Urbanisable land whose rules are suspended: can you build on it in Portugal?
Not for now where the CCDR has suspended the plan rules: no act that occupies, uses or transforms land classified as urbanisable (áreas urbanizáveis) may be done during the suspension, apart from the listed exceptions.
- Answer
- No, while the suspension lasts, unless an exception applies.
- Exceptions
- Land that has since become urban under the new rules; urbanisation works already under way; parameters already fixed by an approved prior information request or architecture project; housing under articles 72-A and 72-B.
- Who decides
- The regional development commission (CCDR) decrees the suspension, after hearing the municipality.
- Council rules
- The municipal plan (PDM) sets the detail for your plot; ask the council for a planning certificate (certidão) and the plan maps.
- Legal basis
- RJIGT article 199, as amended by Decreto-Lei 117/2024 and Lei 53-A/2025
- Sources
- files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2025/04/07001/0000200007.pdf
files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2024/12/25200/0000900016.pdf - Checked
- 2026-11-05
Free check
Send us your question about a plot or a land classification. We will answer it by email, based on the national rules and the sources shown on the page. It is free.