Italy's purchase taxes, mortgage tax, tenancy law and renovation bonuses are national; the IMU property tax rate is set by each municipality. A resale home bought from a private owner pays 9% registration tax (2% as a prima casa, at least €1,000) plus €100 of mortgage and cadastral taxes; a new home bought from a builder pays 10% VAT (4% as a prima casa) plus €600. On €300,000: €27,100, €6,100, €30,600 or €12,600. Each of the 66 guides below answers one question, with its official sources and their date.
Foreign buyers
Buying a home in Italy as a foreigner
A foreigner buying a home in Italy pays the same national purchase taxes as an Italian: on a resale home bought from a private seller, 9% registration tax (imposta di registro) plus €50 + €50 in mortgage and cadastral taxes, or 2% (minimum €1,000) if the prima casa (first-home relief) conditions are met.
Can non-residents buy property in Italy?
Yes: Italy does not bar non-residents from owning property, and living abroad does not change the purchase taxes (9% registration tax, or 2% with the prima casa first-home relief, which does depend on residence).
Italian tax code (codice fiscale) for property buyers
The codice fiscale is the Italian tax identification code, 16 characters for an individual, and the only valid one is the code issued by the Agenzia delle Entrate (the tax authority), never one produced by an online generator.
Opening an Italian bank account to buy a home
None of the official pages Payotte read says you must hold an Italian bank account to buy a home.
Buying in Italy with a power of attorney from abroad
Yes, you can have someone else sign the Italian deed of sale for you under a power of attorney (procura), but two legal rules shape it. The Civil Code (art.
Getting a mortgage in Italy as a non-resident
No official source Payotte could read sets out a separate mortgage regime for non-residents: the rules the central bank describes apply to every consumer borrower, and each lender decides for itself whether to lend to someone who lives abroad and on what terms.
Selling Italian property as a non-resident owner
Owning from abroad does not stop you selling in Italy, and the sale is handled at an Italian notary like any other.
Prima casa relief for foreign buyers: the residence test
Nationality is not a condition of the prima casa (first-home) relief, but residence or work in the municipality is.
Renting a home in Italy: a guide for foreigners
A residential lease in Italy runs, by default, for four years renewable for four more (the "4+4" lease), or for three years plus a two-year extension (the "3+2" lease) if it follows the local agreed-rent model.
Purchase taxes
Italian registration tax on a property purchase
When you buy a home in Italy from a private seller, or from a company selling without VAT, you pay imposta di registro (registration tax) of 9% of the price, or 2% with the prima casa relief, never less than €1,000, plus €50 mortgage tax and €50 cadastral tax.
Prima casa tax benefits: who qualifies and what you save
The prima casa (first-home) relief cuts the tax on buying a home in Italy: 2% registration tax instead of 9% when the seller is a private person or a VAT-exempt company, or 4% VAT instead of 10% when a builder sells with VAT.
Prezzo-valore: taxing a home on its cadastral value
Prezzo-valore ("price-value") lets certain buyers of a home in Italy be taxed on the property's cadastral value instead of the price paid. The base is the cadastral income (rendita catastale) multiplied by 1.05 and by 120, or by 110 with the prima casa relief.
VAT on a new-build home in Italy: 4%, 10% or 22%
If you buy a new or newly restored home in Italy from a builder, the sale usually carries VAT (IVA) on the price: 4% with the prima casa relief, 10% otherwise, and 22% for homes in cadastral categories A/1, A/8 and A/9 (stately homes, villas, castles and palaces).
Taxes when buying a second or holiday home in Italy
A second or holiday home in Italy is bought at the ordinary rates: 9% registration tax plus €50 mortgage tax and €50 cadastral tax from a private seller, or VAT of 10% (22% for categories A/1, A/8 and A/9) plus €200 each of the three fixed taxes from a builder.
New build or resale in Italy: VAT against registration tax
In tax terms, "new build" and "resale" in Italy are not about age but about who sells and whether the sale carries VAT.
Total cost of buying property in Italy: what is fixed by law
The cost of buying a home in Italy has a part the law fixes and a part it does not.
Selling before buying: the prima casa two-year rule
If you already own a home bought with the prima casa relief and want to buy another with the relief, you must sell the old home within two years of the new purchase.
Substitute tax on an Italian mortgage: 0.25% or 2%
When a lender gives you an Italian mortgage of more than 18 months, the taxes on the loan can be paid as a single imposta sostitutiva (substitute tax) in place of registration, stamp, mortgage and cadastral taxes.
Buying
Buying property in Italy: the process step by step
A purchase in Italy runs in a fixed order: codice fiscale (tax code), checks on the property, a purchase proposal, a preliminary contract, and the deed (rogito) signed before a notary, who then registers it and pays the taxes.
