Registo predial (land registry)
Registo predial Land registry
The land registry exists to make the legal position of properties public, so that property transactions are secure. Among the facts that must be registered are those that create, recognise, acquire or change ownership. Submitting those facts for registration is, as a rule, mandatory.
In practice
After a purchase the acquisition has to be entered in the registry. Where the transaction is made by public deed or by authenticated private document, the body that draws it up is obliged to apply for registration, so the buyer does not have to go to the registry office.
What is registered is proved by certificate, and it is from the certidão permanente that a buyer takes their information before signing. Without registration the purchase binds the parties but does not stand against third parties with the same security, and whoever registers first is in the better position. The land registry and the tax register are separate systems run by separate bodies.