Prime Minister Luís Montenegro disclosed that he spent 637,239.59 euros on the construction of his house in Espinho between 2016 and 2021. This amount does not include the 100,000 euros invested in 2015 for purchasing the plot where the house was later built.
The revelation comes over two years after Montenegro was first questioned on this matter. The Prime Minister’s office detailed that the figure was determined from a review of the e-Fatura platform of the Tax Authority, conducted by Montenegro in recent weeks. “It does not mean that the house cost exactly this amount to the cent,” the statement shared, adding, “There might have been additional invoices.”
The disclosure follows inquiries regarding invoices from ABB – Alexandre Barbosa Borges, S.A., the company which supplied concrete for the six-story house. The related documentation, obtained by the weekly publication, had been previously sent by the Tax Authority to the Public Prosecution Service (MP) as part of a criminal investigation opened in 2023 in the Regional Department of Investigation and Penal Action in Porto. The investigation examines how ABB won a significant public works contract in the Aveiro district — the renovation of the railway channel through the city center — and also how the local authority managed the situation.
The ‘trigger invoice’ amounted to 214,800 euros, billed for services provided between 2017 and 2019. However, the total spending on the house was three times this amount, as further contracts were involved.
The Prime Minister’s office added that another contractor, not Mota Oliveira, handled the finishing phase, though no identification or payment details were provided. These records are absent from the construction log. Fees charged by architect Diogo Lacerda are also undisclosed.
The contractor listed in the construction log, Rui Mota Oliveira, and ABB owner Gaspar Borges did not respond to confirmation requests regarding these values. However, months earlier, Borges mentioned “only one type of concrete was supplied for the project, priced between €85 and €95 per cubic meter.”
Rui Mota Oliveira stated eight months ago that “no invoices related to the house’s construction remain unpaid.”
The inquiry into Montenegro’s Espinho house licensing was archived nearly a year ago by the MP, citing no indications of “illicit interferences in the decision-making process.”
The MP found no signs that the administrative relationship between the municipal administration and the involved party exceeded the legally guided decision-making framework.
When the controversy unfolded in December 2023, Luís Montenegro had not yet become Prime Minister. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader insisted he neither sought nor would accept any improper advantage and saw the inquiry as “an opportunity to clear an overwhelming weight of insinuations, distortions, and slanders” from himself and his family.
