Lease length, renewal and ending a residential lease in Portugal

A residential lease in Portugal does not have to last five years. A fixed-term lease must normally run for at least one year, and it can run for up to 30. Unless the contract says otherwise, it renews automatically at the end of each term. As the landlord, you cannot end it by refusing the first renewal until three years after it was signed, unless you need the home for yourself or your children. The notice each side must give depends on how long the contract or renewal period is. The notice must be in writing and is normally sent by registered letter.

Fixed-term or open-ended: the two types of lease

The Civil Code (Código Civil, art. 1094) allows two kinds of residential lease:

• Fixed term (prazo certo). The lease runs for a stated period, such as one, three or five years, and then renews automatically unless someone opposes renewal.
• Open-ended (duração indeterminada). The lease has no end date. The landlord can end it only on the grounds the law sets out (see below). A fixed-term contract may also say that it becomes open-ended after its first renewal.

If the contract says nothing about duration, it is treated as a fixed-term lease of five years (art. 1094(3)). That default, together with the different rules for commercial leases, is probably where the myth of a "five-year minimum" comes from. The law sets no such minimum for homes.

How short or long the term can be

Under art. 1095, which has this wording since Lei 13/2019 took effect on 13 February 2019:

• The term must be written into a clause of the contract.
• It cannot be less than 1 year or more than 30 years. A shorter or longer term is automatically extended or cut to that limit. A six-month lease of a permanent home is therefore treated as a one-year lease.
• Exception: the one-year minimum does not apply to leases for non-permanent housing or a temporary special purpose stated in the contract. The law gives professional reasons, education and training, and tourism as examples. Student lets and work-assignment lets fall here.
• These temporary leases do not renew automatically unless the contract says they do (art. 1096(2)).

For commercial (non-residential) leases, art. 1110 sets different defaults. If the contract is silent, the lease runs for five years, and the landlord cannot oppose renewal during its first five years. None of this applies to homes.

Automatic renewal and the 3-year rule

Article 1096(1) says that, "unless otherwise stipulated", a fixed-term lease renews automatically at the end of its term. Each renewal is for the same period as the original term, or for three years if that term was shorter. Article 1097(3) adds that the landlord's opposition to the first renewal takes effect only three years after the contract was signed. Until then the contract stays in force.

In practice there are three situations:

1. The contract excludes renewal (a non-renewable lease). Most courts and commentators accept that this is allowed, and the lease simply expires at the end of its term. Draft the clause clearly, as courts are still divided on parts of art. 1096.
2. The contract renews and does not fix the renewal period. A one-year lease renews for three years, so the earliest date you can end it by non-renewal is four years after the start. A two-year lease renews for three years, giving five years in total. A five-year lease renews for three years at a time.
3. The contract renews for a shorter period (for example yearly). Courts are split on whether the parties may agree a renewal period of less than three years. Supreme Court (STJ) decisions since 2023 have tended to treat the three years as a mandatory minimum. Even on the more lenient view, you still cannot end the lease by non-renewal before three years from signing.

The rule applies to renewable fixed-term leases that were still running when Lei 13/2019 took effect, not only to newer contracts. Mais Habitação (Lei 56/2023) changed rent rules and did not rewrite these duration provisions.

How much notice you must give to stop a renewal

To stop the lease renewing, the landlord sends an opposition to renewal (oposição à renovação). The notice is counted back from the end date of the current term or renewal (art. 1097(1)–(2)), and the three-year rule above still applies on top.

For example, take a three-year lease that ends on 31 August 2027. If you want it to end then, the tenant must receive your notice at least 120 days earlier, which means by early May 2027. If the notice arrives late, the lease renews, in this case for another three years.

Once you have sent a valid opposition to renewal, the tenant may leave at any time on 30 days' notice (art. 1098(4)).

When the tenant can leave early

A tenant on a fixed-term lease can end it before the term runs out (art. 1098(3)). The rules are:

• The tenant must first have completed one third of the initial term or of the current renewal. On a three-year lease, that means one year.
• After that, the tenant can terminate at any time with 120 days' notice if the term is one year or more, or 60 days' notice if it is shorter.
• The termination takes effect at the end of a calendar month (art. 1098(5)).
• If the tenant gives too little notice, the lease still ends, but the tenant owes rent for the missing notice period. The exceptions are involuntary unemployment, permanent incapacity for work, or the death of the tenant or of someone who has lived with them as one household for over a year (art. 1098(6)).

