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Calculadora Capital

Portuguese Condominium Fees

Portuguese condominium costs are split by the value of each fraction, not equally. Enter your permilagem and the building’s annual budget.

The permilagem is in the deed of horizontal property and in the property tax register entry, and those of all fractions in the building add up to 1000. Lift expenses are counted separately because only the fractions the lift can serve take part in them.

Monthly fee
€113.85
Annual fee
€1,366.20
Share of common expenses (year)€1,080.00
Share of lift expenses (year)€162.00
Remaining condominium expenses (year)€1,242.00
Common reserve fund at 10% (year)€124.20
Monthly fee without the reserve fund€103.50
Your fraction’s weight in the budget4.50%

The common reserve fund of €124.20 is added to your €1,242.00 share of the remaining expenses rather than taken out of it, so the annual fee is €1,366.20. That is what article 4(2) of Decree-Law 268/94 provides.

The sum follows the default regime: expenses are shared in proportion to the value of the fractions, the lift only among the fractions it can serve, and the common reserve fund is added on top. It leaves out the equal split, or split by use, that article 1424(2) allows, because that depends on a clause in the condominium regulations approved without opposition.

An educational estimate from the figures you enter. It does not replace the budget and minutes of your own owners’ assembly, which are the documents that fix what each fraction pays.

Video: how to use the calculator

You do not calculate your permilagem, you read it

Article 1418(1) of the Portuguese Civil Code requires the deed of horizontal property to fix the relative value of each fraction, expressed as a percentage or in thousandths of the total value of the building. That figure, and only that figure, decides how much each fraction pays. It is not a sum an owner works out from the square metres of their flat: two fractions of identical size can carry different permilagens, because what the deed fixes is relative value rather than surface area, and a high floor with a view or a parking space can weigh more than an inward-facing ground floor with the same layout. You will find your permilagem in the purchase deed, in the property tax register entry or in the deed of horizontal property itself, and the permilagens of all fractions add up to 1000. If you add up the permilagens in your building and do not reach 1000, the problem is in the deed and not in the calculator. That is why this tool asks for the permilagem as an input instead of pretending to derive it.

The lift, and the word that settles the real cases

Article 1424(4) says that only owners whose fractions can be served by the lift take part in lift expenses. The wording settles almost every argument that reaches a condominium meeting: what counts is whether the fraction can be served, not whether the resident makes use of it. Someone on the first floor who always takes the stairs still pays, because their fraction can be served by the lift; a shop with its own street entrance that the lift does not reach does not. And there is an arithmetic consequence that is rarely explained: when some fractions fall outside, the lift cost does not disappear, it is simply shared among those that take part. In a building where the ground-floor shops account for 150 of the 1000 thousandths, the remaining 850 carry the whole lift bill, and each of their shares rises accordingly. The calculator has a field for exactly that and flags the difference. Article 1424(3) generalises the idea: expenses on common parts serving only some of the owners fall on those who use them.

The reserve fund is added to the fee, not taken out of it

Article 4 of Decree-Law 268/94 makes a common reserve fund compulsory to cover the cost of conserving the building, and its paragraph 2 provides that each owner contributes to that fund an amount corresponding to at least 10% of their share of the REMAINING expenses of the condominium. The word remaining is what decides the sum and it is the one usually missed: the 10% is charged on the share of the other expenses and is added to it. A share of 100 EUR a month in running costs carries a further 10 EUR of reserve fund and costs 110 EUR, not 100 EUR of which 10 EUR is set aside. Note the words at least as well: 10% is the legal minimum, and the assembly can vote a higher figure, which is in fact sensible in an older building with works ahead. The fund must be deposited with a bank and, if it is spent on anything else, the owners have twelve months to replace it through an extraordinary levy.

What the calculator does, and what it leaves out

The calculator starts from the annual budget approved by the assembly and from your fraction’s permilagem, applies the proportion of article 1424(1) to the general expenses, handles lift expenses separately under paragraph 4, adds the two shares together and then adds the common reserve fund, returning the annual and the monthly fee. It deliberately leaves out the equal split, or split in proportion to use, that article 1424(2) allows for services of common interest, because that is not the default regime: it depends on a provision in the condominium regulations, approved without opposition by a majority of owners representing the majority of the total value of the building, and on the criteria being properly specified and justified. A building that has such a clause shares that slice outside this model. Also left out are works amounting to improvements, whose approval majorities and rules on justified refusal are matters of deliberation rather than arithmetic, and the ramps and lifting platforms of paragraph 5, borne only by those who installed them.

