Properties in Portugal are due to be attributed their own “unique identification numbers” later this year.
According to Público newspaper, a government pilot-project will be launched in the second half of 2022 and will cover only rural properties at first.
In other words, a unique ID number will be attributed to each rural property across the country.
The project may be expanded in the future to include urban properties as well, Público adds.
The initiative is being viewed as the first step towards creating an open database for properties in Portugal, including all relevant information about them.
“This could be a crucial moment for the reform of property in Portugal,” said Secretary of State for Justice, Anabela Pedroso, cited by the newspaper.
Property owners today are burdened by several different numbers associated to their properties, the secretary of state explained, adding that this new unique number covering all facets of a property could make life much easier for them.
Pedroso added that the Número de Identificação do Prédio (NIP), as it is officially called in Portuguese, could have the same role as the Cartão de Cidadão identification card has for citizens – but in this case for properties.
This project follows the creation of the Balcão Único do Prédio (BUPi), which allows rural property owners without their documentation in order and without their properties duly identified geographically to update their respective registries.
The project will be carried out at an initial stage in the so-called Áreas Integradas de Gestão da Paisagem (AIGP) – described as areas which are most vulnerable to fires and where a common management of agricultural and forest areas is promoted, especially in Portugal’s Centre region. It will be implemented initially in only one or two of these areas, with more joining the scheme throughout 2023.
Although a deadline has not been set for all properties in Portugal to have their own NIP – as the success of the initiative “depends on property owners who will have to identify and register their properties” – those in charge believe that there will be a “significant number of properties” with their own NIP by the end of 2025, including in urban areas.
