Scaffolding street-occupation fees in Portugal: calculator and prices by municipality (2026)

In short: for the same façade, the fee a Portuguese municipality charges for scaffolding on the pavement ranges from about €40 to over €1,000 a month. Use the calculator below to estimate your case in 31 municipalities. The cheapest for our example are Loulé, Mafra, Viana do Castelo and Leiria (under €60); the most expensive are Matosinhos, Porto, Sintra and Oeiras (around €1,000 or more). Several municipalities exempt or discount conservation works (painting, cleaning, façade repair).

This guide covers only the fee. For when a permit is needed, which documents to attach and how long it takes, see the guide Scaffolding permits on public streets.

Street-occupation fee calculator

Choose the municipality, the façade length, the number of floors, the pavement depth occupied and the duration: the calculator applies that municipality's fee-table formula, including the exemptions for conservation works, and compares the result with the other 30 municipalities for the same measurements.

What each municipality charges: comparison

To compare we always used the same case: a façade 25 m wide and 4 floors high, with the scaffold taking 1 m of pavement (25 m²) for 30 days, for works with no exemption. The amount includes the application fee when the table lists one, and excludes traffic, parking, skips, cranes and advertising on the wrap.

How municipalities calculate the fee

There is no national rule: each municipality has its own regulation and fee table, updated almost every year. We found four ways of calculating it, sometimes combined:

• Per m² of street occupied and per period (day, week, 30 days or month). The most common: Sintra, Cascais, Coimbra, Setúbal, Seixal, Aveiro, Funchal, Mafra, Leiria.
• Per metre of façade and per floor, which weighs on tall buildings: Lisbon, Oeiras, Vila Nova de Gaia, Braga, Almada, Ponta Delgada.
• Per m² of scaffold and per floor: Porto charges every square metre of scaffold on every floor.
• A flat amount per day, whatever the size: Odivelas, for works exempt from a permit.

There is almost always an application or review fee paid when you submit (from €4.50 in Mafra to €91.85 in Odivelas for permitted works). Watch the fractions: «per month or fraction» means 31 days pay two months; «per 7 days or fraction» means 30 days pay five weeks. Many tables separate scaffolding from hoardings (ground-level fences), which are usually dearer; in several municipalities scaffolding only pays for the part not protected by a hoarding.

Fee table: Lisbon metropolitan area

Notes:

• Sintra: 2018 table, still in force; no separate scaffolding line. Works exempt from a permit must apply 30 days ahead.
• Oeiras: Only the part not covered by a hoarding counts. Aerial platforms: €85.08 per unit per 30 days.
• Loures: Overhead-only occupation, ground left free: €1.40 per m² per month.
• Amadora: Check with the council which item applies. The permit is issued up to 10 days before work starts.
• Odivelas: Amounts for works exempt from a permit. Permitted works: €91.85 application and site area at €2.24 (fenced) or €4.29 (unfenced) per m² per month.
• Seixal: Extension: the same amounts plus 20%.
• Vila Franca de Xira: Scaffolding falls under the hoarding line; the table does not say whether the two amounts add up.

Fee table: Porto and the North

Notes:

• Porto: Site area or hoarding: €3.55 per m² per 7 days; crane: €70.83 per 7 days.
• Vila Nova de Gaia: In paid parking zones add €6.45 to €20.50 per space per day.
• Matosinhos: Hoardings: €9.57 per m² per month. An extension pays an extra 20% of the review fee.
• Maia: 2025 table. Works requests go through the municipal office ([email protected]), not the general online service. Extension: plus 25%.
• Guimarães: 2025 table.

Fee table: Centre

Notes:

• Viseu: 2025 table.
• Coimbra: Answer within 15 working days.
• Santarém: 2018 table; a new table went to public consultation in 2026, with average increases of about 3%.

Fee table: Alentejo and the Algarve

Notes:

• Évora: Street closed: plus €1.36 per day.
• Faro: Until the end of 2026 the old table applies when it is cheaper. Hoardings: €12 per m² per month.
• Loulé: Apply on the Portal do Munícipe («Ocupação da Via Pública – Por Motivo de Obras»).
• Portimão: Under 15 days pays half. Apply 30 days ahead.

Fee table: Madeira and the Azores

Notes:

• Funchal: 2025 table. Hoardings: €23.75 per m² per month.
• Ponta Delgada: Hoardings: €6.60 per m² per 7 days.

Exemptions and discounts for conservation works

If the works are conservation (painting, cleaning, repairing the façade or roof without structural change), check whether the municipality exempts the occupation. The exemption is almost never automatic: it must be requested in the application, and the works must be properly classed as conservation.

What the fee does not include

• Parking spaces. If the scaffold or trucks take parking spaces, that is charged separately: €6.45 to €20.50 per space per day in Gaia, €41.13 per day in Funchal, €30 per month in Faro, €196.35 per month in Évora; in Lisbon, EMEL charges €2 to €8 per day.
• Closing or restricting traffic, with its own fee (€115.90 per section in Lisbon, €119.50 per 12 hours in Funchal, €194.60 per day in Ponta Delgada) and sometimes police.
• Cranes, skips and material stores outside the hoarding, charged per unit or per m².
• Extensions. If the works run late, the extension pays again, sometimes with a surcharge (plus 20% in Seixal, plus 25% in Maia).
• Advertising on the scaffold wrap, which is a separate permit.

How to pay less

• Class the works as conservation when they are, and ask explicitly for the exemption or reduction.
• Take less pavement. Where the fee is per m², a narrower or suspended scaffold (Porto and Aveiro charge half or less for suspended scaffolding) lowers it; in Loures, leaving a 2.20 m clear corridor halves the rate.
• Plan the duration around the table's periods. With «per month or fraction», finishing on day 30 instead of day 32 saves a whole month.
• For jobs of a few days, compare with an aerial work platform. A truck-mounted or articulating platform parked for a day avoids erection and often the scaffolding permit. See the aerial platform rental companies.

Before you apply

Get quotes from two or three scaffolding companies: besides rental and erection, many handle the occupation request. Find them by district in our scaffolding rental directory, and the guide Types of scaffolding explains which to choose. The process, documents and timing are in the scaffolding permit guide.