Can French citizens buy property in Portugal? Yes, freehold. Two Portuguese rules turn on being EU resident.

Can French citizens buy property in Portugal?

Yes, freehold, land and building, on the same terms as a Portuguese citizen. There is no nationality test, no approval and no quota for a private residential purchase. What a buyer needs is a Portuguese tax number, the NIF, which any person, Portuguese or foreign, resident or non-resident, can request from the tax authority.

No Portuguese government page states the positive rule in a single sentence. It follows from the absence of any restriction in the purchase-tax and registration rules. The only buyer-based difference written into the Portuguese tax code is by tax residence in a listed more-favourable tax regime, which is a residence test rather than a nationality one.

Title is recorded in the Registo Predial, run by the Ministry of Justice. The document buyers and banks read is the certidao permanente, an online registry certificate that stays updated and shows the owner, the description and any charges. The deed itself can be done in one sitting at the Ministry of Justice's Casa Pronta counter, which handles the formalities including mortgage registration.

One consequence worth planning around. Portuguese tax residence is tested by, among other things, having a home in Portugal available as a permanent dwelling, which presumes an intention to live there. Buying a home you then use that way can move your own residence position, and that is a bigger decision than the purchase.

The register and the tax card: the caderneta predial, explained. The full ownership position: Portugal property foreign ownership explained.

Does a French owner need a fiscal representative in Portugal?

Not if the electronic route is used. The General Tax Law requires a non-resident to appoint a tax representative resident in Portugal, but that duty is waived for anyone signed up for electronic notifications. The rule that forces a representative before cancelling those electronic services applies to residents outside the EU and EEA, so it does not reach a French resident.

That is the first of the two EU distinctions on this page. It is administrative rather than financial, and it is the one most often mis-stated in buyer guides, because the 2022 announcement and the current statute text read differently. The safe line, and the one this page takes, is that the electronic notifications route removes the duty, and that a non-EU owner has the narrower set of options.

Sort it out at the same time as the NIF rather than afterwards. The penalty range for failing to appoint a representative where the duty applies runs from 75 to 7,500 euros, according to a Portuguese law firm's published note.

What does a French buyer pay to buy, and to hold, in Portugal?

Transfer tax (IMT) in bands, plus 0.8 percent stamp duty, both charged on the higher of the declared price and the tax registration value. Then IMI every year at 0.3 to 0.45 percent of that value, set by the municipality, and AIMI on residential value above a 600,000 euro deduction per person. A resale or new-build home carries no VAT.

The IMT table that applies to a second home or an investment property, which is the usual case for a buyer living in France, is the 2026 mainland table for other urban residential property.

Note the two flat bands at the top. Above 633,931 euros the tax stops being marginal and applies to the whole value, so a small increase in price across that line moves the tax by a large step. That is a published feature of article 17 of the transfer tax code, and it is worth modelling before an offer, not after.

On the annual side, AIMI runs at 0.7 percent for individuals above the 600,000 euro deduction, with a marginal 1 percent between 1 and 2 million euros and 1.5 percent above 2 million. Buyers whose tax residence is in a listed more-favourable regime pay a flat 10 percent IMT and 7.5 percent IMI, which is a residence test, not a nationality one.

The full cost stack: Portugal property buying costs.

How is a French owner's Portuguese rental income and sale gain taxed?

Residential rent received by a non-resident is taxed at an autonomous flat rate of 25 percent. Only residents of another EU or EEA state can instead opt to have it taxed at the progressive resident rates. On a sale, half the gain is counted and taxed at the progressive rates, with the band set using the seller's worldwide income.

That option under article 72(15) is the second EU distinction, and whether it helps depends entirely on the numbers. The progressive table for 2026 starts at 12.5 percent and runs to 48 percent above 86,634 euros, so at a modest rent the option can land below the flat 25 percent and at a large one it will not. It is an option, which means it has to be worked out rather than assumed.

Longer residential leases attract lower rates on the flat basis: 10 points off for contracts of 5 to 10 years, 15 points for 10 to 20 years, and 20 points for 20 years and over.

The sale side has been on the current footing since 1 January 2023. Only 50 percent of a non-resident's gain on Portuguese real estate is taxable, and that half is aggregated and taxed at the general progressive rates, with the rate band determined on the same basis as for a resident, using worldwide income. The reinvestment relief is tied to the property having been the seller's own permanent home, so it generally does not reach a non-resident investor.

The Portuguese detail: Portugal property tax for foreigners. What France asks for on the same property: French tax and reporting on property abroad.

Does buying property in Portugal still give a golden visa?

No. Lei 56/2023, in force on 7 October 2023, closed the residence-by-investment routes based on buying real estate and on rehabilitating real estate, along with the one million euro capital transfer route. Buying property no longer qualifies. Permits granted under the old rules can still be renewed, and pending applications remained valid.

The routes that remain are not property routes: units in non-real-estate collective investment funds set up under Portuguese law at 500,000 euros or more, company formation or recapitalisation at 500,000 euros with job conditions, and the unchanged job creation, research and cultural heritage routes.

Existing holders who renew have a presence requirement of at least 7 days in Portugal in the first year and 14 days in each subsequent two-year period.

Say it plainly, because the marketing has not caught up: a Portuguese property purchase in 2026 is a property purchase. Buy it because the property works, or do not buy it.

What does a French tax resident have to declare at home about a Portuguese property?

Worldwide income under Article 4 A of the Code general des impots. The property for the IFI under Article 964, which covers real estate situated in France or outside France once net taxable value passes 1,300,000 euros on 1 January. And every bank account opened, held, used or closed abroad, on form 3916 and 3916 bis.

How the France and Portugal convention treats the rent and the gain is not stated here, because that convention was not read for this page. Conventions differ: some exempt foreign income and still count it to set the rate on other French income, others give a credit for the foreign tax. The texts are published by the French tax administration, and the applicable one is the one to read with an adviser before the first rent is received.

The duties above are not treaty dependent. A Portuguese account opened to collect rent or pay IMI is a declarable account, and the fine for an undeclared foreign account is 1,500 euros per account, rising to 10,000 euros where the account is held in a state that has no administrative assistance agreement with France giving access to banking information.

The French side, article by article: French tax and reporting on property abroad.

Header photo: Dronepicr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. All credits: image credits.