Every major Portuguese bank lends to foreign buyers. What almost none of them publishes is the criteria for a non-resident — and the routes that look like they are for you usually are not.
Millennium BCP splits its world into “Portuguese living abroad” and “solutions for foreigners living in Portugal.” If you live in London or Chicago and want to buy in the Algarve, you are neither. This page pulls together what the three main banks actually state, from their own rate sheets rather than from broker guides.
The quick answers
- Can a non-resident get a mortgage in Portugal? Yes, at all three banks below. Santander is the only one that says so in English on a page aimed at you.
- What loan-to-value? The regulatory ceiling for a second home is 80%. The 60 to 70% you will read everywhere is market practice, and it is a commercial choice rather than a rule.
- What term? Up to 40 years under 35 years old, 35 years over — with an age cap at the end of the loan.
- The discount you cannot get: every spread reduction requires your salary paid into that bank.
- Life insurance: mandatory, but the insurer is your choice — and choosing your own costs you 0.25 points of spread at CGD.
- Golden Visa: the property route is gone. Buying does not give you residency.
What each bank publishes
Checked in August 2026 against each bank’s own pages and its preçário — the official rate sheet Portuguese banks are required to publish.
| Santander Totta | Millennium BCP | CGD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page in English for foreign buyers | Yes — the only one, with a FAQ that answers non-residency directly | Partial | Deep mortgage pages in English return an error body |
| Says non-residents can apply | Yes, verbatim | Not on a page aimed at non-residents | No |
| Loan-to-value published | Up to 80% of the lower of appraisal and price | — | 80% for a second home; 80-85% for a main home |
| Term | — | 25-40 years depending on age | 40 years under 35, 35 years over, age cap 75 at the end |
| Credit report from your country | Yes, on its published document list | Yes | Yes |
| Points verified against its own sources | 7 of 9 | 4 of 9 | 4 of 9 |
Santander is the outlier and it is worth saying plainly. It is the only one of the three with a mortgage page in English written for a foreign buyer, and it answers the question directly:
“Non-residents can apply for a mortgage in Portugal, subject to standard bank criteria.”
“Up to 80% of the lower value between the appraisal and the purchase price.”
Millennium and CGD lend to non-residents too. They simply do not have a page that says so.
Why the market offers 60-70% when the rules allow 80%
This is the most useful thing on this page, and it comes from putting two published figures next to each other.
The regulatory ceiling is 80%. The Bank of Portugal’s macroprudential limit caps lending on a non-permanent home at 80% of the lower of price and valuation, and CGD publishes exactly that for habitação própria secundária — the category most foreign buyers fall into.
What a non-resident is generally offered is 60 to 70% — market practice across Portuguese lenders rather than anything any of them publishes — with a few stretching to 75% for a strong profile.
So the restriction is commercial, not regulatory. Nothing in the rules stops a Portuguese bank lending you 80%; each bank chooses to lend less to a borrower it cannot assess or pursue as easily. That distinction tells you what is negotiable: a stronger file, a larger relationship, or a lender currently sitting at the top of its range. A regulatory cap could not be moved at all.
The base matters as much as the percentage. All three calculate on the lower of the purchase price and the bank’s valuation, so a valuation below what you agreed becomes cash out of your pocket rather than a smaller purchase. Variable rates are quoted as Euribor plus a spread, and Euribor is published daily by the European Money Markets Institute.
The discount a non-resident cannot claim
Portuguese banks reduce the spread in exchange for a package of products, and the packages require your income to be paid into an account at that bank.
CGD’s Pack Vinculação is worth 0.25 percentage points and lists card use, a Caixa account, and domiciliação de rendimentos — your income paid into the CGD account tied to the loan. Its Pack Ligação, another 0.25 points, requires the bank’s own life and home insurance.
A non-resident paid in sterling or dollars by a foreign employer generally cannot satisfy the first. Which means you start from both a lower loan-to-value and the undiscounted spread, while a resident buying the same property gets the higher loan and the better rate.
The advertised rate assumes a customer you are not. The same asymmetry shows up in Spanish mortgage rates for non-residents. That is not a premium for risk — it is the sum of discounts you are structurally unable to claim, and it is worth knowing before you compare any headline number.
Do you have to buy the bank’s life insurance?
No, and all three publish the opposite of what you will read in forums.
Life and buildings insurance assigned to the loan is mandatory — CGD lists both under seguros obrigatórios. But the insurer is your choice. CGD states it directly:
“O consumidor pode optar pela contratação dos seguros obrigatórios junto de segurador da sua preferência, desde que a apólice contemple as coberturas e os requisitos mínimos definidos pela Caixa; neste caso não usufruirá da redução no spread atribuída pela contratação do Pack Ligação.”
The consumer may take the mandatory insurance with an insurer of their preference, provided the policy meets the minimum cover the bank defines — in which case they lose the spread reduction from the Pack Ligação.
So the accurate version is not “it must be Portuguese insurance.” It is: insurance is required, using the bank’s is cheaper on the rate, and CGD prices that choice at 0.25 points. Buyers who report being told they had to use a Portuguese policy were most likely being quoted the discounted rate without the alternative spelled out.
