Selling a property with a short-let (AL) registration in Portugal (2026): does the licence go with the sale?

What changed between 2023 and 2024?

Short lets in Portugal are registered, not licensed, under Decree-Law 128/2014. The owner or operator files a prior notice with the council and receives an AL number on the national register (RNAL). The rules on what happens to that number when you sell have changed twice in three years.

Rule	Mais Habitação (Lei 56/2023, from October 2023)	Decree-Law 76/2024 (from 1 November 2024)
Registration on sale or transfer	Personal and non-transferable; lapsed on transfer	Does not lapse on transfer of the registration, on a change of operator, or on a sale of shares in the company that holds it
Validity	5 years, renewable; existing registrations to be reviewed in 2030	No expiry date; 2030 review revoked
New registrations for flats	Suspended in most of the country	National suspension revoked; councils decide
Extraordinary AL contribution (CEAL)	Introduced	Revoked by Decree-Law 57/2024, with effect from 31 December 2023
Condominium opposition	Two-thirds of the building’s permillage	A reasoned decision by more than half of the permillage

The common myth is that an AL licence always dies when you sell. That was the rule for flats sold between October 2023 and October 2024. It is not the national rule now. What remains is a local exception: under article 15-B of Decree-Law 128/2014, councils may limit the transfer of registrations for flats and houses (apartamento and moradia) in containment areas. Even there, inheritance, a gift to a spouse, partner, child or parent, and divorce or separation are protected.

How does the registration actually pass to the buyer?

The AL number belongs to the titular da exploração (the operator), who may be you, your company or, in some cases, a management company that runs the flat for you. Check the RNAL entry before you market the flat as a going concern. If a manager is the registered operator, you need its cooperation to hand the number over.

The operator must update the registration on the government’s online business portal (Balcão Único Eletrónico) within 10 days of any change (article 6(3)). In practice your lawyer drafts the CPCV (promissory contract) so that the transfer of the registration, the date bookings stop being yours and who takes over future reservations are all written down.

Buyers will also check two things that can end a registration after the sale. First, the mayor can cancel a registration for breaches, lack of the compulsory €75,000 liability insurance, or repeated disturbance in the building (article 9). Second, AL requires a valid autorização de utilização (use licence) for the property; see unlicensed works.

Where are there containment areas? Council by council

This table covers the councils on our area pages, plus Porto. “Not found” means we searched the council website, the Diário da República and the press on 24 September 2026 and found nothing. It does not mean the council has confirmed there are no rules.

Council	Status on 24 September 2026	What it means for a sale
Lisbon	Amended regulation in force since 6 December 2025. Absolute containment in six parishes: Santa Maria Maior, Misericórdia, Santo António, São Vicente, Arroios, Estrela, plus named neighbourhoods; relative containment elsewhere	In containment areas a transfer of a flat or house registration causes it to expire, according to law-firm notes on the regulation. Value the flat as a home. See selling in Lisbon
Porto	Regulation back in force since December 2024; historic-centre parishes (Vitória, São Nicolau, Sé, Santo Ildefonso, Miragaia) are containment areas, others “sustainable growth” areas	The regulation’s text (Regulamento 1462/2024) contains no rule ending a registration on sale; the general law on transfers applies. Ask a Porto lawyer to confirm for your unit
Mafra	One containment area, Ericeira’s historic centre (AL capped at 20% of homes). No new registrations offered there in 2026 (Ericeira Mag)	An existing registration there is scarce; check the transfer rules before advertising it. See selling in Ericeira
Sintra	Suspension of new registrations in some urban parishes reported by the press; parishes and current status unconfirmed	Existing registrations are not cancelled by a suspension
Cascais, Oeiras	Nothing found	Registration should normally transfer
Almada	Council started drafting its first AL regulation in May 2026; nothing in force found	Registration should normally transfer; new rules possible from 2027
Lagoa (Carvoeiro, Ferragudo)	Draft regulation dated 5 January 2026 went to public consultation; no final version found. Carvoeiro village is not a containment area in the draft	Registration should normally transfer. See selling in Carvoeiro and Lagoa
Lagos, Portimão, Albufeira, Loulé, Tavira	Nothing found	Registration should normally transfer. See Albufeira and the Golden Triangle

The 31 December 2026 deadline. Decree-Law 151/2026, in force since 31 July 2026, gives councils with more than 1,000 AL registrations at 31 December 2025 until 31 December 2026 to decide on a regulation (reported by ECO; we have not read the Diário da República text). Until then they may extend or impose one suspension of new registrations, never beyond that date. Existing registrations are not affected. The practical point for sellers: from 2027 a new registration may be harder to get in several Algarve and Lisbon-coast councils, so a transferable existing one could matter more to buyers.

One open legal question in Lisbon. Article 15-B(1)(e) lets councils limit the transfer of new registration numbers. Lisbon’s regulation, as the law firms describe it, applies the expiry-on-transfer rule to registrations in containment areas generally. Whether that can reach registrations issued before the regulation has not, to our knowledge, been tested in court. Until it is, assume a Lisbon centre registration will not survive a sale.

