The Portuguese condominium budget, explained: quotas, reserve fund and how it all gets approved
Every year your building approves a budget — and every month you pay a quota toward it. Yet most owners have never actually read the document. Here is what's inside, in plain terms.
The three numbers that matter
A typical condominium budget has three layers:
- Operating budget — the year's expected running costs: cleaning, elevator maintenance, insurance, electricity for common areas, the administrator's fee.
- Reserve fund — a separate contribution set aside for future repair and conservation work. In Portugal this fund is required by law, with a minimum contribution proportional to each owner's quota.
- Your quota — your share of both, usually billed monthly or quarterly.
How your quota is calculated
Your share is not arbitrary. Each unit carries a per-mille weight — a number out of 1,000 recorded in the building's founding deed, reflecting the unit's relative value. Multiply the annual budget by your unit's weight, divide by 1,000, and you have your annual quota; divide by twelve for the monthly amount. Two identical-sounding apartments can pay different quotas because their weights differ.
Proposed is not approved
A budget starts life as the administrator's proposal. It only binds owners once the general assembly votes to approve it — sometimes with changes. When you look up "the budget", check which document you're reading: the proposal PDF or the approved figure in the assembly minutes. They can differ, and the minutes win.
Questions worth asking every year
- How does this year's total compare with last year's — and what explains the change?
- Which line items grew the most?
- Is the reserve fund actually being funded, and what is its balance?
- Were last year's accounts approved, and did spending match the budget?
All of these answers live in documents your building already has: budget PDFs, accounts reports and assembly minutes. The hard part has never been the information existing — it's finding it.
Stop searching your inbox for answers
Clara reads your building's minutes, budgets and emails — and answers questions like this one instantly, with the source cited.
Try the free demo →Legal references: Portuguese Civil Code, art. 1424.º (sharing of common expenses); Decree-Law 268/94 (reserve fund).
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by country and by each building's own constitutive title and regulations.