By sector · Farms and agriculture

Buying a farm in Portugal: grants and subsidies in 2026

Farm support in Portugal comes from PEPAC, the national plan under the EU Common Agricultural Policy, and it is separate from Portugal 2030. Its best-known measure pays a setting-up premium of EUR 50,000 to young farmers who farm full time (EUR 55,000 in vulnerable areas), and supports their investment with a grant of up to EUR 400,000.

The honest news for 2026: as of 19 September 2026, the official calendar, updated on 13 August 2026, has no new national calls for the young farmer premium, for young farmer investment or for farm modernisation. What is open are the calls of the local action groups in each rural territory, irrigation and recovery after fires. Buying the land is not what these programmes fund.

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Figures checked against the official sources between 11 and 19 September 2026. We never promise approvals.

Programme
PEPAC, the CAP Strategic Plan for Portugal. Not Portugal 2030
Nature
Mostly grants, paid as reimbursement. The setting-up premium is a lump sum
Young farmers
Aged 18 to 40, setting up as head of a farm for the first time
Setting-up premium
EUR 25,000, or EUR 50,000 for those who farm full time, plus EUR 5,000 in vulnerable areas, in the last calls
Open in 2026
Local action group calls, irrigation, recovery after rural fires
Not funded
Buying the land or the farmhouse
Foreign owners
Same rules as any farmer or farming company established in Portugal

First, the land itself

Nationality is not what decides whether you can buy rural land, and it is not what decides funding either. The checks that matter are the same for everyone: how the property is registered, what the land use plans allow on it, the rights of neighbouring owners, and whether the buildings on it are legal. That is work for a Portuguese lawyer or solicitor, and we do not do it.

What matters for funding is a different question: what you will do with the land. PEPAC supports farming businesses. It does not support buying a property, and a farm bought as a home with a few olive trees is not a farming business in the eyes of the programme.

Young farmers: the premium and the investment support

A young farmer, for PEPAC, is a person aged 18 to 40 who sets up as head of a farm for the first time, with the training the rules require or a commitment to get it. Two measures go together:

  • The setting-up premium. A lump sum of EUR 25,000, which rises to EUR 50,000 for young farmers who farm full time, plus EUR 5,000 in vulnerable areas, in the values of the last calls. It is tied to a business plan, and the plan is what the evaluators score.
  • Investment support for young farmers. A separate application, for machinery, equipment, buildings, land improvements, plantations, nurseries and irrigation. In the last calls the grant was 60% of eligible investment below EUR 500,000, capped at EUR 400,000, and 50% from there up to EUR 2 million.

The PEPAC calendar for mainland Portugal, updated on 13 August 2026, does not include a call for either measure in 2026, nor for the general farm modernisation measure. The amounts and conditions of the next calls will only be known when they are published.

That is not a reason to wait. The business plan, the training and the registration of the farm take months, and they are what decides the ranking when the call opens. If you are close to the age limit, the date of the next call matters more to you than to anyone: tell us your date of birth when you write.

What is open now

  • Local action group calls (LEADER). Each rural territory has a local action group that runs its own small calls: small investments on farms, including machinery, small investments in the bioeconomy and circular economy, and diversification into trade, services and rural tourism. On 9 September 2026 there were 19 of these calls open across the country. Which one applies depends on the parish where the farm is.
  • Existing irrigation schemes. Applications until 30 November 2026.
  • Recovery after rural fires. For farms hit by fires, applications until 27 October 2026.

Dates and status for each of these are on our open calls page, which we keep in step with the official sources.

What PEPAC pays for, and what it does not

Investment measures pay a share of eligible costs: machinery and equipment, farm buildings, land improvements, plantations, nurseries and irrigation systems. As a rule, costs committed before the application are left out, even if the project is approved later.

PEPAC does not pay for the land, for a house, for second-hand machinery in most calls, or for running costs. The annual area-based payments that working farms receive are a different part of the CAP, claimed each year through IFAP, the paying agency, and they follow the farmer who works the land.

Wine, olive oil, cheese: farming or industry?

Turning farm products into something else, such as a winery, an olive mill or a cheese dairy, can belong to PEPAC or to the incentive systems of Portugal 2030, depending on the products and on the project. The boundary is drawn in each call, and it changes the rates, the deadlines and the body that decides. It is one of the first things we settle in a Fit Analysis.

The RFAI tax credit is mostly closed to this kind of business: Ordinance 282/2014 leaves out the processing and marketing of the farm products listed in Annex I of the EU Treaty, which covers wine, olive oil, cheese, meat and fruit. Processing of products outside that list can qualify. Settle this before you plan around the credit.

Before you sign for the farm

  1. Find out which territory the land is in. The parish decides which local action group and which regional rules apply.
  2. Decide who will be the farmer. The young farmer measures look at the person: age, training, first installation, full-time farming. A company can apply, but the young farmer has to control it.
  3. Do not buy machinery or start works yet. Anything ordered before the application is lost to the project.
  4. Start the business plan. It is required for the setting-up premium and it is the document that ranks the application. See business plans.
  5. Register as a farmer. Applications go through IFAP, and the farm and the farmer have to be registered there first.

Frequently asked questions

Can foreigners get farm subsidies in Portugal?

Yes. Nationality is not a criterion. The applicant is the farmer, or the farming company, established in Portugal and registered with IFAP, and the project has to be on land in Portugal. The conditions are the same as for a Portuguese farmer.

Is there a grant to buy a quinta?

No. Buying land or a farmhouse is not what these programmes fund, and the few calls that accept land cap it tightly. Support goes to what you invest afterwards in the farming business, and to setting up as a young farmer.

I am over 40. Is there anything for me?

The young farmer measures are closed to you, but the general farm investment measures and the local action group calls are not tied to age. Processing projects may also fit Portugal 2030.

When is the next young farmer call?

It has not been announced. The official calendar for 2026, updated on 13 August 2026, does not include one. We follow the calendar and tell clients as soon as a date is published.

Can I combine rural tourism with the farm?

Often, yes. Diversification into rural tourism is one of the project types the local action groups fund, and tourism has its own funding, which is mostly loans. See tourism grants in Portugal.

Official sources

The official texts are in Portuguese. The figures on this page were checked against them.

Looking at a farm in Portugal?

Tell us where it is, what you plan to grow or make, and your age. We tell you which measures could apply and what to do before you sign.

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