Financial Tool · Not a Diagnostic

CBLT vs Traditional Finance — Development Simulator

Enter your own two-parcel, two-house numbers and compare Traditional Finance against CBLT-Mediated Finance, side by side, live. This generalises the fixed €100M case study at CBLT and Property Development — it is built to let CBLT lose, break even, or win depending on what you enter, not to prove a predetermined answer.

Nothing on this page is tax advice. Every figure is illustrative and every default is user-editable. CBLT's tax-deferral treatment is an argued legal position pending professional review — not settled law — and is visually flagged Position, not settled law everywhere it affects a number below. The traditional-finance figures reflect current, citable Portuguese tax law as of August 2026, and can still change without notice. See What Is CBLT? and CBLT and Property Development for the underlying legal arguments — this tool does not re-explain the VAT / Multi-Purpose Voucher / Howey logic inline.
Assumptions & sources — every hardcoded default, dated
Land IMT (terrenos para construção / other urban property, resident buyer)6.5% flatIllustrative — flat, non-progressive band under the Código do IMT for land/other urban property, distinct from the progressive habitação-própria table. Land-for-development classification varies by case — confirm with your notary. As of Aug 2026.
Non-resident buyer IMT (residential)7.5% flatFlat rate for non-resident buyers of residential property. As of Aug 2026.
Resident habitação IMT — reference onlyup to 8%Progressive bands top out at a marginal ~8% between roughly €330,539–€660,982 of taxable value. Shown for reference; this tool applies the flat land rate above, not this table, since the scenario is land-for-construction. As of Aug 2026.
Stamp duty (Imposto do Selo) — transaction0.8%Código do Imposto do Selo, Verba 1.1 — of the higher of price or VPT. As of Aug 2026.
Stamp duty on loan / credit grant0.6%Código do Imposto do Selo, Verba 17.1 — applied to the bank loan amount in Model A. In Model B, applied only under the "worst-case" tax toggle. As of Aug 2026.
Construction VAT — standard23%CIVA Art. 18 standard rate. As of Aug 2026.
Construction VAT — reduced (qualifying)6%2026 housing package: qualifying residential construction/rehabilitation, sale price ≤ €648,000 or rent ≤ €2,300/month, for projects initiated 25 Sept 2025 – 31 Dec 2029. Toggle below — not folded silently into the default. As of Aug 2026.
Construction VAT reclaimabilityNot reclaimedNew-build residential sales are typically outside VAT scope (buyer pays IMT/stamp duty instead), so input VAT on construction is generally not recoverable — modelled as a real cost, not double-counted against sale-side VAT. As of Aug 2026.
IMI — annual municipal property tax0.3%–0.45%Código do IMI Art. 112 range for urban property; the specific rate is municipality-set. Default 0.35% of estimated VPT (approximated here as land + construction cost). As of Aug 2026.
IRC — mainland general rate19%Código do IRC Art. 87. Reduced 15% on the first €50,000 of taxable income for qualifying SMEs (Madeira/Azores rates are separately reduced — not modelled here). As of Aug 2026.
IRS — capital gains inclusion (Category G)50% includedCIRS Art. 43(2) — only half the gain enters taxable income, then taxed at marginal IRS rate (2026 bands run roughly 13%–48%). Primary-residence reinvestment exemption not applied by default — unlikely to fit a development-for-sale scenario. As of Aug 2026.
IRS — rental income (Category F, individual)28% flatTypical autonomous flat rate on rental income under CIRS Art. 72; aggregation with other income is an alternative not modelled here. As of Aug 2026.
Bank development loan interest rateenter your quoted rateNo default is asserted as settled — construction/development loan pricing moves with Euribor and lender risk pricing and has recently spanned a broad band. Enter your own quoted rate. As of Aug 2026.
Loan arrangement fee1–2%Typical market range for development finance arrangement fees, illustrative. As of Aug 2026.
Construction cost per m²€1,400–€2,200Illustrative range for standard residential build quality in Portugal — varies too much by spec to hardcode confidently. As of Aug 2026.
CBLT tax-timing positiondeferred to burnTax timing — the canonical position. CBLT is a deferred, conditional claim, not a cash payment. Minting CBLT and any intermediate transfer of it — including a milestone release — are not tax events: no income is recognised and no VAT applies at that point. Both income recognition and VAT arise once, at the burn event, when CBLT is actually redeemed for a real good, service, or right of use. This is what allows CBLT to function as a Multi-Purpose Voucher under EU Directive 2016/1065 (see What Is CBLT?) — the tax event tracks consumption, not production. This is general information, not tax advice; treatment varies by jurisdiction and circumstances — consult a qualified tax adviser for your specific situation.
Only pre-fills land/construction defaults below — adjust freely.
Illustrative range €1,400–€2,200/m², Aug 2026.

These figures are current, citable law — no argued positions here.
Enter your quoted rate — not asserted as a settled default.
Transaction (0.8%) and loan/credit-grant (0.6%) — both editable.
IMT, stamp duty, VAT and IMI on the land/construction above apply here too — CBLT changes who funds the project and when the tax point falls, not whether real land and real construction are taxed.
This must be entered, not assumed low — it's CBLT's "interest rate" equivalent.
Worst case applies the 0.6% loan-stamp-duty equivalent to investor capital, as if it were debt, and removes every CBLT-specific saving.
Headline comparison
Enter your numbers above — this updates live.

Model A — Traditional

Bank-financed, current law only

Model B — CBLT-Mediated

Investor-financed via CBLT

Sensitivity — where's the actual breakeven?

Investor return rate that makes Model B equal Model A (holding everything else fixed)
Bank interest rate that makes Model A equal Model B (holding everything else fixed)
These are computed, not asserted — move the rate inputs above past this point and the winner flips.