Buying property in Cascais to rent out: what it earns and what to check first

What does a holiday rental in Cascais earn, by size?

The median home earned €36,600 across all sizes, and the size of the home moves the number most. The table covers 34 homes Portugal Portfolio manages in the Cascais area, 12 months to 31 October 2026. The figures are accommodation revenue, which is before cleaning fees, tourist tax, platform commission, the management fee, utilities and tax.

Source: Portugal Portfolio booking records, 34 homes in the municipality of Cascais, 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026. Accommodation revenue after discounts and before cleaning fees, tourist tax, platform commission, management and tax.

A buyer should read the quartiles as well as the median. In T3, one home in four earned less than €35,500 and one in four earned more than €56,900. What you keep depends on costs that vary by home. The Cascais income calculator shows the range for a size you have in mind.

Does the town matter for rental income in Cascais?

Yes. Cascais town homes earned more than Estoril homes in our data.

Source: Portugal Portfolio booking records, homes of all sizes, 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026. Accommodation revenue after discounts and before cleaning fees, tourist tax, platform commission, management and tax.

The median Cascais home earned €41,700 at 59% occupancy and €185 a night. The median Estoril home earned €32,500 at 46% occupancy and €193 a night. Estoril charged slightly more per night and sold fewer nights. The other 3 homes in the data sit in smaller groups and are not shown by town.

When in the year does a Cascais rental earn its money?

Mostly in summer. The chart shows average monthly occupancy for the 34 homes.

Occupancy by month and average nightly rate. November and December are 2025, the other months 2026. 34 homes in the municipality of Cascais, Portugal Portfolio booking records.

July reached 73% occupancy at €284 a night. November and December sat at 35 to 36%. June to September made 54% of annual revenue and November to March made 23%. Test any purchase plan against the winter months as well as July and August.

Does the local accommodation registration pass to a buyer, and what can a condominium do?

The decree-law text does not say a registration passes to the buyer automatically, so ask the council before you sign. The rules are in Decreto-Lei 128/2014, as republished by Decreto-Lei 76/2024 (Diário da República, 23 October 2024).

Registration is made by prior communication with a deadline and is a necessary condition for operating (article 5, n.º 3). The communication names the holder of the operation, and the holder must update the data within 10 days of any change (article 6, n.º 3). The articles we read do not say whether a seller's registration can be moved to a new owner. In areas of containment, a municipal regulation may set proportionate limits on transferring new registration numbers for houses and apartments, with carve-outs for succession, family transfers and divorce (article 15-B, n.º 1, alínea e).

The condominium has two routes. A building's founding title or condominium regulation can prohibit local accommodation (article 6-B, n.º 4). A later vote to introduce a ban needs two thirds of the building's permilagem and applies only to registration requests submitted after the vote (article 6-B, n.º 5). Separately, the condominium assembly can oppose local accommodation in a unit by a reasoned vote of more than half of the permilagem, on grounds of repeated and proven acts that disturb the normal use of the building, and ask the mayor to decide (article 9, n.º 2). If the registration is cancelled on that ground, the property cannot be used as local accommodation for a period set in the decision, up to five years (article 9, n.º 8, alínea b).

Before you buy, read the founding title and the condominium regulation, ask for the registration number, and ask the council in writing what happens to it on a sale.

What is the municipal deadline in 2026, and is there a containment area in Cascais?

Municipalities that passed 1,000 local accommodation registrations by 31 December 2025 must decide, if they have not already, by 31 December 2026 whether to make a municipal regulation (Decreto-Lei 151/2026, article 2).

The same decree-law lets a municipality extend a suspension of new registrations once, or issue one more suspension, and neither may run past 31 December 2026 (articles 3 and 4). A suspension has no retroactive effect and does not touch registrations validly made before it (article 6, n.º 2). A containment area is one where a municipal regulation may limit new registrations (article 15-A of the parent decree-law).

Portugal Portfolio checked on 9 November 2026 and found no containment area for Cascais. The council's registration page, opened on 10 November 2026, does not mention one either. We found no official count of Cascais registrations, so we cannot say whether the 1,000 threshold applies. Ask the council before you sign, because a regulation can change the position. See the licence page(in Portuguese) for the process.

Which taxes do you pay when you buy, own and rent out in Cascais?

You pay IMT and stamp duty once at purchase, IMI every year and income tax on the rent. All figures below come from the Portal das Finanças pages cited here.

IMT is set in article 17 of the IMT code. For urban housing that is not a permanent home, the bands in n.º 1, alínea c) are 1% up to €106,346, then 2% up to €145,470, 5% up to €198,347, 7% up to €330,539 and 8% up to €633,931. A single 6% applies up to €1,150,853 and a single 7.5% above that. For a buyer who is not resident in Portugal, n.º 10 says the rate is always 7.5% on urban property or a unit used exclusively for housing, unless an exception applies. The page lists three exceptions, including becoming tax resident within two years of the purchase. Whether a home bought for holiday letting counts as housing under this rule is a question for your lawyer.

