Search and purchase of real estate in Italy

Recommendation points

• The procedure for finding and buying Italian real estate
• How to search
• Real estate registration
• Taxes, expenses
• Finally

In the center of the Mediterranean, taking off along the Alpine slopes, bending into the Padua Plain, filling the Apennine Peninsula, strewn with many small islands in the Mediterranean Sea, lies the beautiful Italy – the goal of millions of tourists from all over the world!

Italy is known to be the largest center for international tourism. Over 50 million people flock here every year, wishing to look at the homeland of European culture and art, famous for its talents..

Due to the varied climate of this country, determined by its territorial length, everyone has the right to choose a vacation spot to their liking: be it the snowy Alps and the Apennines or the cozy seaside. Or maybe you want to stay here forever? How about a country house or a small villa on the Adriatic coast?

As a rule, it is the history of Italian real estate, its NAME, which attracts many foreign buyers here. In addition, Italy has a huge number of unique historical sites, which, combined with magnificent golden beaches and a first-class entertainment and leisure industry, make this country a great place to invest in real estate..

Inexpensive housing in Italy “for life” can be purchased only in the north of the country. Here, unlike the noisy resort area, prices will be as affordable as possible. Generally speaking, given the crisis, property values ​​in cities in northern Italy fell by an average of 5-10%. In addition, demand for real estate, for example, in Genoa, Verona, Turin and Palermo fell by 12-15%. Now the price of a budget two-room apartment in Italy at 70 thousand euros has become quite common.

Michael Longo. Palermo. 2009

Italian suburban real estate, located on the cozy coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, continues to be in special demand among foreign buyers. This is due to the presence of a highly developed road transport network and high quality infrastructure of the Italian resort areas. Any realtor (even with a little experience) will advise you to buy real estate in Italy, located on the coast, namely in the southern provinces of the country and off the coast of Sicily. Housing in these places has always attracted businessmen who want to profitably invest their money.

Wealthy citizens of our country managed to appreciate all the advantages of investing money in Italian real estate, maybe it’s time for you to do this too?

The procedure for finding and buying Italian real estate

How to search

So, let’s imagine that you have decided to buy Italian real estate. The first thing to advise you, if you do not speak Italian and do not know at all “where to start” – contact “our” real estate agency, which, at the same time, must be a branch of one of the Italian construction companies or agencies. For the services of such a company, you will need to pay a much lower commission than for the work of “purely Russian” agencies, which, moreover, may turn out to be ordinary scammers.

The conditions created by such companies for Russian buyers of Italian real estate are as comfortable and safe as possible. You can familiarize yourself with interesting offers even before you make a trip abroad, while choosing a worthy option to your liking and proportionate to your budget.

Real estate agency specialists will consult you, and you will receive comprehensive legal and other information on the object that interests you. And after the initial acquaintance with the property, you go to Italy. Remember that you pay for air tickets and hotel accommodation yourself (on a tourist visa), although some agencies take on all these responsibilities, however, these services are not too cheap.

Daniel Wall. Manarola Italy

At a conventional place, you will be met by a Russian-speaking manager of the selected Italian company, who will arrange for you to view the pre-selected real estate objects, and will also provide you with comprehensive assistance in making the purchase of this significant purchase.

Since the acquisition of real estate is carried out exclusively in a non-cash form, in order to speed up the process of buying Italian “meters”, as soon as possible, worry about opening a personal current account in one of the European banks, (preferably in Italian).

Real estate registration

As soon as you have decided on the choice of real estate, and are ready to contact its seller, we proceed to the first step of “Trattativa” – negotiations and bargaining.

The Russian branch of the Italian real estate agency, as a representative of your interests, sends a letter (“Proposta d’acquisto” – an irrevocable purchase offer) to the head office in Italy, which indicates the price for which you want to acquire this or that property. Then, in Italy, a document is formed in which all the characteristics of the property you are interested in, its location, price, purchase procedure and conditions, as well as payment terms are prescribed.

If you confirm the seriousness of your intentions in buying this object, together with a letter to the Italian agency, you leave “Caparra” – a deposit, an advance, the amount of which, as a rule, does not exceed 5% of the declared value of the goods. That is, you write a check in the name of the seller (owner of the property), while the money has not yet been transferred to his account.

After making a deposit, the Italian agency coordinates with the owner of the real estate your offer to purchase, on the basis of which you have the right to decide whether you are satisfied with the seller’s response requirements or not..

If you need some time to think, then you can “reserve” the object, that is, remove it from sale for a short period (no more than 10 days). For this, the real estate agency is paid a certain amount of money. At the end of the term, if you have not changed your mind about purchasing the property, its owner signs the offer and receives the check you wrote out. If the seller is not satisfied with something, for example, the price, terms or method of payment, then he has the right to request changes in Proposta d’acquisto.

Dan Bozich. An Italian Village

The buyer has the right to decide whether he accepts the conditions of the seller or not. In the second case, the deposit is returned to him in full. If the owner of the property agrees to the declared offer and has already signed the necessary documents, but the buyer changed his mind at the last moment, then the check will not be returned to him.

If the parties come to a mutual agreement, then the second step on the way to buying the property will be “Preliminare di compravendita” or “Preliminare di vendita” – a preliminary (primary) contract certified by a notary, as well as payment to the owner of the property 5-30% of the value of the property ( depends on many factors).

