If you’ve ever dreamt of owning a house in Italy, then 2024 is you year to reach this goal. 2024 might be the perfect time to turn that dream into a reality. Italy offers a captivating blend of rich history, stunning landscapes, and a vibrant culture that make it an ideal destination for homeownership. However, navigating the process of purchasing a house in a foreign country can be daunting, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the local regulations and procedures.
In this step-by-step guide, we will walk you through the essential aspects of buying a house in Italy. From understanding house prices in different regions to identifying the best locations for your investment, and from hiring the right professionals to dealing with residency and citizenship requirements, we’ve got you covered. Whether you’re looking for a cozy apartment in a historic city or a charming villa in the countryside, this guide will provide you with the necessary information to make informed decisions and ensure a smooth homebuying experience.
Which Are The Best Regions To Buy Houses In Italy?
We have listed the best regions with prices to buy a house in Italy on this article: Best Regions To Buy a House in Italy. Right there, we listed the pros and cons to buying in each region, covering prices, what is like to live in these places. Overall, Italy has many good places to buy a house and live in, Italy by itself is a hidden gem in Europe. The best regions to buy a house in Italy that we’ve listed are:
- Trani
- Perugia
- Siracusa
- Lake Como
- Parma
- Genoa
- Scalea
- Trieste
- Palermo
- Turin
We strongly recommend you to check this article out.
How Are House Prices In Italy?
To be as honest and clear as possible we have tried to understand how house prices work in Italy in the main regions. For that we used the website idealista.com, which has great representation in the real estate market in Spain and Portugal as well. Here we look for the cheapest options, we also look for houses in acceptable states of conservation, we don’t want totally finished houses, entirely unrefurbished. If apparently the house has some renovation work to do, as long as it’s not too much, then we will consider it.
First Option: 60.000 euros/85m²
This first option looks very good, it is in the town of Agliè for only 60 000 euros. It is not a new building, but the internal conditions of the house seem well maintained, it gives the impression that someone has remained living and taking care of the house lately, this is a good sign. It is an apartment that has 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, green area, garage and a total of 85m². The total price is 60,000 euros, which is 706 euros per square meter. There is also information that it has a condominium expense of 43 euros per month.
For those looking to finance, the site also provides a simple simulation of how the values would be if you opt for a financing. With a 30% down payment, dividing the rest into 30 months, you would pay 18,000 euros down and the rest in installments of 200€ per month. Sounds interesting, since you would be paying rent for a house anyway.
Second Option: 88.000 euros/90m²
Another great option in San Leonardo, Parma. For 88 000 euros, with 90m², 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, you get an apartment in a 1970’s building, apparently well maintained as we can see in the pictures below taken from the ad.
Parma, in a well-served area near the station and the old mill park, we offer for sale an apartment in a small 70s building. The property is in good original condition, however it needs renovation works despite being habitable. Internally it is composed of an entrance hall, a dining room with French windows to access the balcony, a kitchenette, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.
If you think about financing, they also left a simulation, giving a down payment of 30% of the value of the house, corresponding to 26,400 euros and paying the rest in 30 years, you would pay monthly 294 euros. Under these conditions, this apartment costs 978 euros per square meter.
Third Option: 75.000 euros/90m²
This apartment option is for 75,000 euros and is located in Palermo, via Francesco La Fata, at a short distance from the university citadel, we offer for sale a bright house located on the sixth floor of a building with a lift. The house is in need of modernization, has a commercial area of approximately 90 sqm. The current layout includes: entrance, living room, bedroom, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. The double exposure and the plan makes it airy and panoramic. The prospectus has recently been redone. The well-stocked area of commercial activities makes the house convenient both for main residence and as an investment use given the proximity to the university.
For you who want to do a financing, the site leaves a simulation with 30% down payment, being 22,500 euros, and paying the rest in 30 years, you would pay 250 euros per month. Considering also that this apartment needs renovation work. Under these conditions, this apartment is priced at 833 euros per square meter, a little lower than the last option.
Fourth Option: 60.000 euros/75m²
Another great option, this time in Genoa. For 60,000 euros, a 75m² apartment with 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, living room and kitchen. It is a 1940’s building, although in an old building, it seems to have good internal conditions, which is worth trying to negotiate the price. The price goes around 800 euros per square meter.
Via alla Costa di Begato adjacent to Via Negrotto Cambiaso, they offer a very tidy 5-room apartment. Second floor with lift comprising entrance hall, large kitchen/dining room, two bedrooms, bathroom, veranda loggia with open view of the greenery and large private cellar. The property is in good condition, equipped with aluminum windows and armored door.
Roof and facades in perfect condition. It also has Autonomous heating system and Condominium parking space.
For those looking for a more specialized service, I did some research and found the website https://housefindersnorthernitaly.com/. They provide consulting services to find the right property for you in Northern Italy, more specifically in Piedmont. They also made a youtube video showing the process of buying a house in Italy, with costs for renovation, modifications, and the total cost of the purchase and work. I leave here below the video for you to watch.
Who Are The Professionals That You Should Hire?
