Reclassification of rustic land to urban for housing (article 72-B): can you build on it in Portugal?
Not at the owner's request alone: a council may turn rustic land into urban land for housing by a simplified PDM change, but only if at least 70% of the floor area is public, affordable-rent or controlled-cost housing.
- Answer
- Only the council can reclassify, and only under the special housing procedure.
- Main conditions
- Contiguity with urban land; a delimited execution unit; infrastructure existing or guaranteed; fit with the local housing strategy.
- Excluded areas
- Protected areas of the national classified-areas system; coastal programme areas, reservoirs and estuaries; significant flood-risk areas; irrigation schemes; main REN types; RAN class A1, A and B land.
- Lapse
- The urban classification lapses if urbanisation works are not completed within four years of publication, extendable once by one year.
- Duration of the special regime
- Decreto-Lei 117/2024 applies for four years from 31 December 2024, and procedures started under it continue.
- Who decides
- The municipality's deliberative body, by a deliberation published in the Diário da República.
- Legal basis
- RJIGT article 72-B, as amended by Decreto-Lei 117/2024 and Lei 53-A/2025
- Sources
- files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2024/12/25200/0000900016.pdf
files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2025/04/07001/0000200007.pdf
files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2015/05/09300/0246902512.pdf - Checked
- 2026-11-05
What changed in 2024 and 2025
- Decreto-Lei 117/2024 created the special route and set the 70% housing share.
- Lei 53-A/2025 changed the housing categories to public housing, affordable rent and controlled-cost housing, added contiguity with urban land, extended the REN and RAN exclusions and repealed several paragraphs of article 72-B.
Free check
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