Stamp duty under verba 1.1 of the stamp duty table is 0.8% of the value used for IMT, according to the Portal das Finanças leaflet on buying a property.

Annual property tax (IMI) on urban property is 0.3% to 0.45% under article 112 of the IMI code, and each municipality sets its rate within that range (n.º 5). Our IMI guide(in Portuguese) covers payment dates.

Tax on rental income sits in the personal income tax code (CIRS). Article 31 sets the coefficients of the simplified regime. It lists 0.50 for local accommodation income from a house or apartment in a containment area (n.º 1, alínea h), and says the positive result of rental income equals net category F income (n.º 4). Article 72 sets autonomous rates, with 25% for residential lease income (n.º 2) and 28% for rental income not covered by it (n.º 1, alínea e). Which rule fits depends on how the home is let and where you are tax resident, so ask an accountant. Non-resident owners can start with our non-resident owner guide.

How do you work out a gross yield for a Cascais holiday home?

Divide a year of accommodation revenue by the purchase price. Both inputs are named below, and the result is a gross figure that ignores every cost.

Treat 5.5% as an illustration of the method. The INE median covers all dwellings sold in Cascais, not homes bought to let. Purchase taxes come on top. At €520,000, a non-resident paying the 7.5% IMT rate would pay €39,000, and stamp duty at 0.8% would add €4,160. Commission, cleaning, tourist tax, the management fee, utilities, furnishing and income tax then reduce what is left, so the net yield is lower.

What does Portugal Portfolio do for a buyer?

Portugal Portfolio does not sell property and is not an estate agent. It was founded in 2005 and has its office in Cascais. Its part has two steps: a revenue estimate for a specific home before you buy, and management of the home once you own it.

Ask for the estimate while you are still comparing homes. Contact us on the contact page with the address and the number of bedrooms. Portugal Portfolio does not publish a management fee, so this page quotes none.

Where does the information in this guide come from?

The revenue, occupancy and price figures on this page are Portugal Portfolio's own data. Legal and tax rules were read at the official sources listed below on 10 November 2026. If a source changes, the source is right.

• Portugal Portfolio booking records 34 homes in the municipality of Cascais with guests across the 12 months from 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026, 6,468 nights sold. Each night is counted once. Where the same stay appears twice, the lower price is used. No group has fewer than 5 homes.
• Decreto-Lei 76/2024 (republishing Decreto-Lei 128/2014, local accommodation regime), Diario da Republica Article 4 n.os 2 and 3 (presumption of local accommodation under 30 days, rebuttable by a registered lease), article 5 n.o 3 (registration necessary), article 6 n.o 3 (update data within 10 days of a change), article 6-B n.os 4 and 5 and article 9 n.os 2 and 8 (condominium powers), articles 15-A and 15-B (containment areas, limits on transfer of new registration numbers).
• Decreto-Lei 151/2026, Diario da Republica Article 2 sets 31 December 2026 for municipalities with more than 1000 registrations by 31 December 2025 to deliberate, articles 3 and 4 allow one extension or one further suspension of new registrations up to 31 December 2026, article 6 n.o 2 says they are not retroactive and do not affect registrations validly made before.
• Camara Municipal de Cascais, alojamento local registration service Registration is mandatory and free online through the Balcao do Empreendedor. The page, opened 10 November 2026, does not mention a containment area or new restrictions.
• Portal das Financas, CIMT article 17 (IMT rates) Band rates in n.o 1 alinea c for housing that is not a permanent home, and n.o 10 setting an always 7.5% rate for non-resident buyers of urban housing property, with three exceptions.
• Portal das Financas leaflet, Os meus direitos e deveres na aquisicao de um predio Stamp duty verba 1.1 is 0.8%, applied to the value used as the base for IMT.
• Portal das Financas, CIMI article 112 (IMI rates) Urban property is taxed at 0.3% to 0.45% (n.o 1 alinea c) and the municipality sets the rate within that range (n.o 5).
• Portal das Financas, CIRS article 31 N.o 1 alinea h gives a 0.50 coefficient for local accommodation (house or apartment) in a containment area, and n.o 4 says the positive result of rental income equals net category F income.
• Portal das Financas, CIRS article 72 N.o 2 sets a 25% autonomous rate for residential lease income and n.o 1 alinea e sets 28% for rental income not covered by it.
• INE, Estatisticas de Precos da Habitacao ao nivel local, 2nd quarter 2026 (published 23 October 2026) The house price in Cascais was €5,200 per m2 in the 2nd quarter of 2026, from sales of family dwellings.

What could not be confirmed. We could not confirm from the decree-law text whether an existing local accommodation registration passes to a buyer, and no official count of Cascais registrations was found, so we cannot say if Cascais is above the 1000 threshold in DL 151/2026. The absence of a containment area in Cascais rests on Portugal Portfolio's own check of 9 November 2026 and the council page not mentioning one. We could not confirm the simplified-regime coefficient for local accommodation outside a containment area, the Cascais IMI rate, or whether a home bought for holiday letting counts as housing for the non-resident IMT rule.

Who writes this guide?

Frequently asked questions about buying to rent out in Cascais