Everything you need to sell a house in Portugal

Selling a house in Portugal is a process that can often be quite complex (available documentation, owners, registrations with the land registry office, etc). To help, we've explained some of the steps and documents that will be necessary for anyone interested in selling a property located anywhere in the country. A guide to everything you need to sell a house in Portugal on a legal basis. Although each process of selling a property requires a case-by-case analysis and raises its own issues, there are some steps that are necessarily mandatory.


Gather the necessary documentation

Various documents will be needed for the various stages of the property sale process - listing the property, signing the CPCV, the buyer applying for credit, the public deed - so the best way to speed up the process is to gather all the necessary documents as far in advance as possible.
Some of the most important documents are

This document can be obtained from the Land Registry Office and allows you to consult the history of the property, the registrations made on it, including those that are pending, and to certify ownership. The land registry certificate is valid for 6 months and can be requested on the Online Land Platform at a cost of €15.

Caderneta Predial is also known as a matricial certificate. This document lists the tax status of the property as well as other relevant information such as the location, description, identification of the owners and the property's patrimonial value, which will allow the Municipal Property Tax (IMI) to be calculated.

This document describes the type of use for which the property is intended, i.e. whether it is for residential or non-residential purposes. To issue it, you need to go to the town hall in the area where the property is located.

The Energy Certificate is a document that assesses the energy efficiency of a property on a scale from A+ (very efficient) to F (not very efficient), issued by technicians authorized by the Energy Agency (ADENE). This document has been mandatory since 2013 for anyone wishing to sell or rent a property.

This document contains information on the architectural project, characteristics of the work and describes changes made to the construction of the property. If the property was built before March 2004, this document may not be necessary. If you need a second copy, you must request it from the Town Hall for a fee.


Signing a promissory contract

Once an agreement has been reached with the buyer regarding the price and form of payment, before the public deed of sale is signed, and in order to bind the parties to the future deal, it is advisable to sign an agreement called a promissory contract of purchase and sale, whereby each of the parties will establish the terms and conditions for the purchase and sale, committing themselves, under the terms of the same, to the signing of the future deal, in which the property will be transferred to the buyer.

A promissory purchase and sale agreement should set out the terms of the deal, such as:

This type of agreement is not compulsory; however, it is a common procedure when the buyer needs to take out bank credit or, for any other reason, the definitive contract cannot be signed immediately.

The promissory contract of purchase and sale should always be carefully reviewed by a qualified professional, as in our professional practice we sometimes encounter situations in which the inadequate wording of this type of contract has resulted in the loss of the down payment given by the buyer, which in some cases can be as much as 30% of the total value of the property.


Public deed / (notary / casa pronta)

The deed of sale can be drawn up at a notary's office, a land registry office or even through the Casa Pronta service, a series of one-stop shops set up by the state to deal with all the formalities involved in buying and selling a house.

It is important to remember that the purchaser is responsible for paying the IMT (Municipal Tax on the Transfer of Real Estate), stamp duty and acquisition costs.






Source: Idealista/news