Insights
The end of the RGEU: what the postponed repeal means and the road to Portugal's Building Code
Few statutes have shaped Portuguese construction as much as the General Regulation for Urban Buildings (RGEU), approved by Decreto-Lei n.º 38382, de 7 de agosto de 1951. For more than seven decades, it was where designers and municipal councils found the minimum habitability standards: ceiling heights, room areas, daylight and ventilation. The Simplex urban-planning reform decreed its end, and several sources reported the repeal as a done deal on 1 June 2026. The legal reality is different: in July 2026, the RGEU remains in force — and will remain so until the new technical building regulation enters into force, on the road to Portugal's future Building Code (Código da Construção).
On a subject where contradictory information abounds, precision matters. In this article we explain what was actually decided, what Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 changed in May 2026, which technical rules apply to projects today — including the NZEB requirements for new buildings — and where the preparation of the Building Code stands. This permanent tracking of the legislation is what CertiAmb provides in its architecture and permitting projects.
A 1951 regulation that shaped Portuguese construction
The RGEU was created to guarantee minimum conditions of safety and health in urban buildings, following a prescriptive logic that is simple to check: comply with the rule and the building is compliant. Its best-known provisions include:
- a minimum floor-to-floor height of 2.70 m in dwellings, with a clear ceiling height of no less than 2.40 m (article 65.º);
- minimum areas for habitable rooms (article 66.º);
- window openings with an area of no less than one tenth of the floor area of the room (article 71.º);
- general rules on ventilation, courtyards, setbacks and site salubrity.
Over the decades, however, the RGEU was progressively hollowed out by more demanding and technically more advanced sectoral regulations: thermal performance moved to the energy certification system, acoustics to the Buildings Acoustic Requirements Regulation (RRAE), fire safety to the SCIE regime, building water supply and wastewater drainage to the General Regulation for Public and Building Water Supply and Wastewater Drainage Systems (RGSPPDADAR) and structural design to the world of the Eurocodes — an evolution we describe in our article on structures. What remained was, above all, the habitability core — and it is precisely that core that the future regulation intends to rethink.
The repeal decreed by the Simplex reform
Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024, de 8 de janeiro, which implemented the so-called Simplex Urbanístico and profoundly changed the permitting regime — changes we analysed in our article on works exempt from prior planning control —, decreed, in its article 25.º, the repeal of the RGEU with effect from 1 June 2026. Until that date, the competent professional associations would define, within the development of the Building Code, the technical rules they considered adequate for the preparation of urban building designs.
The legislator's intention was clear: to replace a prescriptive regulation dating from 1951 with modern, performance-oriented rules consolidated into a single code. The problem was the timetable — the deadline was approaching without the new technical regulation in existence, which would have removed the habitability benchmark with nothing to replace it.
May 2026: the repeal postponed by Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026
The answer came with Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026, de 29 de maio — the statute that makes the 21st amendment to the RJUE and which, less widely reported, also makes the 17th amendment to the RGEU itself and the first amendment to Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024. Article 25.º of the latter now provides that the repeal of the RGEU takes effect upon the entry into force of the statute that establishes the technical regulation of buildings — rules to be drawn up on the basis of input from the competent professional associations.
The decisive detail lies in the commencement rules. While the bulk of Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 only enters into force on 3 August 2026, the amendments to Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024 took effect on 1 June 2026 — precisely the day on which the repeal of the RGEU was due to start producing effects. In practice, the RGEU remained applicable throughout: the repeal is still on the statute book, but with no fixed date, dependent on the entry into force of the future technical building regulation.
What is in force today, in July 2026
For anyone with projects in preparation or under municipal assessment, the picture is as follows:
- the RGEU applies in full, in the matters it still governs — habitability, health and general construction provisions;
- the sectoral technical regimes remain in place: energy certification (Decreto-Lei n.º 101-D/2020), acoustics (RRAE), fire safety (SCIE), building water networks (RGSPPDADAR) and structural regulation;
- the RJUE keeps its current wording until 3 August 2026, when the amendments made by Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 enter into force — including the new wording of article 129.º of the RGEU, which will require, for extensions or alterations that increase the loads transmitted to the untransformed elements of the building or to its foundations, a structural stability design accompanied by a certificate of technical responsibility signed by a qualified professional;
- as for pending applications, the new regime applies to procedures started after 3 August and to those which, on that date, are still at the preliminary screening and assessment stage (article 12.º of Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026).
