Who pays IMI, AIMI, condominium and utilities on a let home

As the owner of a let home in Portugal you pay the property taxes: IMI (municipal property tax) every year, and AIMI (the additional IMI) only if your homes are worth a lot in total. You also pay the condominium's ordinary fees and any extraordinary works, unless your lease moves the ordinary fees to the tenant in writing. The tenant normally pays water, electricity, gas and internet, and the contracts should be in the tenant's name. Most of these costs are deductible from your rental income, but AIMI is the exception: it is handled differently.

How IMI is calculated

IMI is charged on the valor patrimonial tributário or VPT (the tax value of the property recorded by the tax office). It is not the market value or the price you paid. You can see the VPT on the caderneta predial (the property's tax record) in the Portal das Finanças.

• The VPT formula (CIMI art. 38) multiplies a base value per m² by the area and by coefficients for use, location, quality and comfort, and age. The age coefficient lowers the value as the building gets older.
• Updates. For homes, the VPT is updated every three years by 75% of the official currency coefficient (CIMI art. 138). You can ask for a new valuation if you think the VPT is out of date, but only three years after the last one (CIMI art. 130). Check first that a new valuation would lower the figure, because updated location coefficients can raise it instead.
• The rate. For urban property each municipality sets a rate between 0.3% and 0.45% of the VPT every year (CIMI art. 112(1)(c) and (5)). Municipalities in a formal financial recovery programme may charge up to 0.5%. For the IMI paid in 2026, more than 200 municipalities charged the minimum 0.3%. You can check your municipality's rate on the Portal das Finanças or the câmara municipal's website.
• Discounts and surcharges set by the municipality. A municipality may cut the rate by up to 20% for let urban properties in areas it defines (art. 112(7)). It may also adjust the rate by up to 30% in urban regeneration areas (art. 112(6)) and raise it by up to 30% for run-down buildings (art. 112(8)). Ask your câmara whether the rental discount exists where your property is.

Example: a flat with a VPT of €150,000 in a municipality charging 0.3% pays €450 a year. If the municipality applies the full 20% discount for let homes, it pays €360.

When IMI is due

IMI is charged to whoever is the registered owner on 31 December of the tax year (CIMI arts. 8 and 113). It is paid the following year. The tax office sends the payment notice by the end of the month before payment, and you can also find it in the Portal das Finanças (art. 119). The number of instalments depends on the total amount (CIMI art. 120):

If you miss an instalment, the remaining ones become due at once (art. 120(4)). No bill is issued if the total is under €10 (art. 113(6)). If you live abroad, set up electronic notifications or make sure your fiscal representative passes on the notices, because a missed notice is not an excuse for paying late.

Higher IMI for empty homes and offshore owners

• Vacant homes. A home that has been unoccupied for more than a year can be declared devoluto (vacant) by the municipality. Its IMI rate is then tripled (CIMI art. 112(3)). The signs the municipality looks for are no water, electricity, gas or telecoms contracts, or no consumption on the bills (DL 159/2006). Before the decision, you must be notified and given the chance to respond. There are exceptions, for example while certified renovation works are under way.
• Vacant homes in urban pressure zones. Where a municipality has declared a zona de pressão urbanística (an area of high housing demand), the rate for a vacant home is ten times the normal rate. It rises by a further 20% each year, up to 20 times (art. 112-B). Separately, a home that is neither let nor your own permanent home can carry a surcharge of up to 25% in these zones, or up to 50% if a company owns it (art. 112(19)–(20)).
• Blacklisted jurisdictions. A rate of 7.5% applies to property owned by entities resident in a territory on the Portuguese list of preferential tax regimes, or controlled by such entities (art. 112(4)). It does not apply to property owned by individuals (art. 112(17)).

The practical lesson is to keep the gap between tenants short. Keep at least one utility contract active, in your name or the tenant's, so the home never looks abandoned on paper.

AIMI: who pays and how much

AIMI is an annual tax on the total VPT of all the homes and building land you own in Portugal on 1 January (CIMI arts. 135-A to 135-C). Commercial and service premises are excluded (art. 135-B). Being let does not exclude a home.

• Individuals: the first €600,000 of combined VPT is deducted. The rate is 0.7% above that, 1% on the part between €1 million and €2 million, and 1.5% above €2 million (arts. 135-C and 135-F). An undivided inheritance (herança indivisa) also gets the €600,000 deduction.
• Married couples and unmarried partners (união de facto): you can choose joint taxation between 1 April and 31 May in the Portal das Finanças. The deduction then doubles to €1.2 million and the rate bands double too (arts. 135-D and 135-F). The choice stays in place until you cancel it.
• Companies: 0.4% of the total VPT, with no deduction at all (art. 135-F(1)). Homes a company provides for the personal use of its shareholders or directors are taxed at the individual rates. Companies in blacklisted jurisdictions pay 7.5%.
• Vacant homes and ruins do not get the €600,000 deduction (art. 135-C(4)).

