Europe
Student accommodation regulation in Portugal (2026)
Portugal has had rules of its own for higher-education student accommodation since 14 January 2022, but they regulate the building: floor areas, bathrooms, equipment and even the wifi. They do not say which contract is signed with the resident; that comes from the Civil Code, which allows terms shorter than a year when the purpose is study. Here are the rules with their article in the Diário da República, the data protection that applies and what none of them says.
The short answer
| What | Rule | Who applies it |
|---|---|---|
| Type of accommodation | Decree-Law no. 14/2022, Arts. 1 and 2 | The responsible body; the Agência Nacional Erasmus+ monitors it (Art. 5) |
| Contract with the resident | Civil Code, Arts. 1069, 1095 and 1096 | The parties; in a dispute, the courts |
| Building and licence | Ordinance no. 35-A/2022 (technical standards) and Decree-Law no. 220/2008, Art. 8 (fire safety) | The municipality, when licensing the works |
| Data protection | GDPR and Law no. 58/2019 | The CNPD |
| AI and whistleblowing channel | Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Art. 50; Law no. 93/2021, Art. 8 | Whoever builds the assistant; any entity with 50 or more workers |
What they are called and how they differ
Decree-Law no. 14/2022, in force since 14 January 2022, calls them all residências and makes no distinction between public and private: it applies according to what the building is, not who runs it. Its preamble frames it within the Plano Nacional de Alojamento para o Ensino Superior (National Plan for Higher Education Accommodation).
[…] considera-se alojamento para estudantes do ensino superior a fração autónoma ou o prédio urbano ou misto destinado, no todo ou em parte, a habitação temporária por estudantes deslocados do ensino superior […] ("Higher-education student accommodation means the self-contained unit or the urban or mixed property intended, wholly or partly, for temporary housing of students living away from home.")
- 10 or more residents: the decree and technical standards apply to new builds, to the conversion of another building and to the refurbished part of a residence (Art. 2(2) to (4)). Residents may include researchers, staff and other groups (standard [7], letter e).
- Fewer than 10 residents: treated as housing, with extra conditions from Ordinance no. 35-A/2022, such as no more than one resident per 11.70 m² of usable floor area (Art. 2(5) and standard [5]).
- Alojamento local (short-term rental): a different regime, that of Decree-Law no. 128/2014, for temporary accommodation "nomeadamente a turistas" (in particular to tourists, Art. 2), with prior registration with the municipality (Art. 5). It does not mention students.
The contract with the resident
The 2022 decree does not say which contract is signed. If the use of accommodation is granted in return for rent, the Civil Code calls it an urban tenancy: in writing (Art. 1069) and over premises fit for that purpose, with a use licence where one is required (Art. 1070). The one-year minimum term (Art. 1095(2)) has an exception for students.
O limite mínimo previsto no número anterior não se aplica aos contratos para habitação não permanente ou para fins especiais transitórios, designadamente por motivos profissionais, de educação e formação ou turísticos, neles exarados. ("The minimum limit in the previous paragraph does not apply to contracts for non-permanent housing or for special transitory purposes, in particular for professional, education and training or tourist reasons, stated in them.")
The reason has to be stated in the contract, and those contracts do not renew automatically unless agreed (Art. 1096(2)). The latest amendment to Art. 1095, by Law no. 82/2023, has applied since 1 January 2024.
The building: technical standards, licence and fire safety
Ordinance no. 35-A/2022 sets the minimums: 8.5 m² for a single room (9 m² with its own bathroom) and 13.5 m² for a double (standard [98]); 15 m² for a single studio (standard [112]); at least one bathroom for every four residents (standard [115]); and wifi reaching every space in the building (standard [309]). For everything else, Art. 6 refers to the general building rules and the urban development regime (Decree-Law no. 555/99).
On fire safety, Decree-Law no. 220/2008 puts student residences "quando não inseridos num estabelecimento escolar" (when not part of a school) in use-type VII, the one for hotels, short-term rentals and dormitories (Art. 8(1)(g)). Inside an educational establishment, that paragraph does not cover it.
