The current and future financial capacity of the prospective debtor must be assessed and institutions can only grant the loan if they ascertain that that customer is able to pay the  credit agreement’s instalments, ensuring compliance with prudential legislation, including the limits set out in the Macroprudential Recommendation of the Banco de Portugal.

For example, under the Macroprudential Recommendation, young people accessing this scheme must, as a rule, have sufficient regular income to ensure that the monthly burden of this loan’s instalment and other debt does not exceed half of their net income. For this purpose, a stress test must be carried out which adds 1.5 percentage points to the agreed interest rate, where the agreement provides for a variable rate regime and a repayment period of more than ten years.