Rent updates in Portugal: how much rent can rise in 2026

The 2026 rent update coefficient

Absent an update criterion set in the contract, the rent of a Portuguese lease can be updated once a year by the coefficient the INE (the national statistics institute) computes and publishes in the official gazette (article 1077 of the Civil Code)². The coefficient reflects the average 12-month consumer price index variation, excluding housing, to 31 August of the prior year, and is published by 30 October.

For 2026, the coefficient is 1.0224, a 2.24% increase (Notice no. 23174/2025/2, published on 19 September 2025)¹. It applies to urban leases, residential and non-residential (shops, offices), and to rural leases.

How the new rent is calculated

The sum is a multiplication:

new rent = current rent × coefficient

With the 2026 coefficient:

The coefficient is the ceiling of the annual update under the legal regime: the landlord may apply a smaller increase, or none. Run the sum on your own rent in the rent increase calculator.

The rules: one year, registered letter, 30 days

The update is not automatic. To take effect, three rules must be met (article 1077 of the Civil Code)²:

• one update per year: the first can only be demanded one year after the contract starts, and each following one a year after the previous update;
• written communication: the landlord sends a registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, or hand-delivers it against a receipt, at least 30 days in advance;
• content of the letter: the new rent amount and the coefficient (or coefficients) and other factors used in the calculation.

Without the letter, the old rent stands: the tenant is not required to pay an increase that was not communicated in these terms.

Skipped years: up to three coefficients at once

If the landlord skipped the update in one or more years, those increases are not lost for good: the missed coefficients can be applied together with the current year's one, multiplied by each other, up to three years of coefficients³.

An €800 rent not updated since 2023 can be updated with all three coefficients: €800 × 1.0694 (2024) × 1.0216 (2025) × 1.0224 (2026) = €893.58, a total increase of 11.70%.

What the landlord cannot do is charge the differences for the months the rent went without updating: the catch-up only takes effect going forward, from the communication.

The contract can set another criterion

The coefficient regime is the default: it applies when the contract is silent. The parties may stipulate another update criterion in writing, for example a fixed yearly percentage, and in that case that criterion prevails, even if it is higher than the coefficient. Always check your contract's update clause before doing the sums.

The recent history of the coefficients

In 2023 the coefficient would have been 1.0543, but Law no. 19/2022 capped the update at 2% (the rent "brake"), with tax compensation for landlords⁴. The 2024 jump (+6.94%) reflected 2023's high inflation, measured by the CPI excluding housing; that is why the coefficient does not match the calendar-year inflation you read in the news.

Old rents and special regimes

Two situations follow their own rules and sit outside these sums:

• pre-1990 contracts still transitioning to the NRAU (the new urban lease regime): the rent follows its own phased path, with limits tied to the household's income;
• supported (apoiada) and social rents: the rent is calculated from the household's income, not from the coefficient.

The other side of the sum: the landlord's tax

For the landlord, the updated rent is rental income (category F): it pays rental income tax at the contract's rate, after deducting eligible expenses, and each payment is documented by an electronic rent receipt. Whoever runs the numbers on the increase should run them on both sides: what comes in extra per month and the tax that increase pays.

A worked example from start to finish

Imagine an €800 rent, last updated in January 2025:

• In 2026 the landlord can apply the 1.0224 coefficient: new rent €817.92, €17.92 more per month, or €215.04 over 12 months.
• The registered letter goes out 30 days in advance and states the coefficient (1.0224) and the new rent (€817.92).
• If the last update had been in 2023, the 2024, 2025 and 2026 coefficients could be applied at once: new rent €893.58, always without retroactive charges.

Run the sum with your own rent in the rent increase calculator.