This guide is designed to help you ask better questions, organise evidence and know when professional or official confirmation is needed. Requirements and individual circumstances can change, so use the dated official sources at the end.
1. Understand who is delivering the home
The seller, promoter, builder and landowner may not be the same entity.
Identify every relevant company, its role, ownership or rights over the land, track record and completed projects. Visit an earlier development if possible and ask owners about completion, snagging and after-sales response.
Confirm who receives each payment, who signs the reservation and contract, and what financial or legal protections apply if the project is delayed or does not proceed.
- Check company and project identities
- Visit a completed scheme
- Ask who owns the land and signs the sale
2. Verify approvals, plans and specification
The brochure is not the approved or contractual property.
Obtain independent confirmation of the relevant planning and construction approvals, land-registration position, approved plans, unit identification and any phasing or shared infrastructure. Ask what must still happen before use and completion.
Make the specification precise: areas, plan, orientation, parking, storage, finishes, appliances, acoustic and thermal performance, communal facilities, landscaping and allowed substitutions. Record which drawings and specification version form part of the contract.
Computer-generated images, show homes and verbal descriptions are marketing material unless the contract expressly incorporates the relevant specification.
3. Control contract and payment risk
Long delivery periods make contract detail especially important.
Use independent Portuguese legal advice before reservation or the CPCV. Address the exact unit, price, payment stages, evidence required at each stage, completion window, long-stop date, permitted changes, buyer finance, assignment, default, refund rights and dispute process.
Do not assume a bank’s involvement protects your deposit or confirms the development’s legal status. Independently verify payment instructions and understand what security, escrow or guarantee—if any—actually covers each payment.
- Tie stages to objective evidence
- Define material and non-material changes
- Address delay and cancellation explicitly
4. Inspect, complete and follow defects
Completion is a process, not just a key collection date.
Before completion, obtain the final documents required for the transaction and use, confirmation of registration arrangements, energy certificate, warranties, manuals, condominium information and the final account. Reconcile the finished unit against the contractual plan and specification.
Commission an independent snagging inspection at the contractually appropriate time. Record defects, responsibility and correction dates. At handover, capture meters, keys, controls, common-area access and the formal route for reporting defects during applicable warranty periods.
- Inspect before losing contractual leverage
- Record every defect with photographs
- Confirm the after-sales contact and response process
Practical checklist
Warning signs worth investigating
Payment requested to a different entity without explanation
Plans or specification are not contractual
Large early payments lack clear protection
Developer can make broad unilateral changes
No long-stop date or defined defect process
Check the current position
CasaCerta uses primary Portuguese sources wherever possible. Open the source and confirm that it still applies to your transaction and circumstances.
gov.pt · Buying and selling propertyOfficial property document and transaction overview.Justiça · Casa ProntaRegistration and transaction information.DGEG · Energy certificationOfficial building energy-certificate framework.CasaCerta provides decision-support information. It does not replace a current title search, municipal confirmation, legal opinion, tax assessment, structural survey, mortgage offer or advice tailored to your circumstances.