Buying a House in Portugal as a British Buyer: 7.5% IMT, 6 Months

A non-resident buying a Portuguese home pays 7.5% IMT and loses every relief in the code. Two routes hand the difference back, and both expire six months after you qualify.

Since Decreto-Lei n.º 97/2026, the rate for a non-resident buyer of urban housing is a flat 7.5%, with no exemption or reduction of any kind. A British buyer is caught by residence, not nationality. The law then names three ways out, and the refund on two of them must be applied for within six months.

IMT is short for Imposto Municipal sobre as Transmissões Onerosas de Imóveis, the municipal tax paid when a property changes hands. It is the largest single cost of buying in Portugal.

IMT on a Portuguese home for habitation

Buyer status	Rate (%)
Non-resident buyer		7.5%
Resident, top of the progressive scale		7.5%
Resident, lower bands		0.0%

Why does a British buyer land on 7.5%?

The rule keys off tax residence, and Article 17.º(10) of the Código do IMT states it plainly. The consolidated text says the rate "is always 7.5%" on the acquisition of an urban building or autonomous fraction intended exclusively for housing, "no exemption or reduction applying", whenever the buyer is non-resident.

The words that cost the most are the middle ones. A non-resident does not simply move to a higher rate; they lose access to the reliefs entirely. For a buyer who would otherwise qualify for IMT Jovem, the young-buyer relief, that loss is worth more than the gap between the progressive scale and 7.5%.

Nationality does not enter into it. A British citizen already tax resident in Portugal is outside the rule. A Portuguese citizen tax resident in London is inside it.

The three ways out, and what each requires

Article 17.º(10) lists them, and they are not equivalent.

• You were already tax resident in Portugal under Article 16.º of the personal income tax code.
• You become tax resident within two years of the acquisition.
• You let the property residentially within six months at a rent inside the moderate-rent limit, and keep it let for at least 36 months, consecutive or interpolated, during the first five years after acquisition.

That third route is the one most coverage omits, and it is the only one available to a buyer who has no intention of moving. It carries the heaviest conditions: a six month window to sign a tenancy, a rent cap, and a 36 month letting commitment spread over five years.

The moderate rent limit is not a fixed figure. Article 2.º(2) of the decree sets it at 2.5 times the 2026 minimum monthly wage, and Article 2.º(3) allows the government to update the limits by portaria. Check the current figure rather than a number quoted in an article.

The deadline that actually costs money

Six months, and it runs from the qualifying event rather than from the purchase.

Where the second or third route applies, Article 17.º(11) says the tax authority annuls the difference between what was paid and what the normal progressive rates would have produced. It does so "on the interested party's application". Nothing is automatic.

Article 17.º(12) then sets the window: the application must be made within six months, counted from the date you become resident, or from the date the tenancy is signed. Miss it and the money stays paid. This is a genuine statutory deadline, not a marketing device, and it is the single most likely way for a British buyer to lose four or five figures without ever being told.

One related change in the same decree works in the buyer's favour. Article 36.º now allows IMT to be paid on the day of assessment or within the 30 days following, where it was previously due immediately.

What Brexit changes on top

Time, not tax. Britain is a third country for Schengen purposes, so a British owner of a Portuguese home is bound by the 90 days in any 180 short-stay rule. Owning the property confers no right to be in it beyond that.

That interacts with the escape routes above in a way worth noticing. The two-year residence route requires actually becoming tax resident, which for a British national means a visa or residence permit rather than simply spending more time. The letting route requires no residence at all.

What to settle before you sign

Whether you will be resident, and whether the property will be let, are no longer lifestyle questions. They decide the rate, and the second one has a six month clock attached.

We do not give buying or selling advice, and nothing here says whether a Portuguese property is worth buying. What the consolidated decree supports is checkable: 7.5% flat for non-residents with no relief available, three exceptions, a refund granted only on application, and six months to make it. Our piece on why Portuguese prices rose fastest in the EU covers the market these rules landed in.

AiMYNDi reads the listing, the financials and the legal paperwork for a specific property so the obligations attached to it are visible before you commit. You can see an example of what a report looks like first.