What about the term and your age?
CGD publishes the clearest version: 40 years for borrowers aged 35 or under, 35 years for those over 35, with a limit of 75 years of age at the end of the loan.
One thing worth flagging because it produces a recurring misunderstanding. Millennium’s published age cap is 72 in its current rate sheet and 75 in its English FAQ — the bank contradicts itself. There is a widely repeated story of an American buyer told 72 rather than 75 who concluded it was because of his nationality. 72 is simply Millennium’s published figure. Ask which applies to your loan and get it in writing, rather than reading a nationality into it.
Do they ask for a credit report from your country?
All three do, and it is the one requirement where every one of them publishes something.
Two published facts sit behind it. Portugal’s Central Credit Register, run by the Banco de Portugal, records only credit reported by Portuguese lenders — so for a first-time foreign buyer it returns nothing. And every EU lender is obliged to assess an applicant’s creditworthiness under the mortgage credit directive. Reading the second as the reason for the first is our inference, not a bank’s statement, but the requirement itself is published.
There is no Portuguese credit score, and the report from where you live is still asked for. It is read for undeclared debt and past defaults rather than for the number on the front page — the same pattern as Spain, where CaixaBank states the foreign report “must be provided”. Does Europe have credit scores covers how Portugal sits next to its neighbours.
What Americans should know
The real obstacle is documentation volume, not FATCA — and the difference matters because one is manageable and the other sounds like a wall.
An American buyer who closed in Portugal put the mechanism plainly:
“There is a lot more documentation required for Americans – because they can’t just look us up in the Bank of Portugal and see all our deposits and balances.”
— r/PortugalExpats, Getting a mortgage in Portugal
That is the same point as the credit report above, said by someone who went through it: the local register has nothing on you, so the file has to be built from documents.
On FATCA specifically, the fear is louder than the evidence. A US citizen who obtained a loan from a European bank reported:
“I’m a US citizen married to an EU citizen with a combined income significantly smaller than yours, and we had no problem obtaining a loan from a European bank. FACTA was never once mentioned in relation to the loan. As all EU financial institutions work under the same legal framework, your anecdote seems anomalous at best.”
— r/expats, Can’t get a mortgage bc I’m from the US
FATCA can make some institutions slower to open an account, and the account has to exist before the loan is serviced. But it is not a recorded reason for a mortgage decline. Treat it as a reason to start the account early, not as a reason to expect a no.
What you need before you apply
| What | Detail |
|---|---|
| NIF | Portuguese tax number from the tax authority. Required for the purchase, not only the loan. Start here |
| Passport and proof of address | — |
| Proof of income | Three to six months of payslips, or two to three years of accounts |
| Bank statements | Six months, every account you hold |
| Every existing debt payment | Wherever in the world it sits |
| Tax returns | Usually the last two years |
| Credit report from your country of residence | Published as a requirement by all three banks |
| Portuguese bank account | To service the loan and the bills |
| Life and buildings insurance | Mandatory. Insurer of your choice, at a cost in spread |
A note on the fiscal representative, because commercial guides get this wrong. A representative is not required to obtain the NIF. The obligation arises once you own property, with a short window to comply — and it can be satisfied by signing up for electronic notifications with the tax authority instead of paying someone. The land registry handles the property side. The guides that sell the service rarely mention the free alternative.
Frequently asked questions
Which Portuguese bank is best for a non-resident?
On what they publish, Santander Totta — it is the only one with an English mortgage page written for foreign buyers and a stated 80% ceiling. That is a transparency ranking, not a pricing one: we have no first-party data on Portuguese lenders by bank.
Can I get 80% as a non-resident?
The rules allow it for a second home. Market practice generally runs at 60 to 70%. The gap is the bank’s choice, which makes it worth asking rather than assuming.
Does Millennium BCP lend to non-residents?
Yes, though its public routes are aimed at Portuguese emigrants and at foreigners already living in Portugal. Ask for the non-resident product by name.
How long does it take?
Across Upscore’s completed purchases the median is 4.7 months from first enquiry to completion (n=64), with a wide spread. The delay is rarely the credit decision — it is documents, translations and the NIF.
Is buying property still a route to residency?
No. The Golden Visa property route has been withdrawn. Any page selling it as current is out of date.
Do I need to be in Portugal to complete?
For the deed, yes — or grant power of attorney to a Portuguese lawyer, which is standard for foreign buyers.
The bottom line
All three lend to you. Only Santander says so on a page you can read, and the number everyone quotes — 60 to 70%, market practice rather than a rule — sits well below the 80% the regulator allows.
So do three things: get the NIF moving before anything else, ask each bank what its maximum is and what it is calculated on, and check whether the rate you are quoted assumes discounts you cannot claim.
Once you have a specific property in mind, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which banks will approve your profile. It is free and takes under fifteen minutes. See also getting a mortgage in Portugal for the process and the best banks in Portugal for US buyers.
