We had already written about Portugal's new construction licensing regime (Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026, which overhauls the RJUE) and about the date it would take effect: 3 August 2026. That date no longer applies. The government has officially postponed the reform's entry into force to 1 October 2026.
This is not a rumour or a proposal still under discussion: the postponement has already been approved and published. If you are planning a construction project, it is worth understanding exactly what changed.
What happened
The Council of Ministers approved the postponement on 23 July 2026. The change was then formalised in the official gazette (Diário da República): the Declaração de Retificação n.º 29-A/2026/1, of 27 July, and Portaria n.º 320/2026/1, of 31 July, confirm that Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 only "takes effect" from 1 October 2026. The original date, 3 August, no longer applies.
The same 27 July rectification notice also corrected other provisions of the original text of the law. A sign that, weeks before what was meant to be the entry-into-force date, the government was still fine-tuning the wording of the law.
Why it was postponed
The official justification is to give municipalities more time to prepare: to configure the IT platforms the new regime requires (the Electronic Urban Licensing Platform, Article 8-A of the republished RJUE) and to wait for implementing regulations that had not yet been published. Real-estate developers welcomed the decision: APPII (the Portuguese Association of Real Estate Developers and Investors) said the postponement ensures that a reform this significant for the sector moves forward with the necessary regulatory and technological framework in place, rather than taking effect while councils are still unprepared.
What this means until 1 October
In practice, for anyone submitting a licensing application, prior notification or preliminary information request between now and 1 October 2026, the current rules continue to apply (the RJUE in the version that predates this reform, Decreto-Lei n.º 555/99). The generalised prior-notice regime and the extended tacit approval described in our previous article are not yet in force. Do not assume otherwise.
What does not change: liability is still shifting to you
This postponement is about the calendar, not the substance of the reform. When the new regime actually takes effect on 1 October, the essentials remain the same: less prior review by the council, more responsibility for whoever submits and whoever commissions the work, and the extended joint and several liability under Article 100-A that we already covered. This postponement is not a reason to relax vetting your builder, it is more time to prepare before the change arrives. And checking who is going to carry out your work remains sensible today, regardless of when the law takes effect.
About to start a project? If you are not yet sure whether your project needs a licence, prior notice, or is exempt (under the current regime, which is what applies until 1 October), try ObraXRAY's free licensing tool. And before signing anything, search the builder's tax number (NIF) on ObraXRAY.
Note: the previous article was written before this postponement and still refers to "3 August" in places. The correct date, going forward, is 1 October 2026.