Proposta di acquisto: making an offer on a home in Italy
A proposta di acquisto (purchase proposal) is the buyer's written declaration that he or she wants a named property at a named price, usually on an agency form and accompanied by a sum of money.
Compromesso: the preliminary contract to buy in Italy
The contratto preliminare, called compromesso in everyday speech, is a real contract in which seller and buyer each promise to sign the final deed later. Ownership does not move: the Agenzia delle Entrate says the transfer happens only with the final contract.
Caparra confirmatoria: the deposit when buying in Italy
A caparra confirmatoria is a sum paid when the contract is made, which is kept or imputed to the price if all goes well, kept by the seller if the buyer defaults, and returned doubled if the seller defaults (Civil Code art. 1385).
The rogito: signing the notarial deed of sale in Italy
The rogito is the deed of sale signed before a notary, and it is the moment ownership of the property passes to the buyer.
The role of the notary in an Italian property purchase
In Italy the notary is a public official, not a lawyer acting for one side. Article 1 of the notarial law (L. 89/1913) describes notaries as public officials appointed to receive deeds, give them public faith, keep them and issue copies.
Due diligence on an Italian property: what to check
In Italy the notary runs the formal legal checks, but you should look at the property's papers earlier, before the preliminary contract fixes your commitments.
Visura catastale: searching the cadastre and land registry
A visura catastale is an extract from the Italian cadastre (the property-and-tax register run by the Agenzia delle Entrate) showing the cadastral identifiers, category, size, income and registered holders of a property.
Rendita catastale and cadastral value explained
The rendita catastale is the income value the Italian cadastre assigns to a building unit. It is not the market price and not the rent.
Conformità urbanistica: planning compliance when buying
In Italy a building that does not match its permits can make a sale void, not just cheaper.
Energy performance certificate (APE) when selling in Italy
An Italian seller must have an attestato di prestazione energetica (APE, energy performance certificate) ready before the deed, show it to prospective buyers when negotiations start, hand it over at the end of them, and attach it to the sale contract.
1-euro houses in Italy: what the schemes really involve
There is no national "1-euro house" law in the sources I read. These offers are local initiatives: a municipality publishes a notice, and the terms (who may buy, what you must build, what guarantee you post) belong to that municipality alone.
Buying a property at auction in Italy
In Italy a home sold at auction is sold by a court (after a seizure or insolvency) or by a notary acting for the court or a public body, and the sale is advertised on the Ministry of Justice's public sales portal.
Buying a fixer-upper (rustico) in Italy
"Rustico" is a trade word, not a legal category. What the law looks at is the cadastral category of what you are buying, the building permits behind it and the works you will need permission for.
Financing
Fixed or variable rate mortgage in Italy
An Italian home loan (mutuo, a mortgage secured by a charge on the property) can carry a fixed, variable, mixed or double rate.
TAEG vs TAN: the real cost of an Italian mortgage
In Italy the TAEG (tasso annuo effettivo globale, the annual percentage rate of charge) states the whole yearly cost of a mortgage as a percentage of the loan, while the interest rate, often called TAN, covers interest only.
Mortgage brokers in Italy (mediatori creditizi)
A mediatore creditizio (credit broker) puts lenders in touch with potential borrowers and may only do that work and activities connected to it.
Moving your mortgage to another bank (surroga)
Surroga (surrogazione, also called portability) lets you replace your mortgage lender with another one that lends you the remaining debt, keeping the original mortgage charge on the property.
How Italian banks assess a mortgage application
Before granting a mortgage an Italian lender must carry out an in-depth assessment of your creditworthiness (merito creditizio) based on information about your finances that is "necessary, sufficient and proportionate", which it must check.
Mortgage insurance and life cover in Italy
An Italian lender may ask you to take an insurance policy together with your mortgage, typically on the building against damage and sometimes on your life or against events that could stop you repaying.
State help for young first-home buyers in Italy
The main state help for a young buyer's mortgage in Italy is the Fondo di garanzia per i mutui prima casa (first-home mortgage guarantee fund), run by Consap for the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
How much can I borrow for a home in Italy?
No Italian rule sets a fixed multiple of your salary. Two yardsticks come from the Banca d'Italia: a loan generally no higher than 80% of the property's appraised value, and an instalment that is "reasonable" up to one third of your disposable income.
Current mortgage rates in Italy (October 2026)
The latest ECB figures for Italy, for August 2026, show an average agreed rate of 3.55% on new house-purchase loans and an annual percentage rate of charge (the TAEG, or APR) of 3.99%. The September figure had not been published on 19 October 2026.
Selling
Selling property in Italy: steps, duties and taxes
Selling a home in Italy is mostly a paperwork sale: the buyer normally pays the notary and the transfer taxes, while you, the seller, must bring a clean set of documents and may owe income tax on a gain if you sell within five years of buying.
Capital gains tax on property sold in Italy
In Italy a gain on selling a home is taxed only in some cases.
