Statistics Portugal provides information only on licensed and completed buildings, based on administrative information from municipal councils, integrated into the Urban Operations Indicator System (SIOU), which are responsible for licensing and controlling works carried out by private individuals, except those whose owner is an exempt entity.
A “building permit” is understood to be the authorisation granted by municipal councils under specific legislation for the execution of works (new construction, extensions, alterations, renovations, and demolition of buildings), and “completed work” is understood to be means work that meets the physical conditions for habitation or use, regardless of whether a license or authorisation for use has been granted.
Statistical indicators relating to building permits and completed works can be accessed on the Statistics Portugal Portal> Products> Database> Theme: Construction and housing> subthemes:
· Building permits – Includes indicators sourced from the Survey of Building Construction and Demolition Projects (Methodological document: Survey of Building Construction and Demolition Projects), with different frequencies: annual (since 1995) and monthly (since January 2007) and some broken down at parish level (annual only) and municipality level (annual and monthly).
Example:
Licensed buildings (No.) by Geographical location (NUTS - 2024), Type of project and Project purpose; Annual (with information since 1995 and maximum geographical detail at parish level).
· Completed buildings – Contains indicators sourced from the Statistics on Completed Works (Methodological document: Statistics on Completed Buildings), with different frequencies: annual (since 1995 and broken down to parish level) and quarterly (since the first quarter of 2004 and broken down to NUTS 2 level).
Example:
It should be noted that the table with the selected indicator information displays the most recent and aggregated information by default. However, this can be changed using the “Change selection conditions” option to obtain finer breakdowns in its dimensions, where applicable, and/or other reference periods for the information.
In turn, although the Housing Census updates the total number of buildings and dwellings every 10 years, associating different dimensions, it does not indicate whether they are legal or illegal constructions. Nevertheless, if you are interested in data on family dwellings without at least basic infrastructure or, for example, on the existence of a bathroom, toilet, or shower; running water; wastewater drainage system; kitchen or kitchenette, as well as other information related to shacks and makeshift constructions in places not intended for housing that, at the time of the census, are being used as dwellings, we suggest consulting the information on the Housing Census, which is a subtheme of the theme: Construction and Housing in the Database.
