In almost all developed and developing countries there are laws governing the process of land use and the buildings that can or cannot be erected on that land.
Portugal is no different and to be fair, the laws in force are well thought out and do protect the bulk of its population, although, often when applied to us, in each particular case, we may feel that they are unfair or unreasonable.
There is a multitude of laws governing the use of land and the building permitted to be built on that land. It would be a laborious task to summarise all the regulations in force in this article, so we will concentrate on those with which the general public come into contact the most – The building of a house or villa.
As a purchaser, the procedures and regulations will normally be managed for you by the architect, so that choice is one of the most important ones you make at the outset. It is however always good to understand the basics of the planning route.
Almost all of Portugal, each municipal region have approved their particular PDM (Plano Diretor Municipal) – Masterplan – which regulates the land use and restrictions within that land of its purpose, type, density of construction that can be built on it. All the other laws more specifically focused on the building as such will need to within the limitations of the masterplan.
Normally you will be buying land on a development where the infrastructure is already complete, commonly by a private developer, so all the roads, services and plot areas and coordinates will have been submitted, approved, and built out by the developer. Once complete and licenced by the local authority the plots are available to be built on.
In the development licence the area, storey height, footprint and maximum eaves height, to name the main limitations are already fixed and the architect will have to work within these in the design of the villa. He will also be regulated by (Regulamento Geral de Edificação Urbana), originally approved in 1951, and which has over the years suffered numerous changes to update, alter sections of it which were ambiguous, changes due to other regulations, and to update as much as possible to bring them into the modern context. This law defines the actual liveable space requirements, and defines the minimum conditions which the unit requires to be habitable.
It includes but is not limited to minimum area of rooms, bathrooms and kitchen, the natural light and ventilation requirements, room sizes and floor to ceiling heights.
From this point the architect will have the necessary information to develop, along with the client brief, the architectural design to suit the purchaser’s requirements. Normally included in the architects services, is the engineering designs to suit, and compatible with the architectural design.
At