Key figures — as of 2026-09-02: Two new regimes, CIA and RSAA, took legal effect 1 September 2026 under Decreto-Lei n.º 97/2026 — CIA offers institutional investors up to 25 years of fixed tax treatment; RSAA gives landlords a 100% IRS/IRC exemption on rents capped at roughly 80% of the municipal median rent per m²; the separate 10% flat-rate alternative applies to rents up to €2,300/month but only until 31 December 2029; RSAA replaces the old Programa de Apoio ao Arrendamento with no fixed expiry date.
A new fork in the road for buy-to-let
From 1 September, any landlord in Portugal — Portuguese or foreign, individual or corporate — has a genuinely new decision to make when signing a rental contract. The CIA regime entered into force to be signed between qualifying investors and the Instituto da Habitação e da Reabilitação Urbana (IHRU, I.P.), while the Regime Simplificado de Arrendamento Acessível (RSAA) came into force on 1 September, replacing the now-defunct Programa de Apoio ao Arrendamento, as part of the housing tax package announced in May. Both schemes stem from the same law: Decreto-Lei n.º 97/2026, published on 20 May 2026, which amends the VAT, IRS/IRC and IMT codes and creates the CIA and RSAA regimes alongside a partial VAT refund for home-improvement works.
For foreigners who bought Portuguese property as an income asset — a growing crowd since the Golden Visa's real-estate route closed in 2023 — this is the first serious rewrite of the landlord tax rulebook in years.
What RSAA actually offers
The mechanics are simpler than the old programme's application process. Landlords who sign rental contracts under the RSAA benefit from full exemption from IRS or IRC, provided the conditions set out in the programme are met. Crucially, one of the main differences is that RSAA does away with the old logic of a prior application to the programme.
Rent limits aren't arbitrary. Landlords who agree to charge rents up to roughly 80% of the median rent per square metre in their council, according to INE, can qualify for IRS or IRC exemption on that income. On top of the income tax break, qualifying properties can also get exemption from Stamp Duty and IMI, a reduced 6% VAT rate on construction or refurbishment works, and exemption from the AIMI wealth surcharge.
Contract length matters too. Permanent-residence contracts need a minimum three-year term, while temporary-residence contracts require at least three months and can be renewed as long as the temporary character is maintained. Landlords aren't left to self-certify forever, either — the IHRU oversees the scheme jointly with the tax authority, Social Security, the civil registry institute and INE, and if rents above the cap or other breaches are detected, the tax benefit can be cancelled after an administrative procedure.
The 10% alternative — and why it has a sell-by date
RSAA isn't the only option on the table. Outside the simplified regime, residential rental contracts with rents up to €2,300 a month in 2026 can benefit from a reduced flat rate, but only until 31 December 2029. That's a meaningful discount from the standard rate — Portugal's baseline autonomous rate on residential rental income is 25%, so the reduced rate roughly cuts the tax bill by more than half for eligible contracts. The trade-off, according to idealista's coverage of the ECO reporting, is durability: under RSAA the landlord accepts a potentially lower rent but gets a total exemption with no expiry date currently foreseen.
CIA: built for funds, not for the small landlord
The Contratos de Investimento para Arrendamento target a different audience entirely. The CIA allows tax benefits for periods of up to 25 years for investments earmarked for residential rental or sub-letting, and the regime is of interest to real estate funds, companies with property portfolios and institutional investors, especially when they want a stable, predictable tax framework across the investment's lifecycle. Eligibility isn't automatic: investments qualify when, cumulatively, construction area earmarked for residential rental corresponds to at least 70% of total construction area. For everyday foreign owners with a flat or two, the practical guidance from Portuguese tax commentators is blunt: for the small owner with one or two properties, the RSAA or the 10% IRS rate are more suitable and simpler to operate.
GrowIN's read on the numbers
Here's where the calculus genuinely shifts for a landlord choosing between a fully open-market letting and an RSAA-capped one. Take a property that could fetch €1,000/month freely. Under the standard 25% autonomous rate, the landlord nets €750/month after tax. If the RSAA cap on that property lands at, say, €950/month — a common gap cited in market commentary — but the income is entirely tax-free, the landlord actually nets €950/month: €200 more per month, or roughly €2,400 a year, despite charging a lower headline rent. That reversal — lower rent, higher net income — is precisely the incentive the government is banking on to pull long-term rentals back onto the market, and it's the number every foreign landlord doing the sums should check against their own address and rent bracket.
What this means for foreign landlords
For non-resident owners, none of this changes the basics: a NIF and, in many cases, fiscal representation obligations still apply, and none of these schemes replace advice from an accountant familiar with your specific contract type. RSAA and the 10% rate are choices about how to let; they say nothing about whether you owe Portuguese tax as a non-resident landlord — you still do, on Portuguese-source rental income, regardless of where you live. Foreigners weighing a rental-focused purchase should read our tax and NIF guide alongside this piece before assuming any exemption applies automatically.
What to watch next
The registration mechanics still need bedding in — landlords must submit a copy of the contract and proof of its communication on the Finanças portal via the IHRU's electronic platform, by 15 January of the year following the contract's signing. Municipalities are also expected to roll out local accessible-rent programmes layered on top of the national RSAA framework in the coming months, which could tighten or loosen caps depending on the council. Watch for IHRU guidance on how existing landlords transition, and for any move to extend the 10% rate's 2029 sunset clause.
GrowIN Portugal Editorial: "Two new tax regimes just made accepting a lower rent the more profitable choice for many landlords in Portugal — that's the real story here, not the exemption itself."
Foreign owners currently renting out — or considering buying to rent — a Portuguese property should run both the RSAA and 10%-rate numbers against their specific municipality's median rent before renewing or signing any new lease.