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research · design fees · portugal and four benchmarks

How much the project pays,
here and next door.

The official Simulador of the Ordem dos Arquitectos (2026) may not contain reference values. This page does not invent them: for a works value it shows what the Portuguese State paid for design, as measured by the Ordem itself in the 2024 and 2025 Reports, alongside four benchmarks with public text: the 1972 ICHPOP table reapplied by the OA, the German HOAI (§ 35, 2021), the Italian parameters decree (DM 17/06/2016) and the Spanish public fee schedule that the 2024 report used as "Spain". Each row has its source, calculation basis and declared limits of comparability. It complements the study Public design fees, 1940–2026.

inputs

Works

50k500k€5M€30M

Scope of services

The Portuguese contracts measured by the OA are for design preparation (architecture + specialist disciplines), as a rule with technical assistance but without site supervision. In the HOAI this corresponds to phases 1 to 7 (66% of the fee); in the Italian DM, to the design services without the direzione lavori. "Complete" adds phases 8 and 9 (34%) and the DL (Q = 0.32). The REL2024 comparison used the full HOAI, without this adjustment.
0.5%2.54%16%

result for this works value

BenchmarkCategory applied% of the worksFeeyou vs. ref.Basis and source

curves: fee as % of the works value (logarithmic scale)

comparability: what each row measures

RowStatusCost basisCoversLimits of this comparison
Portugal, contracted 2023/24Measurement (98 contracts, Portal BASE)Estimated works valueFull design team, designValues read from REL2024 chart 16 by measuring the bars (±0.1 pp); the count per bracket is not published.
Portugal, awarded 2023-25Measurement (1,576 contracts)Estimated works valueFull design team, designOverall average (€80.2M / €3,152.9M), not per bracket; the average is dominated by the large works.
ICHPOP 1972 (cat. II+III)Revoked in 2008 (ministerial order Portaria 701-H/2008)Estimated cost of the works, without foundations and without installations above 20%Complete design + technical assistanceOnly the average of categories II and III is published, reapplied by the OA to 98 contracts; the original table by category was not reproduced in the reports.
HOAI 2021, § 35Federal regulation; indicative tables since 2021 (CJEU C-377/17), binding 2013-2020Anrechenbare Kosten (eligible costs, ≈ construction cost without land)Only the architecture design (Objektplanung); structures and installations have their own tables (§§ 51, 56)That is why the HOAI here is understated against the full Portuguese team: Tragwerk and TGA still have to be added. Linear interpolation between table rows; outside €25k to €25M the fee is freely agreed.
Italy, DM 17/06/2016Ministerial decree, mandatory basis of public tenders (D.Lgs. 36/2023)V = cost of the works per categoryDesign services (fattibilità, definitivo, esecutivo) per category; here a single edilizia categoryA real building sums several categories (E + S + IA) with distinct G; using a single one understates. Expenses excluded (up to 25%, art. 5).
"Spain" = SEGIPSA 2015 scheduleFee schedule of a state-owned company (BOE-A-2015-5823); Spain has had no table since Ley 7/1997PEM (material execution, without the 19% for overheads and profit)Design drafting; site management in a separate tableApplied here to the works value as in REL2024, which overstates the base by ≈19%. It is not "what Spain practises"; it is what a Spanish public entity lists in its schedule.
Reading note on REL2024. Pages 34-35 say: "from 4.35% – considering the average of ICHPOP categories II and III – to 3.31%, if we consider the average Base Price, or to 1.99%, if we consider the average Contract Value". That is, 3.31% is the base price of the 98 contracts of 2023/24 and 4.35% is the reapplied ICHPOP (€16,826,594.66 on €386,592,903.66). The contracted amount (1.99%) sits at about 46% of the 1972 rule and about 60% of the base price. The two ratios circulate swapped; it is worth citing with the page.
Framing. This page publishes descriptive statistics of public data and reproduces the legal fee tables of other States, with the sources in view. It is not a fee table, not a price recommendation, not legal advice. The Portuguese values describe what the State paid; the foreign ones describe what the law or a public entity of each country lists in its schedule, with the comparability caveats above.

sources

  1. Ordem dos Arquitectos, 1st Report on Fees in Public Procurement in Portugal (2024), pp. 34-38: comparability with ICHPOP (3.31% / 1.99% / 4.35%), charts 16 and 19, HOAI 9.19%, "Spain" 4.24%.
  2. Ordem dos Arquitectos, 2nd Report (2025), pp. 17-20: 1,576 contracts, base price 3.37%, awarded 2.54%, prior consultations €40,923.54 (ceiling €75,000).
  3. HOAI 2021, § 35 Honorartafel and § 34 (3): phases 2/7/15/3/25/10/4/32/2%. Indicative character since HOAI 2021, after CJEU C-377/17 (4 July 2019).
  4. Italy, DM 17 giugno 2016 (Ministero della Giustizia), art. 3-4: CP = Σ(V × G × Q × P), P = 0.03 + 10 / V0.4; Tavola Z-1 (G) and Z-2 (Q), tables Z-1/Z-2. Q values used: design = QbI.01 0.09 + QbI.02 0.01 + QbII.01 0.23 + QbII.03 0.01 + QbII.05 0.07 + QbIII.01 0.07 + QbIII.02 0.13 + QbIII.03 0.04 + QbIII.04 0.02 + QbIII.05 0.02 = 0.69; DL = QcI.01 0.32.
  5. Spain, BOE-A-2015-5823, Resolución de 11 de mayo de 2015 (Subsecretaría de Hacienda): SEGIPSA fee schedule. Design drafting: 6.65% up to €1M; 5.61% €1-3M; 4.63% €3-6M; 4.11% €6-10M; 3.60% above; minimum €5,474. Site management: 5.68 / 4.77 / 3.97 / 3.53 / 3.08%. This is the "B.O.E. 126, of 27 May 2015" cited in REL2024.
  6. OA-SRS, Cadernos Técnicos no. 2: Fees: ICHPOP (Portaria of 7/2/1972, amended 1974 and 1986), art. 10, categories I-IV, calculation basis without foundations and installations above 20%; chapter 3, foreign experiences.
Method: the Portuguese brackets and ICHPOP read from REL2024 charts 16 and 19 by automatic measurement of the bars at 300 dpi, calibrated by the gridlines (0-10% and 0-16%); the reading of "Spain" in the €0-1M bracket gave 6.63% against 6.65% in the source schedule, which confirms the calibration. Precision ≈ ±0.1 pp. Computation 100% local in this page, no server. Published on 4 September 2026.