Buying Off-Plan in Portugal: How It Actually Works

Buying off-plan, "em planta" in Portuguese, means agreeing to buy a property before it is built or while it is under construction. You commit at today's price through a promissory contract, pay a deposit and sometimes further stages during the build, and only become the legal owner when the deed is signed after completion.

That last part is the one to hold onto. Until the escritura, you don't own anything. You own a contractual right to buy something. Everything below is about making that right as strong as it can be.

If you want to see what's currently being built, you can [browse off-plan developments across Portugal](/en/buy-property-portugal).

The CPCV (contrato-promessa de compra e venda) is the promissory contract that commits the developer to sell and you to buy, at a fixed price, on terms set out in writing. It is the most important document in an off-plan purchase, because it governs everything between signing and the deed: payments, delivery date, specifications, penalties, and what happens if either side fails.

For a property, Article 410(3) of the Civil Code requires the signatures on the CPCV to be formally certified, and the existence of the construction or use licence to be certified as well. A two-page template handed over at a sales office is a warning sign, not a formality.

At minimum, a well-drafted CPCV should contain:

The deposit, called the sinal, is typically 10 to 20% of the price, paid when the CPCV is signed. Under Article 441 of the Civil Code, any money the buyer pays under a promissory contract is presumed to be sinal unless the contract says otherwise, which includes later staged payments. Under Article 442, if the buyer fails to complete, the developer keeps what was paid. If the developer fails, the buyer is entitled to twice what they paid.

That doubling rule is the one fact most international buyers have never heard, and it cuts both ways. It's real protection if the developer walks away. It's real exposure if you do. Changing your mind is a very expensive decision in Portugal.

A buyer can also ask a court to order the sale to go ahead, rather than accept the money back. This is called execução específica, under Article 830, and for a property promise it cannot be excluded by the contract. Whether it's worth pursuing depends on the circumstances, and that's a question for your lawyer rather than for a blog.

Not automatically. Portuguese law does not oblige developers to guarantee off-plan deposits, so protection has to be negotiated into the CPCV, usually as an autonomous bank guarantee or a deposit insurance policy. Without one, a buyer whose developer becomes insolvent can end up as an unsecured creditor.

This is the section I'd read twice.

If a developer goes into insolvency, the administrator can refuse to complete a promissory contract that only has contractual effect, under Articles 102 and 106 of the Insolvency Code. The Supreme Court's uniformising ruling 4/2014 gives a consumer buyer a right of retention, which ranks them ahead of many other creditors, but only where the property has already been handed over to them. In an off-plan purchase there is nothing to hand over yet. So the protection that helps a buyer already living in an unfinished flat doesn't help you.

Registering the CPCV with real effect at the Land Registry strengthens your position against third parties, and it's worth asking your lawyer about. But the practical protection is a bank guarantee covering everything you've paid.

Ask for one before you sign. Well-capitalised developers can usually provide it. If a developer refuses outright, that tells you something about the project, and you should weigh it accordingly.

Two things a guarantee does not do: it doesn't compensate you for time lost, and it doesn't give you the appreciation you would have had if the building had been finished. It returns your money. That's the point of it.

Before signing, confirm that the municipality has issued the construction licence or equivalent title, that the land is registered to the developer or to an entity with the right to build on it, and that the unit you are buying matches the approved project. Your lawyer does this through the municipality and a current Land Registry certificate, the certidão permanente.

This matters more than it used to. Since Decreto-Lei 10/2024, known as the Simplex Urbanístico, the licence of use and the ficha técnica da habitação no longer have to be presented at the deed. That removed a check that used to happen automatically at the notary.

The documents still matter. Banks can still require them before lending, and a property without proper title is harder to sell later. Ask for them anyway. The law stopped requiring the notary to look. It didn't remove the risk.

Then check the developer, not just the project. Completed buildings you can visit, buyers from earlier projects you can speak to, how long the company has been trading. A developer's track record is the best predictor of whether your completion date means anything.

Every development on ThePrePlan is listed by the developer itself or by an agency whose AMI licence is shown on the listing. That's a sensible starting point. It isn't a substitute for your lawyer's checks, and I'd be wary of any platform that told you otherwise.

After the sinal, many off-plan contracts set further payments tied to construction milestones, with the balance paid at the deed. Structures vary by developer and project, from a single deposit with everything else at completion, to three or four stages through the build. What matters is that each stage is tied to a milestone you can verify rather than to a calendar date.

"Payment on completion of the structure" is checkable. "Payment in March" is not, because the building may not be where the calendar says it should be.

Every euro you pay before the deed carries the same insolvency exposure as the sinal. So if the payment plan front-loads the money, the bank guarantee needs to cover the staged payments as well, not just the initial deposit. Check the wording.

Delay is the most common problem in off-plan purchases, and your protection depends almost entirely on what the CPCV says. A good contract sets a target completion date, a penalty payable for each month of delay, and a long-stop date after which you can terminate and recover what you've paid.

Without those three things, a delay leaves you waiting with very little leverage.

Some delay is normal. Licensing, weather, materials, labour. I'd be suspicious of a developer who promised a date to the week. What you want isn't a promise that nothing slips. It's a contract that says clearly what happens when it does.

Normally shortly before the deed, not when you sign the CPCV. IMT, the property transfer tax, is charged on the purchase price at the rates in force at the time, and stamp duty is charged at 0.8%. Both are paid before the escritura, and proof of payment is shown on the day.

There are two situations where IMT can fall due earlier, under Article 2 of the IMT Code: if the promissory contract hands you possession of the property before the deed, or if you assign your position in the contract to someone else before completion. The second one catches investors who plan to sell their contract before the building is finished. If that's your strategy, take tax advice before you sign, not after.

Usually yes, but the bank lends against the finished property, so the mortgage is typically approved and drawn near completion rather than when you sign the CPCV. That means the deposit and any staged payments normally come from your own funds.

There's a risk in the gap. The bank values the property at completion, and if its valuation comes in below the price in your CPCV, it lends on the lower figure. You make up the difference, or you're in breach of a contract you signed two years earlier.

Start the mortgage conversation early anyway. Non-residents typically borrow less against the purchase price than residents do, which is covered in our [guide to buying property in Portugal as a foreigner](/en/guides/buying-property-in-portugal-foreign-buyer). Knowing your realistic number before you sign is the best protection against the valuation gap.

When the building is finished, you inspect the unit, the developer fixes the defects you identify, and the deed is signed at a notary or equivalent, where the balance is paid and ownership passes to you. The purchase is then registered at the Land Registry in your name.

Do the inspection properly. Bring someone who knows what they're looking at, walk every room, test everything, and put the defects list in writing before the deed. Your leverage drops sharply once the money has moved.

After completion, you're still covered. Under Decreto-Lei 84/2021, the seller is liable for defects in a newly built home for 10 years on structural elements and 5 years on everything else. Keep your paperwork. Those periods are long, and they're only useful if you can show what you were promised.

Two things.

Get an independent lawyer, yours alone, to read the CPCV before you sign it. Not the developer's lawyer, not someone recommended by the sales office. In an off-plan purchase the contract is the product, and it should be read by someone whose only job is protecting you.

And ask for the bank guarantee. It's the single clause that turns "the developer promised" into "my money comes back if it goes wrong." Good developers will usually provide it, and the conversation you have when you ask will tell you a lot about who you're buying from.

Off-plan is a good way to buy in Portugal. You get a new home at today's price, built to current standards, with time to arrange your finances. It's a good way to buy precisely because the protections exist. They just don't apply themselves.