A recent Finanças ruling from 25th March 2025 has clarified that even “sporadic” use of a property for Alojamento Local (tourist rentals) when said property was initially bought as a primary residence, signifies that any exemption or deduction in property transfer tax (Imposto Municipal sobre as Transmissões Onerosas de Imóveis, or IMT) is lost in such cases.
The ruling, (Processo: 27686, com despacho de 2025-03-25) was made at the specific request of a property owner who bought an apartment in October 2024 as a primary residence (habitação própria e permanente, in the Portuguese parlance) and benefited from the new IMT exemption for first-time homeowners under the age of 36 (the IMT Jovem program).
The owner asked Finanças what the consequences would be of using this property within 6 years after purchase, for “sporadic” tourist rentals, presumably with the appropriate licence, at the same time maintaining the property as their primary residence.
The ruling notes that if this were to happen, the property would no longer be used EXCLUSIVELY as the owner’s primary residence, and thus any previous benefits based on this requisite are lost.
If the owner were to go ahead with this intention of doing sporadic tourist rentals, the ruling adds, they would have to pay the 6.5% property transfer tax within 30 days for a property not designated as primary residence.
This ruling confirms once again that any IMT benefits obtained due to a property being designated as a primary residence are lost unless the property is maintained exclusively as a primary residence for 6 years.