incapacity or death, of the tenant or of a household member of more than a year.2 sources

Your landlord can stop renewal with 240 days' notice for terms of six years or more and 120 days for one to six years, but cannot end the lease at its first renewal until three years after it began, unless they or a child need the home to live in. If they oppose renewal, you can leave at any time on 30 days' notice.2 sources

If you fall three months behind on rent, or pay more than eight days late more than four times in a year after a warning, the landlord can end the lease by notice. You can cancel that once per contract by paying within a month. Late rent carries a 20% penalty unless paid within eight days. Evictions go through the national tenants and landlords office (Balcão do Arrendatário e do Senhorio).2 sources

At the end of the lease the deposit should be returned in full if you met your obligations. The landlord can deduct, with proof, for damage beyond normal wear, unpaid rent and unpaid bills. Normal wear from careful use is not your responsibility.2 sources

We found no legal deadline for returning a deposit, so agree one in the lease, hand back the keys against a signed record of the home's condition, and give your IBAN in writing.2 sources

For a dispute, the cheap route is a Julgado de Paz, a small-claims court that handles lease disputes up to €15,000, other than evictions. Mediation costs €25 per party and a judgment €70, paid by the losing party or split. Complaints about an estate agent go in its livro de reclamações, or to IMPIC if it refuses the book.2 sources

In a flat you can keep up to three adult dogs or four adult cats, and no more than four animals in total, or up to six with the approval of the municipal vet and health authority. Condominium rules can set a lower limit, and nothing stops a landlord from banning pets in the lease, so get permission in writing.2 sources

Put electricity, gas and water in your own name. For electricity, you need the home's CPE code, from the landlord or an old bill, to sign up with any supplier; changing the account holder is free and does not cut the supply, and a previous occupant's debts stay with their tax number. Complaints about energy suppliers go to the regulator, ERSE.4 sources

Tenants who are Portuguese tax residents can deduct 15% of the rent on their permanent home from their IRS, up to €900 for 2026 and €1,000 from 2027, with a higher limit of up to €1,100 for low incomes being phased in by 2027. The rent must appear on electronic receipts or invoices, which is why registration matters.2 sources

Porta 65 Jovem helps tenants aged 18 to 35 (one member of a couple may be slightly older) with part of the rent for 12 months at a time, renewable up to five years. You can apply all year, before or after signing; you need a NIF and a NISS, a lease registered with Finanças, and a rent no higher than 60% of the household's monthly income. Rooms are excluded.3 sources

The automatic apoio extraordinário à renda, up to €200 a month, only covers leases signed by 15 March 2023, so it rarely helps newcomers. Landlords now pay 10% IRS on residential rents up to €2,300 a month, and nothing at all under the new affordable-rent scheme (RSAA), so it is worth asking whether a flat is let under it.3 sources

On 30 September 2026 Parliament approved in principle Proposta de Lei 103/XVII, which would authorise the government to rewrite the lease rules by decree-law. PSD, IL and CDS-PP voted for it and Chega abstained; PS, Livre, PCP, PAN, JPP and BE voted against. It is now in committee.3 sources

As filed, it would raise the advance-rent limit to three months, remove the deposit cap, let landlords end a lease after two months of arrears instead of three, remove the minimum three-year renewal, cut the landlord's notice on open-ended leases from five years to three, repeal the cap on new-lease rents and speed up evictions. The government's deal with Chega commits to limiting the deposit and advance changes in committee.2 sources

None of this is law yet. Leases signed today follow the current rules, and how a future decree-law treats existing leases will depend on its transitional provisions.1 source