# Buying in Italy



## Kebayha (10 mo ago)

Hi,

I’m from the USA looking to buy a house in Italy not as a primary resident/expat, but hope to retire one day there and thought about planning ahead. Has anyone done this and would be willing to chat about the realities? I need to understand down payments, taxes, insurance, and possibly a dozen other things that could be specific to buying in that country. Would love to hear the experience and knowledge from someone who has done it.
Thanks,
Karey


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

There are the normal rules. But most of country is a buyers market. Which means you can try and ask for certain things.

I think the normal route is

Initial smaller downpayment with the offer.

Second payment some time later after the the offer has been accepted.

full payment at closing. You're unlikely to get an Italian mortgage. If you're looking at that ask your home bank for the loan.

You'll be paying second home taxes on the purchase. Which starts at 10% of the recorded value (not the selling price) plus a few smaller fees on top.

You'll need to pay estate agent and notaio fees.


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## Troz (Jan 29, 2018)

Welcome to the journey! We bought a flat in a town in Umbria in 2018 shortly after retirement - our plan was to spend half of each year there but COVID put that on hold for two and a half years. Heading back in three weeks, various horsemen of the apocalypse permitting.

One book that we found quite useful was "Buying a Property - Italy" by John Howell. Although it was written from the point of view of pre-Brexit UK citizens and we are Australian, much of it is universally applicable. There are several other similar books on Amazon.

Where are you looking to buy? Have you already done a reconnaissance trip? Looking at a place and imagining yourself living there is very different from being there on holiday.

Happy to answer any questions about our experience, and there will be a few other people on here who will be happy to talk about theirs.

Edit: I see that NickZ got in before me. One thing that I would add to his comments is that we never regretted hiring an English-speaking lawyer to help us with the purchase, once we had decided on a place. Our Italian acquaintances thought this was a waste of money, because the _notaio_ will do the minimum that is legally required, but the _notaio _is not working for you, he or she is working for the state. It was a source of great reassurance to us that there was someone who was in our corner, and who could alert us to potential pitfalls. We heard one story about an English-speaking couple who bought a place out in the country, and turned up on the first day with the front door keys, only to find the gate at the end of the drive was padlocked. It turned out that the drive went over a farmer's land and he had the right to demand payment for access. A lawyer would have picked that up.

In the event we were unable to be in Italy for the contract signing so we would have needed a lawyer anyway to exercise power of attorney on our behalf.


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## GeordieBorn (Jul 15, 2016)

Getting a book is a very good start and cheap in the scheme of things. But there is "free" information out there from a number of sources, sites like this. There are many more, but you may find the information differs slightly due to the constant changes to the rates and names of taxes. Troz should be able to help more on this, but I would think on transport to and from any house, especially locally. Don't assume anything is as it is in the USA, check how it works in Italy e.g. bill payment methods, bank transfer etc...


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## modicasa (May 29, 2021)

Its a different, but not necessarily more complicated, process than buying in other countries. The buyer is usually more involved in Italy, as the conveyancing is not done by solicitors or lawyers. If you have a good agent, then there is no need to worry, but there are alot of sharks and illegal agents out there, so its best to use a reputable agent - FIAIP is the national association of real estate agents, so if your agent is a member of that, you know that he knows his business and has a code of conduct. 
The actual buying process can be composed of a formal proposal to buy, a preliminary of sale and the final act of sale, but only the latter is necessary by law. It's up to the parties involved as to how to proceed. Do your research, and ask around. Taxes payable on purchase are dependent on the property, but as a rule of thumb you can expect to add 10% to the purchase price for the actual cost of buying the property (tax, notary, agent). The cheaper the property the higher the percentage will be for the purchase as there are minimum fees and costs. Annual taxes are much lower than in other countries.


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## Troz (Jan 29, 2018)

@Kebayha , at the risk of telling you what you already know, pretty much the first things you will need to do, once you have decided to look seriously for a property and want to be ready to make an offer, are (a) get a _codice fiscale_, which is used like a social security number in the US, and (b) open a local bank account.

You can get a _codice fiscale_ when in Italy, but the Italian Consulate-General in Melbourne has a very easy system and we had ours in a few days after applying online. Having a CF already seemed to help demonstrate to real estate agents that we were serious.

I don't know what opening a bank account is like in America, but in Australia you can waltz into a bank branch with a couple of forms of ID, and waltz out again half an hour later having opened an account. Not in Italy! We spent a few hours over a couple of days. I can provide more details on the bank experience if needed, as can others on here.


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

If the agent wants to sell they'll hold your hand getting the CF and getting a bank account.

I'd suggest looking over the various bank websites just to see who has the best non resident account that way you know which branch to go into but the hardest part is writer's cramp from signing all the forms. At least it wasn't in blood. 

Expect to be shocked at the cost of a non resident account.


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## Troz (Jan 29, 2018)

I agree about the writer's cramp. Bring hard copies of every document you think you might need, and several you don't think you will need.

A "non-resident account" pays no interest and has higher fees, but is, as the name implies, open to non-residents. 

If, like us, you are going to divide your time between Italy and overseas, a bank with good online service will be important as will a company that specialises in international funds transfers.


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## modicasa (May 29, 2021)

Depending where you are buying/looking - Mediolanum does the cheapest non resident account. BNP does one too. In the south you are forced into Unicredit, which is expensive but is 'too big to fail' and is reasonably efficient. Some non resident account are very limited in what they permit - you need to pay F24s but some accounts wont let you. You will pay extra for an atm card, online banking, etc etc - so keep to the bare minimum of what you need.


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## Troz (Jan 29, 2018)

We went with UniCredit, despite the cost. Partly because there is a branch in the town we wanted to buy in, partly because they have a fairly good online system. It even has a (sort of) English language version of the website. I have been able to manage all of our needed transactions, including the dreaded F24s, remotely. There is a Mediolanum branch in town but too far to walk!


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