There are no restrictions placed upon non-residents wishing to purchase a house in Italy, be they from Europe or elsewhere. The only notable differences are seen in the one-time-only purchase taxes, levied at the final contract by the Italian State, and the annual levy, or council taxes. Non-Residents do pay a higher rate of tax, equal to the “second-home” tax rate Italian residents are charged. The (correct) assumption is that a non-resident has a first home in their country of legal residence. To qualify for the lower tax rates, you may consider declaring residency in Italy. To explore your availability and specific regulations, please visit your country’s Italian embassy website.
Some Embassy links are provided on the Links page.
Full details about Italian property tax is available on the Taxes page.
The first step in the purchase process is declaring your intention to buy your chosen property with a Written proposal of purchase ( Proposta d'acquisto ); with that, the intended buyer formally communicates his/her bid price to the vendor, clarifying other contractual terms such as the means of payment, the expiration date of the proposal, a schedule of subsequent stages till the conveyance, possible suspensive or resolutive conditions (i.e. the bid is valid only if the intended buyer is granted a mortgage loan by the bank). To show evidence of a full commitment from the buyer's side it is considered common practice to require a sum of money to accompany the proposal as a form of good faith deposit. This deposit is commonly a non-negotiable bank cheque made out to the vendor, kept by the agent until the preliminary contract (step two) is drafted, accepted and signed.
Once the proposal’s acceptance has been formalised by a counter-signature by the vendor, the buyer should make arrangements to open an Italian bank account, acquire an Italian fiscal code (Codice Fiscale) and hire a geometra to conduct a preliminary survey of the property and begin legally researching the title, or deed. An Italian geometra serves several functions and integral to the purchase process. They are technical surveyors as well as Italian property law specialists. In many cases, the geometra is the only professional needed to prepare the contracts. It is not required by Italian law to have the contracts prepared by a solicitor or lawyer, although some foreign buyers prefer to have a solicitor involved, depending on the customs of their home country in these matters. Whether the contracts are prepared by a geometra or a solicitor, the final contract is overseen by a Notary, who guarantees the legality of the transaction. More information about the Notary and his role is explained below. The buyer should also undertake to get their financing in place, if necessary.
The information gathered by the geometra is used to prepare the preliminary contract, the next step in the purchase process. The Preliminary Contract (Compromesso) binds both parties to proceed to the conveyance (Rogito), the final deed of sale, by a predetermined date, with given contractual conditions. Elements which are included in the preliminary contract are: personal details of buyer and seller, a full physical and legal description of the property including the status of the deed’s eligibility for conveyance in terms of liens or other encumbrances as well as a description of their method and timeframe of resolution, details of previous purchase deeds, details of any entries on the property (rights of ways), details of planning and building permits, the agreed selling price for the property, terms of payment and possible suspending or resolving conditions. The sum paid by the buyer (usually 30% of the agreed total price) at the signing of the preliminary contract is considered in legal terms a down payment (Caparra confirmatoria) and will cancel out the earlier, smaller deposit. This downpayment is not held in Escrow but goes directly to the owner of the property. If after the preliminary contract the purchaser defaults for any reason, they lose this down-payment. If the seller defaults on this contract they re obligated by law to refund the full amount of the down-payment plus an equal amount again to the purchaser. Alternatively to a compensation, the counterpart has the faculty to ask the judge to force the withdrawing side to comply with the obligations stated in the contract.
Payment of the Real Estate Agency fee is also made at the time of the preliminary contract. La Dolce Villa’s commission rate is 3% plus IVA (VAT) on the full price of the property.
The period between the preliminary contract and the final contract is determined by the amount of time it will require to make the buyer’s final financing available, fulfil any conditions to the sale and resolve any legal encumbrances to the final conveyance of the deed. This time period is anticipated and outlined in the preliminary contract.
The final contract (Atto di compravendita or Rogito) is a formal act, necessarily prepared in written form by a public notary (Notaio), and both parties or their appointed legal representatives must sign the contract in their presence. It i s this contract which is registered in the property registration office (Ufficio Catastale and the Conservatoria dei Registri Immobiliari) and is the one that is recognised as the contract on which all government taxes and fees are calculated. This document is equal to a Title Deed and is the document of ownership of the property. The Notaio has a legal responsibility to ensure that the contract is fully legal in every sense. As such, they cannot allow a purchaser to sign a contract without knowledge of its contents. A legal translation of the final contract should be commissioned (at the purchaser’s expense) or alternatively, power of attorney conveyed onto a bilingual representative for the non-Italian party. At the signing of the final contract the balance of the purchase price is paid to the seller. The Notaio’s and geometra and/or solicitor’s fee are made and the payments for the government purchase tax and registration fees are given to the Notaio, who submits them in conjunction with the registration of the contract.
