Choosing an estate agent in Portugal: the licence to check, the contract the law requires, and who owes the commission

Most pages about Portuguese estate agents are lists of agencies. This one is about what the law requires of any of them, because that is what you can check before you trust one.

The short answer: estate agency in Portugal is a licensed activity under Lei 15/2013. Operating without the licence carries a fine of €5,000 to €30,000, and the licence can be verified in IMPIC's public register by company name or licence number. The licence itself means two things were proven: commercial integrity, and professional liability insurance of at least €150,000. The mediation contract must be in writing — without it the contract is void, and the agency cannot invoke that nullity. Commission falls due on completion of the deal, not on an accepted offer, unless the contract says otherwise. And where the contract is exclusive, the commission is owed even if the deal collapses through the client's own fault.

Every rule below cites the article it comes from, with the date we read it.

Every estate agent in Portugal must hold a licence, and operating without one is a fine of €5,000 to €30,000

Article 4(1) of Lei 15/2013 makes the activity depend on a licence: the exercise of estate agency «depende de licença a conceder pelo InCI». The InCI named in the statute is the predecessor of today's IMPIC — the Instituto dos Mercados Públicos, do Imobiliário e da Construção — which is the body that now issues and publishes them.

Two consequences follow for anyone choosing an agent.

The first is that only a licensed empresa de mediação imobiliária may do this work, and only under a contract — articles 2(3) and 3(1). An individual who shows you properties and takes a cut without sitting inside a licensed agency is not a lightly-regulated agent; they are outside the regime.

The second is the sanction. Article 32(1)(a) makes carrying on the activity without the licence punishable by a fine of €5,000 to €30,000, and article 31(1)(a) allows the preventive closure of the premises. The licence itself has unlimited validity under article 4(3), subject to lapse, suspension or cancellation — so "licensed since 2009" is not the same as "licensed today".

How to check an estate agent's licence in Portugal: the IMPIC register, searched by licence number or company name

IMPIC publishes the register of licensed agencies, and it is searchable without an account. The fields are:

• Nº Licença — the licence number, the one the market calls the AMI number;
• NIPC — the company's tax number;
• Denominação — the company name;
• Código Postal and Localidade;
• Distrito and Concelho, as dropdowns.

A note on the name. The statute never uses the abbreviation "AMI"; article 13 speaks of the number of the licence or registration issued by the regulator. The AMI number on an agency's business card and the Nº Licença in IMPIC's register are the same number under two names, and that is the number to type.

Article 13 is also why you should already have it. Paragraph 2 requires every establishment to display the company's name and the number of its licence or registration, and paragraph 3 extends that to contracts governed by Portuguese law, correspondence, accounting documents, publications and advertising. An agency advertising property in Portugal without a visible licence number is not merely being casual with its marketing; it is not complying with article 13.

The list most buyers never see: agencies whose licence was suspended or cancelled in the past year

IMPIC publishes a second list, separately from the register of licence-holders: «Empresas com licença suspensa ou cancelada há menos de um ano» — companies whose licence was suspended or cancelled less than a year ago.

It is searchable by district, municipality, postal code and locality, and it shows licence number, NIPC, company name, postal code, locality, district and municipality.

Two honest limits on it, which we state because the list does not. It does not distinguish suspension from cancellation — the heading groups both and there is no status column. And it carries no dates, so it tells you that something happened within the year and not what or when. Finding a name on it is a reason to ask the agency directly what happened, not a verdict.

Checking both lists takes a couple of minutes and is the only part of choosing an agent that does not depend on anybody's opinion.

What a Portuguese estate agency licence actually guarantees: commercial integrity and €150,000 of liability insurance

A licence is not a quality mark. Article 5 states what it proves, and the requirements are cumulative: commercial integrity under article 6, and professional civil liability insurance, or an equivalent financial guarantee, under article 7.

Article 7(1) sets the floor on that insurance: «no montante mínimo de € 150 000».

So the licence tells you there is an insured entity behind the person in front of you and that it cleared an integrity test. It says nothing about how well they negotiate, how much of the market they see, or whether they will tell you about the neighbour's planning application. For the last of those, the law does impose duties, and they are below.

The mediation contract in Portugal must be in writing, and without it the contract is void

Article 16(1) is short: the mediation contract «é obrigatoriamente reduzido a escrito».

