First-home registry fee discount (Lei 6.015, art. 290)

What the federal text says

Article 290, caput, in the wording of Lei 6.941/1981, reads in substance: “the fees due for the acts related to the first real estate acquisition for residential purposes, financed by the Housing Financial System, shall be reduced by 50%”. Further paragraphs deal with other programmes:

• Housing cooperatives (paragraph 1): registration and annotation count as a single act for fee purposes, with a charge capped at 40% of the Maior Valor de Referência (an old reference value).
• Social-interest programmes by public housing companies (paragraph 2): caps expressed as a percentage of the same reference, by built area up to 80 m2.
• Self-help (mutirão) programmes for low-income families (paragraph 4, added by Lei 9.934/1999): fees reduced to 20% of the normal table, for a property up to 69 m2 built on land up to 250 m2.

Article 290-A separately lets some first registrations in social land regularisation proceed without payment of fees.

What “SFH” means for the buyer

The SFH is the framework of regulated housing loans. Its value ceiling is set by the National Monetary Council: since 10 October 2025, Resolution CMN 5.255/2025 sets the maximum appraised value of a financed property at R$ 2,250,000. The differences between the SFH and the SFI (real estate finance system), and which loans are in each, are in SFH vs SFI. A loan outside the SFH, or a cash purchase, falls outside the wording of article 290.

How the state tables apply it

Notary and registry fees are set by state law and tables published by each state’s court. Payotte’s reading of the 2026 tables (see notary and registry fees) shows the following. “Not stated” means the note on the table read did not mention the reduction; the table itself should be consulted.

Only the states Payotte has read are listed; it does not cover every state. See fees by state for the states with published tables, and fees in the cities.

Points the tables themselves settle

• Which acts. The federal text speaks of “acts related to” the purchase. Pernambuco and Mato Grosso do Sul apply a reduction to both deed and registration, São Paulo’s registry table to the financing part, and Maranhão to registration fees.
• Financed part only. São Paulo, Espírito Santo, Pernambuco (registry) and Rondônia apply the 50% to the financed share of the price, not to the whole.
• Limits. Rio Grande do Sul conditions the reduction on the fiscal value being under a municipal limit or R$ 5,865.20.
• Fund surcharges. Rio de Janeiro’s table says the surcharges for public funds do not apply to the reduced acts.
• SFI loans. Maranhão’s table excludes them from the registry reduction. Sergipe sets deeds for SFH or consortium-financed homes at 35% of the table, and Mato Grosso do Sul also reduces SFH, SFI and PMCMV deeds.

Reading the reduction (calculation, not a quote)

If a state table gives a registration fee of R$ X for the whole price and applies article 290 to the whole act, the fee is 0.5 times X. If it applies it only to the financed share f (a fraction of the price), the fee is X times (f times 0.5 plus (1 minus f)), as a simplification. The state table, not this formula, gives the actual figure; use the purchase costs calculator together with the table.

Which professional to consult

The notary and the registry office apply the table, so they are the ones to ask whether and on what base the reduction is applied. A lawyer registered with the OAB can review any refusal, and a mortgage lender can confirm whether the loan is within the SFH. The reader checks professional registrations on official registers.