Can you get Portugal residency by buying property? No. That route closed in October 2023.

Can you get residency in Portugal by buying property?

No. Lei 56/2023, the Mais Habitacao law, in force 7 October 2023, stopped new golden visa applications under three routes: the EUR 1 million capital transfer, real estate purchase and real estate rehabilitation. Buying property no longer qualifies for a residence permit for investment.

The golden visa's formal name is ARI, autorizacao de residencia para atividade de investimento. The law did two things: it stopped new applications under those routes (Article 42) and revoked the routes themselves from the immigration law (Article 44).

Applications already pending when the law came into force stayed valid, including those still waiting for the municipality's prior approval (Article 43). If you are reading a guide that still sells a property visa, it was written before October 2023.

Did Portugal's golden visa end?

No. Routes that do not involve property remain: EUR 500,000 or more in units of non-real-estate investment funds set up under Portuguese law, and EUR 500,000 or more to set up or recapitalise a Portuguese company that creates or keeps jobs, alongside the job-creation, research and culture routes.

The fund route has conditions written into the law: at least 5 years' maturity when you invest, and at least 60% of the fund invested in companies headquartered in Portugal. The company route requires 5 permanent jobs created, or 10 kept with at least 5 permanent, for 3 years.

None of these is a home. Buying a house to live in alongside one of them is allowed, but the house is not the investment that earns the permit.

What happens to people who already hold a property golden visa?

They can renew. Permits granted under the old property routes can be renewed, and so can the family-reunification permits linked to them. On renewal the permit converts into a residence permit for entrepreneur-immigrants.

The minimum stay stays as it was: at least 7 days in Portugal in the first year and 14 days in each later 2-year period (Article 42(5)). Keep the evidence of those days. The renewal is the point at which it is checked.

Can owning property still help you get a Portuguese visa?

Only through the income it earns. Portugal's residence visa for people living on their own income asks for a document certifying revenue from movable and immovable property, or from intellectual or financial assets. Rent from a property can therefore count as income. Owning a home does not make you eligible by itself.

The same consular list covers residence for retirement, which asks for a document certifying the pension, and a separate visa for remote work. Each is a residence application with its own conditions, and the consulate may ask for more documents at its discretion.

Note what this means for a buyer. Rent counted as income for the visa is taxable in Portugal: non-residents pay a flat 25% on residential rent. How the rent is taxed: Portugal property tax for foreigners.

Does buying property in Portugal lead to citizenship?

Not directly. Naturalisation depends on years of legal residence, not on owning property. Since Lei Organica 1/2026, it requires at least 7 years of legal residence for nationals of EU states and Portuguese-speaking countries, and 10 years for nationals of other countries, plus proof of sufficient Portuguese.

The rule is Article 6(1) of the Nationality Law as amended by Lei Organica 1/2026 of 18 May 2026. A property bought today counts towards none of those years. Legal residence does, which brings the question back to the residence permit.

The amendment has transitional rules for applications filed before it, and it went through the Constitutional Court. If your timeline depends on it, check your own case with the registry, the IRN, rather than with any guide, this one included.

If you buy anyway, what does it cost?

On a second home or investment, IMT in bands from 1% to 8% up to EUR 633,931, then a flat 6% on the whole price up to EUR 1,150,853 and a flat 7.5% above that, plus 0.8% stamp duty. Foreigners buy on the same terms as Portuguese citizens.

Above the threshold the flat rate applies to the whole price, so a small price change can move the whole bill. Every one-off cost: Portugal property buying costs. The full process: buying property in Portugal as a foreigner.

Header photo: Pedro Ribeiro Simões, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. All credits: image credits.