A further note of relevance to practitioners: the list of legal and regulatory provisions to be observed in designs will be published on the SILUC platform — the Information System on Urban Planning and Construction Legislation, adopted by Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 as the reference base.
The road to the Building Code
The Building Code is the project to consolidate into a single statute around one hundred technical instruments that currently govern the sector — from the RGEU to the sectoral regulations —, in an effort coordinated by IMPIC with the technical support of LNEC and the involvement of multiple government areas and dozens of public bodies. The ambition is twofold: to simplify and harmonise a scattered regulatory edifice, and to shift from fixed prescriptive rules to performance requirements, in line with European practice.
As for the timetable, caution is warranted. The initial political goal pointed to the work being concluded during 2026 but, at the time of writing, no statute has been published and there is no binding date. With Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026, the legislator deliberately removed the deadline pressure: the RGEU remains in force until the new framework is ready, with no regulatory vacuum in between — and the professional associations take part in defining the new technical rules.
The energy dimension: NZEB today, ZEB buildings on the horizon
While the habitability core awaits the new regulation, the technical bar for new buildings is increasingly set by energy legislation. Since 2021, new buildings have had to meet the NZEB standard — nearly zero-energy buildings — under Decreto-Lei n.º 101-D/2020. And Directive (EU) 2024/1275, whose transposition deadline expired on 29 May 2026, raises the requirement to zero-emission buildings (ZEB): new public buildings from 1 January 2028 and all new buildings from 1 January 2030. We analyse this timetable in detail in our article on energy certification and the new EPBD.
Practical impact: how to run projects in 2026
Recent experience shows that the confusion surrounding the "end of the RGEU" is already producing avoidable mistakes. The main risks to keep under control:
- assuming the RGEU is "gone" and designing below the minimum habitability standards — the shortest route to a refusal or, worse, to a building needing corrections or legalisation;
- omitting the RGEU from certificates of technical responsibility and design justifications while it remains the law in force;
- overlooking the changes entering into force on 3 August 2026 — both the procedural ones and the new wording of article 129.º of the RGEU, relevant for extensions;
- treating the sectoral regulations as static, when the energy strand is in full transition towards the ZEB standard;
- failing to track the implementing ministerial orders provided for in the new RJUE framework, which will detail application instruction and platforms.
For projects with permitting under way, the golden rule is twofold: comply with the framework in force on the date of each submission, and anticipate the framework that will be in force when the works are built and used. That is the logic we apply in coordinating architecture and the engineering disciplines — from the overall construction permitting framework to the detail of each engineering-discipline design.
Frequently asked questions
Has the RGEU already been repealed?
The repeal was decreed by Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024, with effect scheduled for 1 June 2026, but it never actually took effect: Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 tied it to the entry into force of the future statute that will define the technical standards applicable to buildings. As of July 2026, the RGEU is in force.
Which technical rules apply to a project submitted today?
The RGEU, in the matters it still governs, together with the sectoral regulations in force — SCE, RRAE, SCIE, RGSPPDADAR and structural regulation — plus the municipal master plan (PDM) and applicable municipal regulations.
What changes on 3 August 2026?
The bulk of Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 enters into force: the procedural amendments to the RJUE and the 17th amendment to the RGEU, whose article 129.º, in its new wording, requires a structural stability design, with a certificate of technical responsibility, for extensions or alterations that increase the loads transmitted to the untransformed elements of the building or to its foundations.
What is the Building Code and when will it enter into force?
It is the consolidation, into a single performance-oriented statute, of around one hundred technical construction instruments, coordinated by IMPIC with the support of LNEC. To date, no statute has been published and there is no binding date; the repeal of the RGEU will only take effect once the new technical regulation enters into force.
Are pending applications at municipal councils affected?
Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 applies to procedures started after its entry into force and to those still at the preliminary screening and assessment stage. As for the technical design rules, nothing changes for now: the RGEU remains applicable.
Closing notes
The "end of the RGEU" is a process, not an event: the repeal has been decreed, but it will only operate once the new technical building regulation exists — and, until then, the 1951 regulation remains the law. Between the changes entering into force on 3 August 2026 and the energy transition towards ZEB buildings, the essential thing is to keep pace with the dates and requirements applicable at each stage of a project. If you have a project in preparation and want to be certain it complies with the technical and regulatory framework — today's and the one on its way —, talk to the CertiAmb team.