Key figures — as of 2026-08-11: "Moderate rent" ceiling = €2,300/month (2.5× the 2026 minimum wage of €920) — unlocks a 10% flat IRS rate on rental income instead of 25%, and a 50% taxable-base reduction for landlord companies under IRC — Decree-Law 97/2026 (20 May 2026) — "Moderate price" ceiling = €660,982, the upper limit of the second IMT bracket for owner-occupied housing — the Regime Simplificado de Arrendamento Acessível (RSAA) and its local-level rent tables take effect 1 September 2026, with implementing rules still pending.
Two numbers now decide who gets the tax break
Foreign landlords and buyers weighing Portugal's housing tax reform have two figures to memorise: €2,300 and €660,982. Under Decree-Law 97/2026, published in the Diário da República on 20 May 2026, the moderate monthly rent corresponds to 2.5 times the minimum monthly wage set for 2026, while the moderate sale price corresponds to the upper limit of the second IMT bracket applicable to the purchase of a primary home in 2026. With the 2026 minimum wage confirmed at €920, that rent ceiling works out to €2,300, and the price ceiling — tied to the IMT tables revised at the start of the year — now sits at €660,982, up from an earlier estimate closer to €648,000 before the annual IMT bracket update. A price of up to €660,982 will be considered "moderate," a limit that can be updated annually since it stays indexed to IMT brackets — an update that already pushed the ceiling above €660,000 before the diploma even entered into force.
These are not abstract policy figures. They are the gatekeepers for who actually qualifies for the tax relief — and the government still has to finish the paperwork that makes some of it fully operational.
What the thresholds actually unlock
On the landlord side, the reward for staying under €2,300 is substantial. Rents in Portugal are normally taxed at a flat 25%, but Decree-Law 97/2026 introduced a reduction to 10% for housing rental contracts up to €2,300, with effect from 1 January 2026 through 31 December 2029. Companies letting property under the same rent cap get a parallel break: legal entities with moderate-rent contracts now only count 50% of the rent for IRC purposes. Sellers reinvesting into rental housing also benefit — capital gains from selling a home are exempt from IRS if reinvested in property for moderate-rent housing, within 24 months before or 36 months after the sale, provided the acquired property is actually let out.
On the buyer side, €660,982 governs a different lever: reduced VAT on construction. A 6% VAT rate applies to construction and rehabilitation contracts for properties intended for owner-occupied housing whose acquisition value doesn't exceed €660,982, or for rental housing whose monthly rent doesn't exceed €2,300. That's separate from the pre-existing controlled-cost housing exemption, where IMT and stamp duty relief kicks in below €324,058 for a qualifying first home — the two thresholds run in parallel, not as substitutes for one another.
The piece still missing: the September regulation
Here's where "end of August" matters. The RSAA — the accessible-rent scheme layered on top of the national moderate-rent ceiling — was approved by Decree-Law 97/2026 and enters into force on 1 September 2026; for contracts it covers, it provides for IRS exemption on the rents. But the concelho-by-concelho rent tables it depends on need a ministerial portaria first: the decree-law provides for that portaria to be approved within 30 days of the diploma's publication, and it already indicates the limit will be based on 80% of the median rent value published by the INE for the municipality where the property is located. That 30-day window has technically lapsed; the practical deadline that matters now is 1 September, when the RSAA is due to actually start producing effects. Landlords and letting agents should watch Diário da República closely through the rest of August for that portaria — without it, nobody can confirm the local RSAA cap that sits alongside the national €2,300 figure.
GrowIN's number: what the 10% rate is worth
Run the maths on a landlord letting at the full €2,300 moderate-rent ceiling: annual rental income of €27,600 taxed at the old 25% rate means €6,900 in IRS; taxed at 10%, it's €2,760. That's a €4,140 annual saving per qualifying property — money that stays in the landlord's pocket rather than the Treasury's, and a incentive Lisbon is betting will pull more long-term rentals onto the market.
"The moderate-rent and moderate-price ceilings are now the two numbers that decide whether a landlord pays 10% or 25% — get the maths wrong and the difference is thousands of euros a year," says GrowIN Portugal Editorial.
What foreign landlords and buyers should do now
Anyone letting property near the €2,300 line should get contracts registered on the Portal das Finanças and confirm the reduced rate applies from the date rent is actually received, not the contract's original signing date. Non-EU/EEA buyers eyeing the €660,982 ceiling for VAT relief on new-build purchases should separately check the flat 7.5% non-resident IMT rate and the distinct €324,058 controlled-cost exemption before assuming any single number covers their case — these regimes overlap but don't merge. Our tax and NIF hub and tax services page track the implementing portaria as it's published; outcomes depend on the Autoridade Tributária's final guidance, so professional advice is worth the cost before signing anything tied to these thresholds.
The regulation everyone in the rental market is waiting on should land before September 1. Until it does, the €2,300 and €660,982 figures are fixed — but how strictly local RSAA rules interact with them is not yet fully written.
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