On an open-ended lease, the tenant can terminate after six months, with 120 days' notice if the lease has run for a year or more, or 60 days' notice if it has run for up to a year (art. 1100).

Ending a lease because you need the home, or for major works

Own use, fixed-term lease. The three-year rule does not apply if you need the home for yourself or a child (first-degree descendant) to live in (art. 1097(4)). The conditions in art. 1102 and art. 1103 apply:

• You pay the tenant compensation equal to one year's rent.
• You must have owned, co-owned or held a usufruct (life interest) in the property for more than two years, unless you inherited it.
• For more than a year, you must not have had another home of your own that meets the need. For Lisbon and Porto this covers the city and its neighbouring municipalities. Elsewhere it covers the same municipality.
• You give at least six months' written notice, and the notice must state the reason expressly, or it has no effect.
• You or your child must move in within three months and live there for at least two years. If you do not, you owe compensation of 10 years' rent, unless the failure was not your fault.

Open-ended leases. Under art. 1101 the landlord can end an open-ended lease on one of three grounds:

• Own use, on the same conditions as above.
• Demolition or deep renovation (obras de remodelação ou restauro profundos) that requires the home to be empty. You need six months' notice. The notice must include proof that you have applied to the municipality for the works and a statement from the architect or engineer responsible. You later confirm the notice with the building licence. You must either pay two years' rent (no less than twice 1/15 of the property's tax value, the VPT) or rehouse the tenant for at least three years. If you have not agreed which within 30 days, the payment applies. Half is due when you confirm the notice and the rest when the keys are handed back (art. 1103).
• No reason given, with at least five years' notice. You must confirm it in a second letter sent between 15 and 12 months before the end date, or it has no effect (art. 1104).

Older contracts, especially those from before 1990, and tenants aged 65 or over or with a disability of 60% or more have extra protections. Take legal advice before serving notice in these cases.

Putting it in writing and sending it properly

• The lease itself must be in writing (art. 1069). If it is not, and that is not the tenant's fault, the tenant can prove the lease exists by other means. Six months of living in the home and paying rent without the landlord objecting is enough.
• Notices about ending the lease, rent updates and works must be in writing and signed. Send them by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt (carta registada com aviso de receção) (NRAU, Lei 6/2006, art. 9).
• Letters to the tenant go to the rented home, unless the tenant has given you another address in writing.
• You can also hand-deliver the notice, if the tenant signs and dates a copy as received.
• Under current law, email or WhatsApp is not a valid way to give notice.
• Leave a margin of a few weeks before the deadline, keep copies and postal receipts, and state the end date clearly.

What the 2026 reform would change (pending)

The government's bill, Proposta de Lei 103/XVII, was submitted on 12 August 2026 and passed its general vote on 30 September 2026. PSD, IL and CDS-PP voted for it, Chega abstained, and PS, Livre, PCP, BE, PAN and JPP voted against. It is an authorisation law, so the government would then change the law by decree-law. It is not in force. It still needs committee scrutiny, a final vote and publication, and the details may change. As submitted, it would:

• make a lease renew for the same period as the original term, removing the three-year minimum renewal;
• remove the rule that delays the landlord's opposition to the first renewal until three years after signing;
• make clear from which date the notice periods are counted;
• cut the notice for ending an open-ended lease without a reason from five years to three;
• allow notices by email where both parties have agreed to it;
• let the landlord terminate after two months of unpaid rent instead of three.

Until a new law is published, the rules above apply, including to leases you sign now.

Checklist

• State in the contract whether the lease is fixed-term or open-ended, how long the term is (at least one year for a permanent home), and whether and for how long it renews.
• For a student or work-assignment let, state the temporary purpose in the contract.
• Diary the end date of each term, and the last day for notice: 240, 120 or 60 days before it, depending on the length of the term.
• Remember that you cannot end the lease by non-renewal in its first three years unless you need the home for yourself or a child.
• Send every notice in signed writing by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, and keep the proof.
• For own use, check the conditions first (two years' ownership, no other home, one year's rent as compensation, moving in within three months).