How is the gain taxed if the flat was a short-let business?

This is the part most sellers miss. Individuals who run AL declare the income as business income (category B), usually under the simplified regime, where 35% of AL income is taxable (50% in a containment area, article 31 of the IRS Code). If the property itself was afeto (allocated) to that business, the gain on sale is not treated like an ordinary private capital gain.

Situation at sale	Category	Share of the gain taxed
Never allocated to an AL business (for example, let through an agency under a lease, or AL run by someone else)	G (private capital gain)	50%
Still allocated to your AL business when sold (simplified regime)	B (business income)	95% (article 31(1) coefficient for capital gains)
Taken out of the business, then sold within 3 years	B	95% (article 10(19) of the IRS Code)
Taken out of the business more than 3 years before the sale	G	50%

Since 1 January 2021 (State Budget 2021, Lei 75-B/2020), moving a property into or out of your business no longer triggers tax by itself. The three-year rule in article 10(19) exists to stop owners doing exactly that just before a sale. The tax authority confirmed this reading in a binding ruling reported by RTP, where the owner had stopped AL in December 2023 and was refused both category G treatment and the home-reinvestment relief.

What we cannot confirm. Whether your flat was “allocated” depends on how the activity was declared, including the start-of-activity form and Annex B of your IRS returns. We have found no single public rule saying every simplified-regime AL property is automatically allocated, and accountants differ. Nor have we found clear guidance on the rate applied to a non-resident’s category B gain. Ask your accountant for your exact position before you set a sale date.

Worked example: how much the three-year rule can cost

A flat bought in 2016 for €200,000 with €10,000 of purchase costs, run as AL, sold in 2026 for €400,000 with 5% commission plus VAT. We use the 2025 inflation coefficient for 2016 (1.19) as a provisional guide, and apply the same gain in both columns. In category B the gain is computed under company-tax rules and can differ, for example if depreciation was deducted.

	Category G	Category B (simplified regime)
Sale price	€400,000	€400,000
Purchase price × 1.19	−€238,000	−€238,000
Purchase costs	−€10,000	−€10,000
Commission 5% + 23% VAT	−€24,600	−€24,600
Gain	€127,400	€127,400
Taxable share	50% = €63,700	95% = €121,030
Tax at 2026 progressive rates, if this were the only income	€19,968	€46,707 + €1,026 solidarity surcharge = €47,733

The difference is about €27,800. Real figures depend on your other income, which counts when setting the rate. Try your own figures in the selling calculator, which models category G only, and see capital gains tax for non-residents.

Two reliefs are usually out of reach. The main-home relief needs the flat to have been your permanent home for the 12 months before the sale. The new rent-reinvestment exemption (Decree-Law 97/2026) excludes gains under article 10, which on its wording means category G gains; the tax authority has not said how it treats former AL property. See the rent-reinvestment exemption.

Who buys a short-let property?

Buyer	What they value	What they will ask for
Investor who wants to keep letting	A registration that transfers, booking history, reviews, fixtures	RNAL number, 2–3 years of booking and platform statements, insurance, condominium minutes, any complaints
Owner-occupier or second-home buyer	The home itself; often indifferent to the registration	Habitation licence, condition, noise, building rules
Long-let landlord	Rent potential; moderate-rent tax at 10% from 2026 to 2029	Whether the flat has AL history (relevant to future registrations in some councils)

Non-resident buyers of homes have paid a flat 7.5% IMT (property transfer tax) since 25 May 2026, unless they become resident within two years or let at a moderate rent (Decree-Law 97/2026). An AL flat is still a home for IMT, so the 7.5% applies. That shrinks the investor pool in some areas.

How should you price an AL property?

• Start from comparable home sales, not from the business. INE transaction medians on our area pages are the anchor.
• Add a premium only where the registration transfers and new ones are scarce. Where registrations are open, a buyer can register the flat themselves, so the number adds little.
• In a containment area where transfer ends the registration, add nothing. Price it as a home.
• Separate furniture and equipment in the CPCV if you are selling them, and agree what happens to bookings already taken.
• Disclose the history. Some councils bar new AL where a residential lease existed in recent years (Lisbon: 5 years), and buyers’ lawyers will check.

See costs of selling for commission and VAT, and selling as a non-resident for the process from abroad.

Key points

• Since 1 November 2024 (Decree-Law 76/2024), an AL registration no longer lapses on transfer; the 2023 non-transferability rule is gone.
• Councils can still limit transfers in containment areas. In Lisbon’s six central parishes a sale normally ends the registration; Porto and Ericeira also have containment areas.
• We found no AL regulation in Cascais, Oeiras, Lagos, Portimão, Albufeira, Loulé or Tavira; Lagoa has a draft, and councils over 1,000 registrations must decide by 31 December 2026.
• If the flat was allocated to your AL business, a sale within three years of taking it out is taxed on 95% of the gain as business income, not 50%.
• Price from comparable home sales and add a premium only where the registration transfers and new ones are scarce.