Adding a storey: do you need a permit in Portugal?

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Adding a storey is an extension of height and volume (ampliação) and needs a licence. Prior communication applies only where a plan or subdivision sets the details, or in a consolidated urban zone under the height rule.

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Answer

Licence

Prior communication instead

Prior communication replaces the licence only where a detail plan, execution unit or subdivision already sets the details, or in a consolidated urban zone with no cessions and a height no taller than the most common facade height on that stretch of street.

Extension means

Works that increase the facade height or the height or volume of a building (art 2(e))

Council rules

Your council can add detail in its own building regulation where the law lets it, so ask before you start.

Legal basis

RJUE art 2(e), 4(2)(c) and 4(4)(d) and (e), RJUE (Decreto-Lei 555/99) as republished in the Annex of Decreto-Lei 108/2026

Sources

data.dre.pt/eli/dec-lei/108/2026/05/29/p/dre/pt/pdf

Checked

2026-11-05