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Property purchase

Foreign ownership

There are no restrictions on foreigners buying property in Italy. Despite the country’s famous bureaucracy, the process should be no more complicated than buying in the UK, provided the buyer employs reputable, English-speaking professionals to help guide him through the process.

Preliminary contract

After making an offer on the property, the buyer must pay 1% of the purchase price. This offer of purchase binds the buyer to the sale, but not the seller, who may choose to go with another offer. Assuming the seller accepts the offer, both parties are bound to the transaction, and a preliminary contract (compresso) is drawn up. This contains all the necessary details from price and deposit to details of the land and property.

Final contract

Once the preliminary contract has been signed, the buyer will increase the deposit to 10% or 20%, as agreed in the contract. From this point until completion will generally take around six to eight weeks. The notary public will perform due diligence on behalf of both parties. The final balance is paid when the title search has been completed, and at this point the deed of sale (rogito) is signed in the presence of the notary.

Completion

The buyer will keep a copy of this deed, and copies are sent to the Land Registry and the tax office by the notary. Once the appropriate taxes have been paid on the sale, the property can be officially registered. The notary will then need to make sure that the local police are aware of the change in ownership, and that the utilities are transferred to the new owner’s name.

In all, the purchase process takes around 27 days.

Costs and taxes

The costs and taxes associated with the purchase process are likely to total around 7.6 - 18.5% of the price of the property. The following is a guide to these costs:

• Registration tax – 3 – 7%
• Land registry tax – €168 or 2%
• ‘Cadastral’ tax – €168 or 2%
• Notary fee – 1 – 2.5%
• Legal fees - 1 – 2% (+ 20% VAT)
• Agent’s commission 2 – 3% (+ 20% VAT)

The seller shares the payment of the agent’s commission with the buyer, also paying 2 – 3% plus VAT.

Related items

Documents and Reports

	Italy property investment report (399Kb)
Documents and Reports

Other related pages

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