Data protection and WhatsApp
The GDPR applies directly; Law no. 58/2019 ensures its implementation in Portugal (Art. 1) and names the CNPD as supervisory authority (Art. 3). A residence that deals with residents on WhatsApp is the controller of those messages and has to:
- tell people at first contact who processes the data, what for and on what basis (GDPR, Art. 13); for the stay, it is usually the contract (Art. 6(1)(b));
- sign a processing agreement with every provider that handles those messages (Art. 28): see controller and processor;
- cover any transfer outside the European Economic Area with safeguards (Arts. 44 to 46), such as the standard contractual clauses of Decision (EU) 2021/914.
The step-by-step method is in the GDPR guide for residences: it was written with Spanish law, but what it says about the GDPR holds in Portugal.
What the rules do not say
Worth knowing
Decree-Law 14/2022 regulates how a residence is designed and built, not how it is run: it requires no house rules, no staff, no standard contract, and sets no prices. Nor does it create a prior register like the one for short-term rentals, although it does require the responsible body to open its premises and records to the Agência Nacional Erasmus+ (Art. 5(3)).
Law 58/2019 says that, except where there is intent, the CNPD issues a warning before opening penalty proceedings (Art. 39(3)). In its Deliberation 2019/494 the CNPD announced that it will not apply that rule or others in the same law, among them Art. 2(1) and (2), because it considers them contrary to the GDPR.
What Bedel does
Bedel answers the residence's WhatsApp in the language each resident writes in and puts on a person's phone whatever a machine should not decide (handing over to people). The data lives in the European Union, in Ireland, and the AI model runs in the United States under the Standard Contractual Clauses. What changes in the contract and the processing under Portuguese law is discussed before signing.
Frequently asked questions
Does a private residence have to comply with Decree-Law 14/2022?
Yes, if it houses ten or more residents and is newly built, converted from another use or refurbished: in the first two cases, the whole building; in a refurbishment, only the part that is touched. Below ten residents it is treated as housing, with the extra conditions of Ordinance 35-A/2022. The decree does not apply to procedures already under way when it came into force (Art. 7).
Can I sign contracts for one academic year, shorter than twelve months?
Yes. Article 1095(3) of the Civil Code excludes from the one-year minimum term contracts for special transitory purposes, such as education and training, provided the reason is stated in the contract. Those contracts do not renew automatically unless agreed (Art. 1096(2)), and an urban tenancy is made in writing (Art. 1069).
Is a student residence a short-term rental (alojamento local)?
No. Alojamento local is the regime of Decree-Law 128/2014 for temporary accommodation services, in particular to tourists, with prior registration with the municipality. The student residence has its own decree, 14/2022. What they share is the fire classification: Decree-Law 220/2008 places both, and residences outside a school, in use-type VII.
Which authority supervises residents' data?
The Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados, which Article 3 of Law 58/2019 designates as supervisory authority for GDPR purposes. It is also worth reading its Deliberation 2019/494, in which it announced that it will not apply several articles of that law, among them the one requiring a warning before a penalty where there is no intent.
Does a residence need a whistleblowing channel in Portugal?
If it employs 50 or more workers, yes: Article 8 of Law 93/2021, which transposes the EU whistleblower protection directive, requires those entities to have internal reporting channels. Private ones with 50 to 249 workers may share resources to receive and follow up reports. The law came into force 180 days after publication (Art. 31).
Other countries
- United KingdomFour systems in one country: in England, membership of an approved management code weighs on whether a student building is an HMO and on which contract is signed; data follows UK GDPR.
- IrelandA figure of its own: student specific accommodation, within tenancy law and under the RTB since 2019, whether signed as a lease or as a licence.
- FranceThe résidence universitaire has a legal definition (Art. L631-12 of the Code de la construction et de l'habitation); the rest of student accommodation is let under the 1989 Act, as a furnished let or a bail mobilité.
- ItalyThe "struttura residenziale universitaria" has a legal definition (Legislative Decree 68/2012, Art. 13), split into collegi and residenze; letting a flat to students comes under Art. 5 of Law 431/1998.
- GermanyNo residence act: section 549(3) of the BGB cuts back tenant protection in a Studenten- oder Jugendwohnheim, and building rules and the data authority depend on each Land.
- NetherlandsNo residence act: Book 7 of the Civil Code gives student lettings the campus contract and the fixed-term contract, and the Bbl sets its own measurements for student housing.
- BelgiumThree student tenancy regimes, one per region, with different terms, deposits and exits; data protection and whistleblowing, by contrast, are federal.
- SpainThe starting point in Spain: which rule governs the legal figure, the contract, the building, the data and the AI of a student residence, with the guide for each.