Estate agent commission in Italy: who sets it, who pays
No Italian law fixes an estate agent's commission.
Selling an inherited property in Italy
An heir can sell an inherited Italian property, but the sale rests on a chain of paperwork that must be in order first: acceptance of the inheritance, the succession declaration (due within 12 months of the death in the usual case), the cadastral update, and, where there are several heirs, the consent of all of them to sell the whole property.
Documents needed to sell a home in Italy
For an Italian sale the seller assembles a file around eight items: identity and tax code, marital or civil status, the title deed (or succession papers), cadastral plans, building-permit records, the energy certificate, condominium documents and proof about any mortgage.
Price a home for sale using OMI quotations
The OMI (Osservatorio del Mercato Immobiliare) of the Agenzia delle Entrate publishes, every half-year, a minimum and maximum price per square metre for each zone of each municipality, by type of property and its state of repair.
Renting
4+4 and 3+2 leases in Italy explained
Italian law offers two standard routes for renting out a home as a main residence. The 4+4 contract (contratto a canone libero, free-rent lease) runs for at least four years and renews for four more; the rent is whatever the parties agree.
Cedolare secca: Italy's flat tax on rent
The cedolare secca (flat tax on rent) is an optional regime that taxes the rent from a home let to a tenant who is a private person at 21% of the annual rent, or 10% for agreed-rent contracts in the municipalities the tax authority lists.
Security deposits on Italian rentals
In Italy a landlord may ask for a security deposit (deposito cauzionale) on a home rental, but it cannot exceed three months' rent, and it earns legal interest that the landlord must pay the tenant at the end of every year (Law 392/1978, art. 11).
Registering a rental contract in Italy
Every residential lease in Italy that runs for more than 30 days in a year must be registered with the Agenzia delle Entrate, whatever the rent, within 30 days of signing (or of the start date, if earlier).
Short-term rentals in Italy: rules and tax
For tax purposes an Italian short let is a residential rental of 30 days or less made by a private individual outside any business.
Transitional and student leases in Italy
Italian law lets a home be rented for a limited time under two special contracts, both created by Article 5 of Law 431/1998.
Tenant and landlord rights in Italy
Italy protects home tenants mainly through Law 431/1998 and, for charges and deposits, Law 392/1978.
Ending an Italian lease: notice and renewal
An Italian home lease does not simply lapse at the end of its term.
Renovating and owning
Italy's 2026 renovation tax deduction (ristrutturazione)
For works paid for in 2026, Italy gives back 36% of the cost as an income-tax deduction, or 50% if the property is your main home, on a ceiling of €96,000 per property unit.
What happened to the Superbonus in Italy
The Superbonus, Italy's much-publicised building incentive, no longer exists for new spending: the Agenzia delle Entrate says it applies to costs paid by 31 December 2025, at 110% for 2023 and earlier, 70% for 2024 and 65% for 2025.
Ecobonus: Italy's energy-efficiency tax deduction
The ecobonus is the tax deduction for works that raise the energy efficiency of an existing building.
Sismabonus: Italy's earthquake-safety tax deduction
The sismabonus (earthquake bonus) is an income-tax deduction for works that make a building safer in an earthquake.
Renovation permits in Italy: CILA, SCIA and permesso
Italian law sorts home works into four tiers under the national building code (DPR 380/2001): free works that need no filing, works that need a CILA (comunicazione di inizio lavori asseverata, a notice of works sworn by a technician), works that need a SCIA (segnalazione certificata di inizio attività, a certified start-of-works notice), and works that need a full building permit (permesso di costruire).
Hiring a geometra, architect or engineer in Italy
For almost any structural or permit-bound renovation in Italy you need a qualified building technician: a geometra (a chartered surveyor), an architect or an engineer.
IMU explained: Italy's annual property tax
IMU (imposta municipale propria, the municipal property tax) is paid every year by the owner of a building or plot in Italy.
TARI explained: Italy's waste tax for homeowners
TARI (tassa sui rifiuti, the waste tax) pays for household-waste collection and disposal, and it is owed by whoever owns or holds premises that could produce waste, not only by people who actually live there.
Condominium rules and fees when you own a flat in Italy
If you buy a flat in an Italian building with several owners, you also become a member of a condominio (the co-ownership of the shared parts).
Home insurance in Italy: what is required
The official pages I read set no general legal duty on a private owner to insure a home in Italy. The new national catastrophe-insurance obligation (law 213/2023) applies to companies, not households.
Inheritance tax on Italian property: rates and filing
Italian inheritance tax is charged per beneficiary on the net value received: 4% on the part above €1 million for a spouse or direct-line relative (children, parents, grandchildren), 6% on the part above €100,000 for siblings, 6% with no allowance for other relatives up to the fourth degree and in-laws up to the third degree in the collateral line, and 8% with no allowance for everyone else.