Buying a house in Italy: the notaio does a lot — but three choices determine your bill

First the order that's fixed on this site: in your first year you don't buy — you rent, you get to know the area, and only then do you decide. This article is for the moment you've got that far. Just as in France the notary in Italy is the heart of the process — but unlike there, your bill depends on three choices that you make beforehand, and one of them comes with a deadline of eighteen months.

The familiar part: the notaio does the checks and the payment

You as the buyer choose the notaio yourself. He checks beforehand whether the seller really is the owner and whether there are no mortgages or attachments on the property, and after the deed (the rogito) he pays the registration, mortgage and cadastral tax when the deed is registered. The trascrizione too — the entry of your ownership in the public registers — runs via his office. So no separate desks, but one thing to arrange beforehand: your codice fiscale, because without an Italian tax number you sign nothing.

Before the rogito there is almost always the preliminary contract: the contratto preliminare (compromesso), usually with a deposit (caparra). That preliminary contract must be registered within 30 days — if it runs via the notaio, he does that — and on the caparra you already pay 0.5% registration tax, which is later set off against the final settlement. There is no statutory cooling-off period as in France: signed is signed.

Choices one and two: who do you buy from, and do you ask for prezzo-valore?

If you buy from a private individual, you pay 9% registration tax (minimum € 1,000) plus twice € 50 fixed. If you buy a new build from a construction company, it's 10% VAT on the purchase price plus three times € 200.

And here lies the peculiarity that almost nobody knows: when buying from a private individual you may ask the notaio for the prezzo-valore rule — the tax is then calculated on the cadastral value instead of on the purchase price. That cadastral value often lies well below the market price, so this quickly saves thousands of euros. It does have to be requested explicitly in the deed, with the real price stated. Ask your notaio about it; it is your right, not a favour.

Choice three: prima casa — big benefit, hard deadline

If this becomes your main residence, the registration tax drops from 9% to 2% (or the VAT from 10% to 4% on a new build). But the conditions are a promise you have to keep, and for emigrants there is one crucial one: if you don't yet live in the municipality of the property, you must move your residenza there within 18 months of the purchase — and that intention must be stated in the purchase deed, on pain of losing the whole benefit. So whoever buys from the Netherlands before the move may claim the benefit, but the clock starts ticking at the deed. Furthermore it doesn't apply to the luxury categories A/1, A/8 and A/9, and whoever already owns an earlier prima-casa home must sell it within two years.

And after that: the IMU — or not

The annual municipal tax on property is called the IMU. The good news for whoever really emigrates: the main residence is exempt (again with the exception of A/1, A/8 and A/9) — if you and your family are officially registered there and actually live there. If it remains a second home, you do pay, at a rate that your municipality sets itself within statutory limits. So the difference between "holiday home" and "main residence" in Italy is not just a feeling, but an annual assessment.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Italy.