Buying property in Cape Verde

Foreigners can buy freehold property in Cape Verde. There is no blanket ban for non-residents, which is why the islands attract European buyers looking for winter sun, a second home, or rental yield. The paperwork is Portuguese-language and notarial. If you treat it like buying a holiday postcard, you will overpay or buy a house that cannot be mortgaged.

Who can buy

Individuals, couples and companies can hold title. EU and non-EU buyers use the same path. You do not need residency to complete a purchase. You do need a NIF (número de identificação fiscal) before the notary will book a deed. A lawyer with a power of attorney can collect the NIF at Finanças if you are still abroad.

Joint names are common. If only one spouse is on the deed, the other can still have marital rights under the law of your home country — sort that with counsel before you fly in for the signing, not after.

The NIF and the file

A NIF is a tax number, not a residence card. Bring a passport, a contact address, and patience for a morning at Finanças in Praia, Mindelo or Espargos. Once you have it, keep the paper. Banks, Electra and the registry will ask for it again.

A serious purchase file contains: the promissory contract (contrato-promessa), the certificado de teor from the land registry, the cadastral sketch if one exists, proof the seller’s IUR municipal tax is paid, and — on a new build — the habitation licence. Never send a deposit until the certificado de teor is in your lawyer’s hands and matches the seller’s name and the plot you walked.

Title, rustic land and tourism zones

Cape Verdean title is either urban (DU / urbanised) or rustic. Urban plots can usually be mortgaged and rebuilt within the plan. Rustic land is agricultural or unclassified; a pretty ruin on rustic land may be unsellable to a bank and unsellable later to a cautious buyer. Coastal tourism zones on Sal and Boa Vista add extra planning conditions. A villa inside a licensed resort is cleaner than a self-build on a dune.

Older houses in Mindelo, Cidade Velha and the interior of Santiago can have messy title chains: heirs who never registered, a wall that sits on the neighbour’s parcel, a well that is communal. New builds on Sal from the last fifteen years are usually cleaner. Ilhas listings marked verified have had a registry extract checked by the seller’s counsel. You should still instruct your own.

What you actually sign

The contrato-promessa locks the price and the completion date and usually takes 10% as a deposit. If the buyer walks without cause, the deposit is lost. If the seller walks, the usual clause is double the deposit back. Read the “cause” list: failed mortgage, failed registry, planning defect.

Completion is at a notary (notário). Both sides, or attorneys, appear. The deed is read aloud. You pay the balance, IMT transfer tax, notary and registry fees. Keys are not a ceremony — they follow when the notary confirms the money and the deed.

Typical extra costs sit around 4–6% of the price: IMT, notary, registry, legal fees. IMT is lower for a primary residence than for an investment. Ask for a written completion statement before you book the flight.

After you own it

Register the deed promptly. Unpaid IUR attaches to the title, not the previous owner’s conscience. Take 12 months of Electra bills; they tell you more about the house than the brochure. If you will let the property, the rental chapter of this guide and a local manager matter more than the furniture pack.

A Cape Verdean lawyer who works in English is not a luxury. Use one who does conveyancing every week, not a cousin who “knows someone at the Câmara”.

Island notes for buyers

Sal and Boa Vista: new-build villas and apartments dominate. Title is usually cleaner, and a licensed tourism zone is worth the extra due diligence. Watch swimming-pool legality, septic versus mains, and whether the “beachfront” plot is actually in the maritime public domain.

Santiago: Praia and Palmarejo are the liquid markets. Cidade Velha and the interior reward a slower title search. Land advertised as “ready to build” is often rustic.

São Vicente: Mindelo townhouses and harbour lofts. Charm is high, walls are old, and a surveyor who will climb the roof is worth more than another viewing.

Santo Antão, Fogo, Brava, Maio, São Nicolau: fewer comparables, longer completion, and a buyer who is not in a hurry. Beautiful, and not a place to invent a 30-day close.

Lecture checklist

• NIF in hand before the promissory contract.
• Certificado de teor matching the seller and the plot you walked.
• Written extras (IMT, notary, registry, legal) as a percentage and as a euro figure.
• Twelve months of Electra bills.
• Your own lawyer — not the seller’s.

This is an eight-minute lecture because the mistakes are expensive. The romantic part is the terrace. The adult part is the registry.