Let’s say someone begins with a real estate agent, where do you go from there? There is a big big caveat, a big information that is important to know, real estate agency, real estate activity is a regulated activity in Italy, meaning that not everyone can start selling properties. You need to have a permission authorization to be a realtor, so it’s important that the person who you’re going to hire to help you with the purchase of a property is a person that is entitled to do so. An entitlement passes through an exam that must be taken the realtor must be an authorized realtor.
The Legal Representative
The second subject that is uh absolutely especially if you’re dealing with an international real estate transaction, if you’re coming from abroad, is a legal representative, not because it’s meant that you to have a lawyer to have a legal representative or someone who has a knowledge about the real estate regulations, but is very advisable because even the most the savviest person, even people coming from the real estate market abroad they will be overwhelmed by the amount of information, about the regulation, fine art regulations a lot of things that can make a dream really become a nightmare if you don’t have someone explaining to you the consequence of the property that you’re buying, or what you can do, what you cannot do, and sometimes these are kind of information, that kind of questions that a buyer don’t ask because they don’t even think about that.
The Public Notary
The other person, the other professional is absolutely in necessary this transaction is the notary. The public notary is a civil law public notary, is very different from the notary that is used in a common law system in America or in the UK. It’s not just a person that notarizes your signature, is a public officer appointed by the government, something between a lawyer and a judge, that is the person that will make the transaction completed and will be responsible for the registration of the deed, with all the public authorities, the public notary is the person that collects the taxes on behalf of the government, they will pay those money to the government.
So is a person that is really there to be at the third neutral to be sure that the transaction complies with all the real estate regulations and the transaction is actually completed in the most appropriate and legal way possible.
Precautions to get the right licenses
Then, depending on the kind of property you’re buying, if you’re buying an old property that need to be restored, you will need to have a team of people that will help you with all the permissions that need to be requested to the government to again. It’s good to have um an architect at least, someone that can tell you, if you want to move a window, if you want to raise a wall, if you want to add extra space, maybe you have a nice garden, you would like to have an extra room for your guests, it’s not something you can do by your yourself. You need to have permissions, even if you are a carpenter, if you if you are good at creating things you need to inform the local government, the municipality about what you’re planning to do. So, it’s important to have someone who knows how to file those documentation with the proper authorities.
Is It Possible To Buy A House In Italy To Get Citizenship?
The only big thing this is an important aspect to taking consideration, a lot of people think “if i buy a property in Italy, do i get automatically a permit to stay in Italy?” And the answer to this question is: NO.
In Italy we they don’t have a permit to stay for owners of a real estate property. This is a big misconception based on the fact that some other European union countries do have some program where if you buy a property, you can automatically obtain a permit to say, Italy is not one of those. Having a property, owning a property is the process of obtaining a visa if you want to stay in Italy for more than three months, as you can do as a tourist most of the time, because by showing that you have asset you already have a property you basically are showing that you don’t need to rent a place, hotel, hostel, which means that you have sufficient economic resource to live abroad without becoming a burden for the economy of a country.
So can you come to Italy as a tourist to buy a property? Yes
Does owning the property in Italy make you eligible to have a real a permit to stay? Not really, but it can ease the process. And following this process, staying in Italy legally with your residency permit, you must reside in Italy for at least 10 years to be eligible to get the citizenship.
Can I Buy A Property Or House If i Don’t Have Italian Residency?
Yes, what we do unless there are some restrictions sometimes depending on the country of origin of these people but 99%, of the time if they are buying a property with the intention of either to live in the property or to use it as a holiday house, there is no specific requirement, if they cannot be here in Italy, the purchase can be completed using legal proxy, where you can have represent foreigners that sell property sometimes, not even in person just on through like a virtual tour of a property and they appoint us to through a notary power of attorney to represent them in the sale and then in the purchase, and then they arrive, you can take a look around the property and they see the property in person, sometimes for the first time, but generally speaking, yes, these are the most common questions. So, you can come as a tourist.
How long does a sale generally take from Interest to handing the keys?
More or less, we take in consideration that by the time that we approach the seller that can happen if you know the seller directly, you can place a phone call, you have you set up a meeting at our office, you can do it with the real estate agent that represent the seller, you cannot generally can get in touch directly with the seller, you have to use the service of the realtor that is representing the seller. Is considered a week to get to know the owner or get to know the document regarding the property that is on sale. You can consider another two weeks more or less to have proper documentation coming from the cadastral archives, having more or less other analysis. Overall, we consider like two or three weeks is the minimum to have if the property is completely in order, it doesn’t need to have any amendment, any fix that need to be done through the land registries. If you need to resolve issues before the transaction is over it can take three, four months also.
The elements that can make the process longer is related to the bureaucracy so, if there is a problem related to a window that is expected not to be there or a wall that was closed and it wasn’t expected to be closed, these are things where you have to ask permissions or authorizations to keep the wall where it is or to keep the window when it is possible. You can also complete the operation the transfer of the property without that permission but the buyer at that point is buying a property with the flaw, with the problem that he was advised let’s wait a little longer, let’s be sure that the community the municipality will give you the permission to keep the window where it is, otherwise you might risk that you have to close the window.