Article 16(5) gives that teeth. Failure determines «a nulidade do contrato» — the contract is void — and the agency cannot invoke that nullity itself. The asymmetry is deliberate and it runs in the client's favour: the party that was obliged to put the contract in writing cannot rely on its own omission.

This is the single most useful thing to know about Portuguese estate agency, because the informal arrangement — a handshake, a WhatsApp thread, "we'll sort the paperwork at the notary" — is not a weaker agreement. It is a void one.

What the written mediation contract must contain, item by item

Article 16(2) lists what has to be in it:

Article 16(3) fills a gap that otherwise favours the agency: where the contract states no term, it is treated as lasting six months.

Read that list as a checklist against whatever you are handed. A contract missing the insurance details or silent about exclusivity is not an informal version of the same thing — it is missing content the statute requires.

Who owes the commission to a Portuguese estate agent, and when it becomes due

Article 19(1) sets the moment: remuneration «é devida com a conclusão e perfeição do negócio visado pelo exercício da mediação» — due on the conclusion and perfection of the deal the mediation was aimed at. If a promissory contract has been signed and the mediation contract provides for payment at that stage, it becomes due then.

That is the default a buyer should hold in mind: an accepted offer is not completion, and commission that a page or an agent describes as payable "on agreement" is being described from the contract rather than from the statute.

On who owes it, the statute is narrower than people assume. It does not state the answer generally. Article 19(4) refers to the remuneration owed by the cliente proprietário — the owner-client — which is the ordinary case: the seller signs the mediation contract and the seller pays.

Article 19(3) is the provision that matters to a buyer. A client who is a prospective buyer or tenant may be asked for advances, but only where the mediation contract expressly provides for them, and they are refunded if the deal does not go through. So a buyer being asked for money up front should be looking for the clause that allows it, and for the refund it carries.

Exclusivity in a Portuguese mediation contract: the commission is owed even if the deal fails through your own fault

Article 19(2) is the trap inside exclusivity. Where the deal was made under an exclusivity regime and does not complete for a reason attributable to the client — «não se concretize por causa imputável ao cliente» — the agreed remuneration is still owed.

Exclusivity is not forbidden and is often reasonable; article 16(2)(g) simply requires that it and its effects be stated in the contract. The point is that signing it converts "I may change my mind" into a priced decision, and the price is the full commission.

What a Portuguese estate agent owes a buyer, as opposed to the seller who hired them

Article 17(1) splits the agency's duties.

Towards its own client, it must verify the client's capacity and standing to contract — (a) — and verify that the property corresponds to what the client described — (b).

Towards the destinatários, the people on the other side of the deal, paragraph (c) requires an accurate and clear presentation of the business, and paragraph (d) requires prompt disclosure of anything that could put the deal at risk.

That is less than a buyer's agent would owe you and more than nothing. A buyer in Portugal is normally dealing with the seller's agent, who has a statutory duty of accurate presentation and of telling you what might derail the transaction — and no duty to get you the best price.

Whether you can hire a buyer's agent in Portugal

Nothing in Lei 15/2013 creates a separate licence or category for acting on the buyer's side. What the statute does contemplate is a client who is a prospective buyer: article 19(3) regulates advances from exactly such a client, which would make no sense if a buyer could not be the client.

So the arrangement is possible within the ordinary regime — a licensed agency, a written mediation contract under article 16, and your side of the deal as the one being mediated. We state that as a reading of the statute rather than as a rule it declares, and it is worth having confirmed for your own contract.

What this page does not tell you

It does not name agencies, rank them, or say what commission is normal. Commission is contractual — article 16(2)(c) requires it to be stated, and sets no rate — and any percentage published as "the standard" is a market custom rather than a rule.

It does not cover what the purchase itself costs. Transfer tax, stamp duty and the non-resident rate are in our page on buying as a non-resident.

Frequently asked questions about estate agents in Portugal

More on buying property in Portugal

What a purchase costs a non-resident, year on year as well as on the day, is in the non-resident purchase guide. What may be built on a plot, and why rustic land usually cannot be built on, is in buying land in Portugal. The residence routes that do not depend on buying anything are in the Portugal guide. The law and the registers named here, with the date we read them, are on the sources page: the statute at Lei 15/2013, the register of licence-holders at IMPIC and the suspended or cancelled list at IMPIC's second list.