Property auction glossary

The essential property-auction terms, explained simply.

Electronic auction: Online sale of a seized asset on a platform (typically e-leilões), during a window in which interested parties bid publicly. Unlike a sealed bid, you can react to other bids until closing, so the final value is visible as the process runs.
Enforcement sale: Sale of the debtor's assets within an enforcement action, to pay a creditor. Run by an enforcement agent.
Enforcement agent: Professional who runs the enforcement action, including the seizure and sale of assets.
Seizure (penhora): Judicial attachment of a debtor's asset to secure payment of a debt. The seized asset may be sold at auction.
Base value: The property's reference value (the valuation) from which the sale is defined. Not the final price: bids start here.
Minimum value: The sale's reference floor: 85% of the base value (CPC, art. 816). In a sealed bid, an offer below it is only accepted with the agreement of the debtor, the enforcing creditor and the secured creditors; on e-leilões, it stands as a conditional bid.
Opening value: The value from which bidding starts in an electronic auction; on e-leilões it is 50% of the base value. It is not the minimum value (85% of the base value): bids between the two count only as conditional bids (Despacho no. 12624/2015, art. 2).
Bid: Offering an amount to acquire the asset. The highest bid above the minimum value generally wins. It is a binding declaration: the winner must deposit the price and, failing that, faces the consequences of CPC art. 825 (in a sealed bid, including loss of the deposit).
Deposit (caução): Security that goes with a sealed bid: 5% of the announced value, by certified cheque or bank guarantee (CPC, art. 824). The e-leilões rules do not provide for a deposit to bid.
Award (adjudicação): The act by which the asset is assigned to the winning bidder, after paying the amount due.
Balance (remanescente): The remaining part of the price once any deposit is deducted. In a sealed-bid sale it falls due 15 days after the offer is accepted (CPC, art. 824(2)). That short window is what makes starting a mortgage application only after winning the auction unworkable.
Transfer title: Document formalising the transfer of ownership to the buyer at the end of the sale process.
Encumbrance (ónus): A charge on the property (mortgage, lien, easement, lease). Some are extinguished by the sale; others may survive.
Mortgage: Security for a debt over a property. In enforcement it's usually ranked and cancelled by the sale.
Ranking of creditors: Ordering of creditors by payment priority from the proceeds of the asset's sale.
Easement: A charge that binds one property for the benefit of another (e.g. a right of way). May survive the sale.
Land registry certificate: Land registry document describing the property and the encumbrances and rights over it.
Tax property record: Tax authority document with the property's tax data and registry identification.
Registry description: Identification of the property in the land registry, including boundaries, area and entries. It is where you confirm whether the registered area matches the advertised one and whether there are unregistered extensions: discrepancies that do not block a purchase but change its value and cost.
Notice (edital): Official announcement of the sale, with the property, values, deadlines and conditions.
Terms of sale: Document with the conditions of sale: payment method and deadlines, charges that transfer, occupancy status and the case's own rules. It is where non-standard conditions live, and no portal summary reproduces it in full.
Conditions of sale: The specific rules of each case that the buyer accepts by bidding: deadlines, payment method, deposit percentage, surviving charges and responsibility for the property's condition. They vary case by case and override any general expectation.
IMT: Municipal Property Transfer Tax. Applies to the acquisition value on progressive brackets.
Stamp Duty: Tax on the property transfer, at 0.8% of the acquisition value, paid by the buyer on top of IMT. It applies to the same base as IMT: the higher of the price paid and the Taxable Asset Value, and must be settled before registration.
Fees (emolumentos): Costs of formalising and registering the acquisition, including the land registry entry in the buyer's name and the cancellation of encumbrances that lapsed with the sale. Modest next to IMT, but part of the true total cost and due in the same short window.
Primary residence: Tax regime for a property intended as the buyer's habitual residence, with distinct IMT brackets more favourable than those for a second home. The declared use must match the real one, and a property bought to resell or let does not qualify.
True total cost: The bid plus IMT, Stamp Duty, fees and the works required. This is the figure to compare against the market, not the bid: an apparent 30% discount on the base value frequently disappears once taxes and refurbishment enter the arithmetic.
Market value (VME): Estimate of what the property would sell for on the open market, typically from the area's median price per m² and the property's size. It is the basis for assessing an auction's discount, and it is independent of the base value set in the case.
Discount: Percentage difference between the true total cost and the estimated market value. A good auction has a positive, sustained discount: enough to absorb acquisition costs, works, the capital tied up and the risk of charges that do not lapse with the sale.
Insolvency: A situation where a person or company can't meet its obligations. Assets are sold to pay creditors.
Insolvency administrator: Court-appointed professional who manages the insolvent's estate and runs the sale of assets, overseen by the creditors' committee. In an insolvency they play the role the enforcement agent plays in an enforcement action, under their own rules and deadlines.
Tax sale: Sale of seized assets promoted by the tax authority to collect tax debts, within a tax enforcement procedure. It follows its own rules, distinct from ordinary enforcement, although the effect on registered security interests is similar.
Citius: Ministry of Justice portal where announcements and notices of judicial asset sales are published. It is the official source for sealed-bid sales, and each notice may contain several verbas: several distinct properties sold within the same case.
e-leilões: Electronic judicial-sales platform run by the Portuguese Order of Solicitors and Enforcement Agents. It hosts most electronic auctions of seized properties in Portugal, with bidding visible throughout the advertised sale window.
Auctioneer: Private company that organises auctions, often of assets from insolvency proceedings but also of private sales. The documentation provided varies widely between auctioneers and between cases, which makes independent verification of the documents all the more relevant.
Sealed bid: A method where interested parties submit a single, secret proposal, opened at a set time.
Failed auction (deserto): An auction with no valid bids. It may lead to a new phase with a reduced minimum value.
Occupancy: Whether the property is inhabited: by the debtor, a tenant or third parties. It affects delivery of possession and, where a lease predates the security being enforced, may mean the buyer acquires the property let on the existing contract's terms.
Possession: Effective control of the property. It transfers with ownership when the property is vacant, but its delivery may require extra steps if occupied: a stage distinct from the award and the transfer title, and one to anticipate before bidding.
Right of first refusal: The right certain entities or people have to acquire the property on equal terms with the buyer.
Typology: Classification of a residential property by number of bedrooms (T0, T1, T2...). It is distinct from the property type (flat, house, land, commercial): one property is simultaneously a house and a T3, and the two criteria are filtered separately.
Due diligence: Prior analysis of a property (legal, value and cost) to decide with information before bidding. In an enforcement sale there is no seller making representations and no cooling-off period after the award, so all verification has to happen beforehand.

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