What a non-resident can actually borrow in Portugal

What Banco de Portugal actually caps

The borrower-based macroprudential recommendation sets loan-to-value ceilings for new credit to consumers:

• 90%*, source: Banco de Portugal, in force since 2018, consolidated 2022, read September 8, 2026 for credit for a permanent own residence;
• 80%*, source: Banco de Portugal, in force since 2018, consolidated 2022, read September 8, 2026 for credit for other purposes;
• 100%*, source: Banco de Portugal, in force since 2018, consolidated 2022, read September 8, 2026 in limited cases, such as property already owned by the lending institution or held under leasing.

Two things about its status need stating precisely. It is addressed to the institutions rather than to borrowers, and it is a recommendation within the macroprudential framework rather than a statutory maximum written into a lending contract. It has been in force since 2018 and was consolidated in 2022, so it is not a new constraint and it did not arrive with any of the recent housing legislation.

The ceiling is not the offer

The recommendation is a maximum an institution should not exceed. It is not a floor, and it is not a commitment to lend anywhere near it. Banks apply their own internal limits, and for applicants who live outside Portugal those limits are tighter.

This page does not print a non-resident loan-to-value figure. The ranges that circulate in relocation articles and on broker sites are not published by any bank on its own pages, and they are not published by Banco de Portugal. They are practitioner estimates, repeated until they look official, and they are describing commercial policy rather than a rule. A rule can be cited. A commercial policy changes when a credit committee decides it has.

What follows from that is unglamorous but true: the only figure that means anything is the one a named institution gives in writing for a named applicant and a named property. Everything upstream of that is a guess wearing a percentage sign.

Stamp duty on the loan is a separate line from stamp duty on the purchase

Credit operations attract stamp duty under verba 17 of the Tabela Geral do Imposto do Selo, banded by the term of the credit, with a separate charge on the mortgage guarantee itself. The verba is the right reference, and it is where the charge lives.

The band percentages usually quoted for housing credit are not printed here, because they were not read from the table itself for this page. The purchase-side charge is a different verba and is confirmed: stamp duty of 0.8%*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026 on the acquisition, charged on the same taxable base as the transfer tax. The rest of the deed-day arithmetic is in what it costs to buy in Madeira, and the transfer tax itself, which for a buyer who is not tax-resident in Portugal is a flat rate on housing rather than Madeira's brackets, in the IMT guide.

Bank arrangement fees, valuation fees and the cost of the required insurances are commercial and vary by lender. They are quoted, not published, and no figure for them appears on this site either.

The account and the file come before the loan

Opening the account is where a non-resident application usually slows down, and the reason is the anti-money-laundering regime rather than the credit decision. Under Lei n.º 83/2017 the bank must identify and verify the customer. For a natural person the statutory identification elements include the full name, date of birth and nationality, the type, number, validity and issuing authority of the identity document, and the tax identification number or its foreign equivalent.

In practice a non-resident is asked for a valid passport, a Portuguese tax number, proof of address in the home country dated within the last three months, and evidence of income or source of funds. That last item is not on any statutory list. It comes from the risk-based due-diligence obligation, which is why two applicants can be asked for visibly different paperwork without either bank being inconsistent.

The specific Banco de Portugal Aviso currently governing customer identification and due diligence was not identified at source for this page, so it is not cited by number. The steps themselves are in opening a Portuguese bank account, and the tax number that precedes everything in getting a NIF.

What the mortgage changes on deed day

The transfer itself is titled the same way with or without a loan: by public deed before a notary, or by an authenticated private document. What the mortgage adds is a second registration, of the charge, alongside the registration of the acquisition, plus the cancellation of any prior charge the seller is clearing with the proceeds.

All of those can be handled together at a Casa Pronta counter, which is the ordinary route where a mortgage is involved. The sequence around them does not change, and it is set out in the step-by-step buying guide.