Condominium fees in Portugal, explained for foreign owners
Every few months, an invoice arrives from your Portuguese building's administrator. Here's what you're actually paying, how it's calculated, and how to check it — without needing to read Portuguese law.
The three components of what you pay
- Operating budget share — your slice of the year's running costs: cleaning, elevator, insurance, common-area electricity, the administrator's fee.
- Reserve fund contribution — a legally mandatory savings pot for conservation works (roof, façade, waterproofing), set at a minimum of 10% of your quota. A healthy fund is what stands between you and surprise special assessments.
- Occasionally, special assessments — one-off charges the assembly approves for works the reserve doesn't cover.
Why your neighbour pays a different amount
Each unit carries a per-mille weight — a number out of 1,000, fixed in the building's founding deed, reflecting the unit's relative value. Your annual quota is simply: approved budget × your weight ÷ 1,000. A unit weighted 55.59 in a building with a €48,000 budget pays €2,668.32 a year — €222.36 a month — before the reserve fund. Garages that are separate units carry their own (small) weight.
Proposed is not approved
Budgets start as the administrator's proposal and only bind owners once the assembly approves them — sometimes at a different figure. When verifying a charge, always check the assembly minutes for the approved amount, not the proposal PDF that circulated earlier.
How to verify what you're charged, from abroad
- Your weight: in the founding deed (it also appears on assembly attendance sheets).
- The approved budget: in the minutes of the assembly that approved it.
- The per-unit distribution: many administrators send an annual table with each unit's quota — ask for it if you've never seen one.
If the numbers don't reconcile, the mismatch is almost always between the distribution table and the deed's weights — that's the first comparison to make.
Stop forwarding PDFs to friends for translation
Clara reads your Portuguese building's minutes, budgets and emails — and answers questions like this one in English, in seconds, with the source cited.
Try the free demo →Legal references: Portuguese Civil Code, art. 1424.º; Decree-Law 268/94, art. 4.º (reserve fund minimum).
This guide is general information for international owners, not legal advice. Portuguese legislation — particularly on short-term rentals — has changed repeatedly; always confirm the current rules and what your own building's founding deed and regulation say.