Management and finance
Condominium budget: how to prepare one, step by step
How to prepare a condominium budget in five steps: fixed costs, maintenance, contingencies and fees. A simple method to take to the owners' meeting.
· 2 min read · Condgest
To prepare a condominium budget, start from last year's costs, split fixed from variable, add planned maintenance and a margin for the unexpected, then divide the total across the flats. The result is what each owner pays per month. A well-built budget avoids extra charges halfway through the year.
1. Start from what was spent
Ask for last year's accounts, line by line: cleaning, electricity for common areas, lift, insurance, management, maintenance, water. It is the best starting point because these are real costs, not estimates.
If the accounts are not organised by line, start there. Without that history, any budget is a guess. See how to check it in how to read your condominium accounts.
2. Separate fixed and variable costs
- Fixed: the same every month, with a known amount. Insurance, lift contract, cleaning, management.
- Variable: they change with use or season. Electricity, water, small repairs.
For fixed costs, check whether contracts rise each year and by how much. For variable costs, use the average of the last two or three years, not the cheapest year.
3. Include planned maintenance
This is what separates a budget that lasts the year from one that fails in March. Add the work you already know is coming: lift servicing, clearing gutters, repainting an area, checking fire extinguishers. There is a list by season in the annual building maintenance checklist.
Getting prices before the meeting helps. A figure backed by a quote persuades more than an estimate.
4. Leave a margin for the unexpected
A broken gate or water pump will happen. If the budget has no slack, it is paid for with an extra charge, which nobody likes to receive.
Do not confuse this margin with the fundo comum de reserva (common reserve fund). The margin covers small everyday surprises. The fund is for building conservation work, held in its own account. We explain the difference in common reserve fund.
5. Divide across the flats and take it to the meeting
Once the total is set, it is divided across the flats by the share set in the título constitutivo (the building's deed), or by the criterion the condominium already uses for each cost. Some costs, such as the lift, can have their own rules.
Take the budget to the meeting with each line visible and a comparison with the previous year. Owners who can see where each figure comes from argue less and approve faster. To prepare the meeting, read the owners' meeting guide.
How Condgest prepares the budget
At Condgest, each building's budget starts from the real accounts and the annual maintenance plan, with lines kept separate and a comparison with the previous year. Once approved, we track actual against budget and each owner can see their own account in the owners' portal. See what financial management and collections covers. Find out more about our condominium management in Lisbon.
If your building's budget fails every year, request a proposal.
This article is for information only and is no substitute for legal advice on a specific case. It is a translation of the Portuguese original; the law referred to is Portuguese law.