Property for lease investment contracts? There are new rules

A order of the Government governing the property registration requires the properties of an investment contract for lease (CIA) to be sold together was published today in Diário da República, imposing obligations to the IHRU.

The ordinance regulates rules of the new regime of the investment contract for rental (CIA), approved on May 20, which fiscally encourages investment in the purchase, construction and rehabilitation of buildings intended for rental and sub-renting of dwellings for a period of up to 25 years.

In return for the benefits allocated, the owners must maintain the allocation of the properties to the lease or housing sub-lease, which implies that the buildings can only be sold together and in the case of transmission of the contractual position to the buyer.

The new rules require the building registration of this burden, which initially “is promoted by the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation, I. P. (IHRU, I. P.), free of charge, covering all properties included in the CIA”, explains the Government in the introduction of the ordinance.

The law requires that at least 70% of the construction area of the buildings covered by the CIA is intended for housing rental or sub-rentage, and the remainder may be intended for additional or compatible uses with housing.

The law gives the promoter owner of a CIA the possibility of reducing the registration to that set of properties by denouncing the rest of the property after the prior use of the property to be used.

To comply with these rules, the ordinance provides that that burden “is inscribed in all rustic, urban or mixed buildings and autonomous fractions covered by the said investment contract, covering the resulting buildings, in particular by means of allotment, reparcellation, highlight or constitution of horizontal property”.

This register is for the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), by issuing a declaration certifying the reference number assigned to the CIA, the “Terms of the Building Registration Code of the rustic, urban, mixed, and autonomous fractions” covered by the contract, and even if it indicates the duration of the CIA and the date of its commencement.

The ordinance provides that registration is made free of charge and is exempt from charges.