BUPi: what it is, who should do it and what changed in October 2026

In recent years, many families have heard about BUPi: at the town hall, at the parish council, on the news or from neighbours who have already "marked out their land". Those living abroad were often left unsure whether they had to do anything.

What BUPi is

BUPi (Balcão Único do Prédio, or Single Property Desk) is the Portuguese state's platform for identifying rural and mixed plots in municipalities that do not have a land cadastre. Much of the north and centre of the country is in this situation.

The central step is the georeferenced graphic representation, known as RGG: mapping the location and configuration of the plot and linking it to the available tax and registry information. An RGG may be validated with a geometry reservation; its existence does not mean that all the boundaries are definitively recognised, nor does it replace proof of ownership.

What changed in 2026

Decree-Law 87/2026 of 15 April revised the BUPi rules, and the implementing regulations were updated in September. For families, three aspects of the current regime matter.

1. The temporary free regime has ended. Since 1 October 2026, RGGs carried out with the assistance of the municipal or intermunicipal technicians covered by the law cost €15 each up to the ninth and €10 from the tenth, counted per applicant. Wholly online identification remains free according to current official information. These amounts are not a fee scale for private technicians and do not include registry charges.

2. Identification is required for the acts covered by the law. As a rule, Article 19 requires the RGG number to be stated in transfers and the other acts it lists. An official database check may dispense with this, and there is a separate regime for plots already on the Cadastral Map, as well as exceptions, notably in enforcement proceedings, insolvency or following a prior declaration of public utility. The territorial scope and the position of each plot need to be checked.

3. Overlaps have a conciliation procedure. This mechanism, which already existed before 2026, makes it possible to seek agreement on boundaries and correct conflicting RGGs. If no agreement is reached, geometry reservations may remain in place, without prejudice to recourse to the competent courts.

Identification costs, professional fees and registry charges should be known before starting. In the special procedures, the base registry charge is €250 for registration and €200 for justification, with surcharges, reductions and other rules that may change the total. These amounts are not a single price for any registration.

Who should deal with this

You should think about BUPi if your family has rural or mixed land in a municipality without a cadastre and:

• the land has not yet been identified on the map;
• you are thinking of selling, giving it away or dividing an inheritance;
• the land has never been registered at the Land Registry;
• you have received a notice that a neighbour's outline overlaps your land.

How it is done

Identification can be started online by the interested party, with later validation as provided by law, or carried out with the help of a qualified technician. A site check may be necessary or advisable, especially when the land is not known with certainty, but it should not be mistaken for a universal requirement to visit the site for every RGG.

The problems we see most often:

• plots drawn from memory, with boundaries that do not match what is on the ground;
• overlaps or geometry reservations that require analysis and, where necessary, correction or conciliation, without always meaning registration is automatically blocked;
• plots identified in BUPi but never registered at the Land Registry;
• land in the name of unresolved inheritances: you need to confirm who is entitled to start the process and which succession steps are actually required.

BUPi done by people who know the land and the law

At MGPS International we combine legal analysis with the technical identification and cadastral work, through the professionals qualified for each procedure. This allows us to:

• identify the land and prepare the RGGs with the right information, checking on site when necessary;
• deal with overlaps with neighbours and with conciliation, where needed;
• take the process through to registration at the Land Registry, not just to the outline on the map;
• coordinate the necessary succession steps with the identification and registration of the land.

Do you have land to identify in BUPi? Use the initial assessment and tell us the municipality and any property tax entries you know. We will tell you how many properties need to be dealt with and what it will cost.

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice for any specific case. Amounts in force at the date of publication.