Must all heirs agree to sell a Portuguese property? (Lei 49/2026)

Under article 161(d) of the Portuguese Constitution, Parliament can authorise the Government to legislate on reserved matters. The authorising law fixes the sentido e extensão — the meaning and scope the Government must respect — but it creates no rights and no procedure by itself. Lei n.º 49/2026 is exactly that kind of law.

Article 1 authorises the Government to:

• enact the Regime Legal do Processo Especial de Venda de Coisa Imóvel integrada em Herança Indivisa — the special procedure for selling property in an undivided estate;
• enact the Regime Legal da Arbitragem Sucessória — succession arbitration determined by the deceased;
• amend the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure and the assisted-reproduction regime.

What did not change: everything a buyer actually deals with. Heir unanimity, the cabeça-de-casal's limited powers, the inventário route and the existing rights of preference all remain exactly as they were on 16 August 2026. If you are reading English coverage saying a single heir can now force a sale, that coverage has described the authorised regime as if it were in force.

• Lei n.º 49/2026 itself: published in Diário da República on 17 August 2026. Because it is an authorisation, the only operative clock it starts is the 180 days duration in article 3.
• The special sale procedure, the arbitration regime and the Civil Code and Civil Procedure Code amendments: not in force. No date exists. They begin when the authorised decreto-lei is published — and if the Government does not publish it within the authorisation period, the authorisation simply lapses.

One forward-looking point matters for anyone already dealing with a stuck estate: under alínea zz) of the authorised scope, the general transitional rule must be that the new regime applies to all inheritances open and unpartitioned at the date the decreto-lei enters into force. An estate that is stuck today would therefore be reachable by the new procedure once it exists.

The detail below is the scope Parliament enacted in article 2 — it is what the Government's decreto-lei must implement, not law you can rely on today. It is summarised here because it tells a buyer what a currently-blocked estate may look like in a year's time.

• Who could request the sale (alínea a): any single heir, the cônjuge meeiro (the surviving spouse entitled to half the marital property), or a testamenteiro with partition powers — standalone, or inside a pending inventário. The procedure would be urgent.
• When (alínea b): immediately if an inventário is pending; otherwise only after two years from the opening of the succession. Excluded where there is a convenção de indivisão, where the right to partition cannot be exercised, or where the estate is insolvent.
• Protection of the family home (alínea d): property under the preferential attribution of Civil Code article 2103.º-A is excluded absent the express consent of the surviving spouse, and other autonomous rights over the casa de morada de família are protected, including Civil Code article 1707.º-A and article 5 of Lei n.º 7/2001 on de facto unions.
• Vulnerable heirs (alínea c): the Ministério Público may intervene, and where heirs are legally incapable or absent the sale would require both its consent and judicial authorisation.
• How the price gets set (alínea k):where the heirs disagree, the court fixes the base price on objective valuations. A fresh valuation becomes mandatory on a "relevant discrepancy", defined numerically: with two valuations, a gap of more than 20% measured against the lower figure; with more than two, the same test applied between the valuation immediately below and the one immediately above the median, measured against the lower of those two.
• How it would be sold (alíneas l, m and p): the price order is an executive title; electronic auction is the default sale modeunless there is justification for another; the judge may pre-authorise staged reductions of the base price for failed auctions; and an early sale by private negotiation is possible on the parties' request, at no less than the fixed value save an urgent judicial decision.
• Heirs' buy-out right (alínea n): heirs and the cônjuge meeiro would hold a direito de remição at the price actually achieved — and it would prevail over rights of preference. For a third-party buyer, that is the decisive detail: winning the auction would not be the end of the story.
• Mortgage holders (alínea q): creditors with security over the property would be cited to claim, with substitution or reinforcement of the security as an alternative.
• Costs (alínea u): charges of the estate — except where the procedure was resorted to without foundation, in which case the requesting heir alone pays.

Three further authorised changes reach beyond the sale procedure and are worth knowing if you or your family hold Portuguese property: the limitation period for accepting an inheritance would drop from 10 years to 2 years (alínea ii); spouses would be able to renounce heir status reciprocally by convenção antenupcial, covering the reserved share (alínea dd); and a testator could send succession disputes to arbitration by unilateral testamentary disposition, with the Lei da Arbitragem Voluntária (Lei n.º 63/2011) applying subsidiarily — while the inventário route is expressly preserved regardless (alíneas w, x and y).

Do this before any money moves — before the contrato-promessa, not after. A deposit paid into an estate that cannot lawfully sell is the classic foreign-buyer failure mode here.

1. Establish whether the succession has been partitioned. If it has not, you are not buying from an owner — you are buying from a group.
2. Identify every heir, in writing. Get consent from all of them, not just from the one showing you the house or the one acting as cabeça-de-casal.
3. Check whether an inventário is pending, and where it stands.
4. Check for minors, legally incapable or absent heirs. These bring in Ministério Público consent and judicial authorisation and change the timeline materially.
5. Check for a convenção de indivisão and for rights over the casa de morada de família, including under a de facto union.
6. Check the rights of preference that apply to your purchase — and be aware that, once the authorised regime exists, a direito de remição would rank ahead of them in a court sale.
7. Reconcile the registry with reality. Confirm the certidão permanente and the caderneta predialagainst the actual building, and confirm the deceased's title. Estate properties are where description mismatches concentrate.

If you are already stuck in one: today the routes are agreement between the heirs, or an inventário. The forced-sale route is coming, but it is not here, and no one can tell you the date it arrives.