Worked example

Picture a two-bedroom flat carrying 45 thousandths in a building whose approved annual budget is 24,000 EUR of general expenses plus 3600 EUR for the lift, with the reserve fund at the legal minimum. The share of general expenses is 1080 EUR, that is 24,000 EUR times 45 thousandths. Because every fraction in the building is served by the lift, the lift share is 162 EUR. The remaining expenses come to 1242 EUR and the common reserve fund adds a further 124.20 EUR, so the annual fee is 1366.20 EUR and the monthly fee 113.85 EUR. Without the reserve fund it would be 103.50 EUR a month, and the 10.35 EUR difference is exactly what is set aside for works. If this fraction were a shop the lift does not reach, it would stop paying the 162 EUR and the monthly fee would fall to 99.00 EUR. And if it were the ground-floor shops, 150 thousandths in all, that fell outside, this fraction’s lift share would rise from 162 EUR to 190.59 EUR, because the same bill would then be shared across 850 thousandths instead of 1000.

Frequently asked questions

How is a Portuguese condominium fee calculated?
You multiply the annual budget approved by the assembly by the fraction’s permilagem and divide by twelve for the monthly figure. Lift expenses are counted separately, because only fractions that can be served by the lift take part in them. The common reserve fund is then added, at a minimum of 10% of your share of the remaining expenses.
Does the ground floor pay for the lift?
It depends on whether the fraction can be served by the lift, not on whether the resident uses it. If the lift stops on that floor and serves the fraction, it takes part in the expenses even if the occupant never uses it. If the fraction has its own entrance and the lift does not reach it, it does not take part. That follows from article 1424(4) of the Civil Code, which speaks of fractions that CAN be served.
Can the fee be the same for every fraction?
Only in part, and only subject to a demanding requirement. The rule is proportion to the value of the fractions. Article 1424(2) allows expenses on services of common interest to fall on owners in equal shares or in proportion to their use, but only through a provision in the condominium regulations, approved without opposition by a majority of owners representing the majority of the total value of the building, and with the criteria properly specified and justified. Conservation of the common parts continues to be shared by value.
Does the reserve fund come out of the fee or on top of it?
On top. Article 4(2) of Decree-Law 268/94 sets the contribution at least 10% of the owner’s share of the remaining expenses of the condominium, so it is computed on that share and added to it. Someone with a 100 EUR share of running costs pays 110 EUR a month, of which 10 EUR goes to the fund. The fund is deposited with a bank and is intended to cover the cost of conserving the building.
Where do I find my fraction’s permilagem?
In the deed of horizontal property, usually attached to the purchase deed, and also in the urban property tax register entry for the fraction. Article 1418(1) of the Civil Code requires the deed to fix the relative value of each fraction, expressed as a percentage or in thousandths of the total value of the building, and the absence of that specification can even make the deed void. The permilagens of all fractions in the building add up to 1000.
Who pays arrears when the flat is sold?
Liability for existing debts is measured by when they should have been settled, so they stay with whoever owned the fraction at that time, and amounts falling due after the transfer are the new owner’s responsibility. Article 1424-A requires the administrator to issue, within ten days, a statement of all charges and debts on the fraction, and that statement is a compulsory document for the deed. The buyer may waive it, but in doing so expressly accepts liability for any debt the seller owes the condominium.
Are the calculator’s figures exact?
The proportion to the value of the fractions, the lift rule and the 10% minimum for the common reserve fund are those of article 1424 of the Civil Code and article 4 of Decree-Law 268/94, both as amended by Law 8/2022. The result is an educational estimate from the figures you enter and does not replace the budget and the minutes of your own owners’ assembly, which are the documents that actually fix what each fraction pays. If your condominium regulations split part of the expenses equally, that slice is not covered here.

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Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: 2026-08-15