The INSTITUTO DOS REGISTOS E DO NOTARIADO, I.P., is a public institute and part of the Portuguese Ministry of Justice; on 24th July 2007, it made available a new service for citizens and business which allows performing all the necessary procedures for the transfer or encumbrance of real estate properties in a one-shot procedure to the Land Register Office.
Buying a house can be in fact a complex procedure which involves several operations/dislocations. It could be necessary, for e.g., to:

• Obtain a real estate property certificate at the real estate property registry office;
• obtain a business registry certificate at the commercial register office (if one of the seller or buyer are a company);
• obtain a civil or marital status certificate (eg if the seller was listed as "married" in the land register, but meanwhile he had divorced); 
• obtaining the license of housing certificate in the town hall;
• request a tax administration certificate by the tax administration services;
• notify the municipality and the Office for Management of Architectural and Archaeological Heritage; these authorities can reject the request if the property is located in certain protected in areas bounded by law; 
• pay the Municipal Tax to the tax administration services; 
• request  a deed by a notary; 
• finalize the purchase and mortgage registration by  the real estate properties registry office.

With ”On the spot house” some of these steps were eliminated and the remaining ones can be performed at a single counter, in one-shot. The following procedures pertaining residential property may be concluded with the use of “On the Spot House”:

1. Purchase and sale;
2. simple loan and other credit and financing contracts concluded by credit institutions; 
3. mortgage;
4. transfer of credits.

All the procedures are carried out by the Register Offices:

1. Obtaining the documents necessary to the business conclusion;
2. payment of taxes (Municipal Transfer Tax and stamp duty); 
3. performing the deed; 
4. carrying out the necessary registries (e.g. Purchase and sale, mortgage); 
5. additional requests: (change of tax address, obtaining the plans, Municipal Property Tax (IMI) payment remission and the Statement for the registry or the update of the property in the land registry).

”On the spot house” offers a simpler and faster procedure:

• All procedures can be completed at a single counter with elimination of acts and formalities;
• use of applications enabling electronic communication between register offices, tax revenue offices, banks and municipalities.

This procedure is also safer because is no longer monitored and therefore dispersed across several entities and the property legal status is accurately acknowledged when completing the act; finally the registry is updated immediately.

The costs are significantly reduced; for example the costs of purchase and sale operation with mortgage would be (in average) around 950€ + taxes and indirect cost with the traditional method while with “On the Spot House” it would be in average: 600€ + taxes and 400€ + taxes, with house savings account and with the elimination of indirect costs.

The main association of consumer protection - the DECO - recognized that the use of "On the spot house", provides a significant reduction in costs of formalities for the purchase of properties, claiming that the public sector would save on average «60 to 70 percent».