AIMI is assessed in June and paid in September (arts. 135-G and 135-H). Example: an individual whose homes have a combined VPT of €750,000 pays (€750,000 − €600,000) × 0.7% = €1,050. A couple with the same homes who choose joint taxation pays nothing. A company owning the same homes pays €3,000.

The moderate-rent exemption. In September 2025 the Government announced an AIMI exemption for homes let at up to €2,300 a month. In the final law (DL 97/2026, 20 May 2026), the AIMI exemption only applies to homes covered by an investment contract for rental (contrato de investimento para arrendamento, or CIA). A CIA is a contract signed with the housing institute IHRU, available from 1 September 2026 to investors with the technical and management capacity to deliver rental housing. An ordinary landlord letting at a moderate rent gets the new 10% income tax rate, but no AIMI exemption. Homes in the old Programa de Apoio ao Arrendamento remain excluded from AIMI (art. 135-B(2)). Confirm with the tax office whether contracts under the new simplified affordable-rent scheme (RSAA) will be treated the same way.

Condominium fees and extraordinary works

In a building divided into frações (individually owned units), every owner must contribute to the costs of the common parts. The default is in proportion to the value (permilagem) of your unit, unless the deeds or the condominium's rules say otherwise (Código Civil art. 1424). Every condominium must also keep a reserve fund of at least 10% of each owner's share of the other costs (DL 268/94, art. 4).

• Towards the condominium, you are always liable. The condominium charges the owner, not the tenant. Since the 2022 reform (Lei 8/2022), costs are owed by whoever owned the unit when the assembly approved them. When you sell, the administrator must issue a statement of charges and debts within 10 days of your request (art. 1424-A).
• Between you and the tenant, the lease decides. If the lease says nothing, the charges for administering, maintaining and using the common parts are yours (CC art. 1078(3)). You can agree in writing that the tenant pays the ordinary monthly fee. Write the amount, or how it is calculated, into the lease.
• Extraordinary works (roof, façade, lift replacement) are a cost of ownership. Leave them with yourself, even if the tenant pays the ordinary fee. Inside the home, the landlord must carry out the repairs needed by law or for the use agreed in the lease, unless the lease says otherwise (CC art. 1074(1)).
• Attend or vote by proxy. Assemblies can be held by videoconference, and if you agreed beforehand, notices can be sent by email. If you live abroad, give a proxy to someone you trust so works are not approved without your input.

Utilities and insurance

Utilities. If the lease is silent, the tenant pays the running costs of supplies to the home (CC art. 1078(2)), and the contracts should be in the name of whoever pays (art. 1078(4)). In practice:

1. Take meter readings on the day the keys are handed over and record them in the check-in report.
2. The tenant moves electricity and gas into their own name with any supplier, using the lease as proof of occupancy. A supplier cannot refuse a new contract because of a previous holder's debts at that address (ERSE). They will need the supply point codes (CPE for electricity, CUI for gas) from a bill or the meter.
3. Water is supplied by the municipal or regional water company. Ask it what it needs for a change of holder; it may ask for the lease and the owner's details.
4. Internet and TV are the tenant's own contract.
5. If you keep a contract in your name and recharge the cost, the lease must say so. You must show proof of payment within a month, and the tenant pays with the next rent (art. 1078(5)–(6)).

Insurance. In any building divided into units, fire insurance is compulsory for each unit and for the common parts (CC art. 1429). Each owner must take out cover. If an owner does not, the administrator takes it out and recovers the premium from that owner. Many condominiums arrange a collective policy. Check that your unit is covered and that the insured value is realistic. A wider multi-risk policy, which adds water damage and liability, is optional but sensible. The tenant's contents insurance is the tenant's own choice.

Tax. IMI, condominium charges you are obliged to pay, repairs and insurance are generally deductible from your rental income (CIRS art. 41). AIMI is not deducted as an expense. Instead, it is credited against your income tax on rental income (CIMI art. 135-I). See the separate guide on deductible expenses for details and the proof you need.

Annual cost template

Copy this table for each property and fill in your own figures.

Key deadlines

• 1 January: the owners on record on this date are charged AIMI for the year.
• 1 April – 31 May: choose joint AIMI taxation, or declare which homes belong to which spouse.
• May / August / November: IMI instalments for the previous year.
• June: AIMI is assessed. September: AIMI is paid.
• 31 December: the owner on this date is charged IMI for the year. This is also the date by which municipalities must tell the tax office next year's rates and vacant-home lists.