By the way, it is at this stage that VAT and real estate agency services are paid (in Italy, the amount of remuneration to the agency for the work done, as a rule, does not exceed 3-5% of the property value). Preliminare di compravendita prescribes information about the parties and the terms of the transaction (personal data of the parties, characteristics of the property, its value, procedure and terms of payment). In addition, the document indicates the date of the final contract. From the moment of the conclusion of the Preliminare di vendita, the exclusive right to purchase real estate is assigned to the buyer, and from that moment this object is officially withdrawn from sale.

In case the buyer suddenly abandons the purchase of real estate during the execution of the final contract, then he completely loses the previously paid amount of money (deposit), but if the transaction becomes impossible due to the fault of the seller, he is obliged to pay the buyer the amount of the paid deposit in double (!).

Derek McCrea. Italian landscape. 2009

Execution of the final contract (preparation and control of documents) takes about one month.

You will just have additional time to open an account with an Italian bank, of course, if you did not initially take care of this. The buyer needs to transfer the remainder of the unpaid amount of money to his personal account with a European bank, and do not forget about additional costs (taxes).

And finally, upon completion of the thorough preparation and verification of documents, the third step towards the long-awaited receipt of the property is Atto notarile di compravendita, a notarized final contract signed in the presence of the parties, an agency representative, two witnesses and an interpreter. In accordance with the contract, the ownership of the property is fully transferred to the buyer of the property.

After the translator acquaints the buyer with the act in his “native language” and gives a guarantee to the notary that the potential owner of the property has understood the content, the parties sign the contract. The seller receives a check for the remainder of the amount, and the buyer pays for notary services (1-2% of the sale price), takes a copy of the deed, keys and becomes the actual owner of the property. However, he will become a full owner only after this act is registered in the Department of Property Registration and the buyer receives an extract from the Property Register. This procedure usually takes no more than 45 days..

Taxes, expenses

You can buy real estate both from its direct owner (secondary market of new buildings) and from a construction organization (primary market) that sells real estate. If you like the first option, then you will need to pay taxes such as stamp duty (7%), cadastral tax (1%) and make an additional payment for rewriting real estate in the Register of Owners (2%). This means that in total, 10% of the value of the property will need to be paid in favor of the state.

If your choice fell on the second option, then keep in mind that you will have to pay a fixed cadastral tax, a fixed mortgage tax and stamp duty – all three taxes will cost you half a thousand euros, in addition to this, you must pay VAT in the amount of 10% of the real estate sale price. That is, you can buy real estate from the primary market of new buildings for 500 euros plus 10% of the selling price of real estate.

Ryan Radke. Italian Marketplace

Thus, the registration of real estate objects in ownership, regardless of the market option, taking into account notary services, will cost you 10-12% of the price of the real estate, plus payment for the services of a real estate agency. Often, the agency negotiates the amount of commission for work even before the acquisition of real estate by a potential owner. This also includes translation services and transportation for viewing the property. The remuneration for the work of the agency is paid directly upon signing the preliminary (primary) sales contract.

For information, in Italian real estate agencies the size of the commission is negotiated in advance, but at the same time it should not exceed 5% of the value of the sale of the property, in addition, the amount of VAT is 20% of the amount of commission.

In addition to government taxes and other payments, Italian law provides for annual payments:

• “Imposta Comunale sugli Immobili” or “I.C.I.” – Municipal (local) tax. Aimed at paying for services such as garbage collection and law enforcement. This tax must be paid in the amount of 0.7% of the cadastral value of the property.
• In case the property is rented out, it is necessary to pay the Irpef tax, the amount of which is 30% of the annual income of the rented property.

It should be noted that the state tax levied by a notary can be paid in different ways depending on the acquired property:

• arable (agricultural) land is subject to 18% tax on the sales value;
• when buying a summer house or villa, the tax will be 10% of the cadastral value.

Remember that you can get the most benefit and take advantage of tax benefits only after acquiring a residence permit in Italy – then you will have to pay only 3% of the selling value of the property.

Finally

Remember that the acquisition of real estate in Italy will make it easier for you to open a visa, but not in any way to obtain a residence permit, citizenship or the right of permanent residence in the country.

Ryan Radke. Tourists in Italy

If you are not an Italian citizen and legally acquire ownership of an Italian property, then the Italian Embassy will provide you with the following benefits:

• Issuance and annual prolongation (renewal) of a Schengen-type multivisa, having received which you can stay for 3 months of each half of the year, not only in Italy, but also on the territory of other countries participating in the Schengen agreement.
• To obtain a residence permit in Italy, you need to register your own company on the territory of this country, which is quite simple to open. In addition, only one employee can work on the staff of the company (that is, you).

Try to be vigilant in finding an intermediary!

About 80% of Italian realtors are scammers or, in other words, “black brokers”. In fact, these are the same realtors, but they do not have a corresponding license issued by the Italian Chamber of Commerce and work alone. Black brokers offer the usual range of services for the rental and sale of real estate, however, they often do not guarantee the fulfillment of their obligations. You can “get” on such “workers” if you decide to use the services of a real estate agency offering services almost “for free”.

You can check the reliability of any real estate company by finding out in advance the number of the license issued to it by the Italian Chamber of Commerce, and specify which of the agencies and in which city this license was issued.