Taxable property value (VPT): what it is and how it is calculated

What is the taxable property value?

The valor patrimonial tributário (VPT) is the value the Portuguese tax authority assigns to each property, set in a valuation under the rules of the CIMI (the municipal property tax code) and recorded on the caderneta predial, the property's register document¹. It is not the market price: it is an administrative value produced by a formula, and it usually sits below what the property would fetch in a sale.

It is hard to overstate how much rides on this number, because Portugal's property taxes all revolve around it:

• the annual IMI is the municipal rate applied to the VPT: run the numbers in the IMI calculator;
• on a purchase, IMT and Stamp Duty are charged on the higher of the deed price and the VPT: see the IMT calculator;
• the AIMI surcharge adds up each owner's residential VPTs above €600,000: see the AIMI calculator;
• in capital gains on a sale, the VPT acts as the minimum sale value the tax office considers.

The article 38 formula

For built urban property, the VPT is calculated as¹:

VPT = Vc × A × Ca × Cl × Cq × Cv, rounded up to the next ten euros

Estimate your property's value in the VPT calculator, which applies this formula step by step with the 2026 values.

The 2026 base value: €712.50 per square metre

Every year, a ministerial order fixes the average construction value per square metre for the purposes of CIMI article 39. For 2026 it is €570 (Portaria 471/2025/1, of 26 December), after three consecutive years at €532². A 25% share for the land is added on top, so the base value actually used in the formula is €712.50/m².

The new value applies to modelo 1 declarations filed from 1 January 2026. A VPT already on a caderneta does not rise automatically: it only changes when a new valuation happens.

The area (A): above 100 m² it counts less and less

The formula area starts from two areas on the caderneta predial¹:

• gross private area (Aa): the dwelling's main area, measured by the outer perimeter, counted in full;
• dependent areas (Ab): garage, storage, annexes, counted at 30%.

The area adjustment coefficient of article 40-A then applies to the total (Aa + 0.30 × Ab) in marginal brackets, like income-tax brackets:

Free land (garden, yard, grounds) barely weighs: it counts at 0.025 up to twice the building's footprint and at 0.005 beyond that. That is why a large yard adds little to the VPT.

Location (Cl): your zone's coefficient

The location coefficient ranges from 0.4 to 3.5 (with a special 0.35 floor for scattered rural housing) and is fixed zone by zone, weighing accessibility, amenities, transport and the local property market¹. An average zone sits near 1.00; the most valued areas of Lisbon and Porto approach the ceiling.

The exact value for your street is public in the Portal das Finanças zoning map (SIGIMI), which shows the coefficient in force for housing, commerce, services and industry³.

Quality and comfort (Cq): what adds and what subtracts

The quality and comfort coefficient starts at 1.00, adds majorative elements and subtracts minorative ones, always within the 0.5 to 1.7 bounds¹. The main ones for housing:

Age (Cv): older means lower

The age coefficient depends on the complete years since the usage licence (or the end of construction)¹:

For the tax office, a building over 60 years old is worth 40% of new, everything else equal. This factor is why so many old VPTs now sit above what the formula would give.

A worked example, start to finish

Imagine an apartment with 100 m² of gross private area and 20 m² of garage and storage, 10 years old, in a zone with Cl 1.00 and no quality elements to add or subtract (Cq 1.00):

• weighted area: 100 + 0.30 × 20 = 106 m²;
• after the area adjustment: 100 + 0.90 × 6 = 105.4 m²;
• age coefficient at 10 years: 0.85;
• exact VPT: €712.50 × 105.4 × 1.00 × 1.00 × 1.00 × 0.85 = €63,832.88;
• rounded up to the next ten: VPT = €63,840.

At a 0.3% IMI rate, that is about €191.52 of tax per year. Redo the math with your own numbers in the VPT calculator.

Where to check the VPT and when to request a revaluation

The official VPT is on the caderneta predial, free on the Portal das Finanças (Serviços, Imóveis, Consultar Património Predial), in the valor patrimonial atual field, with the date of the last valuation.

The VPT only changes with a new valuation: on the first declaration (modelo 1), on works that alter the building, on transfers, or at the owner's request. Three years after the last valuation, any owner can request a free new one on the Portal das Finanças. Because the age coefficient falls over time, the formula often gives less today than the recorded value; if the new VPT is lower, IMI and AIMI fall the following year.

Mind the opposite direction: if the zone's location coefficient has gone up, a revaluation can raise the VPT. Estimate the result first in the VPT calculator and compare it with the caderneta before requesting.

And outside housing?

This formula, with these coefficients, applies to urban dwellings. Other allocations have their own values: commerce (Ca 1.20), services (1.10), industry and warehouses (0.60) and parking, each with its own area brackets. Building plots follow the separate rule of CIMI article 45 and rustic property is valued under entirely different rules (land income)¹. When buying and selling, the taxes are computed in the IMT and property capital gains calculators.