Purchasing a home in Italy comes with a series of one-off taxes and fees. Closing costs and associated taxes and fees will vary based on whether your home is a primary or secondary residence, whether or not you take out a mortgage on your home, and so on. Here we provide a brief overview of the various costs of purchasing property in Italy.

Taxes

• Taxes on Atto Preliminare: €200 + €16 for each 100 lines of the preliminary contract. The preliminary contract is a binding contract that obligates buyer and seller to proceed with the transfer of ownership within a specific time frame.
• Taxes on Rogito (Deed of Sale):
  • Imposta di Registro: 2% of cadastral value (10% to 20% lower than purchase price) in case of primary residence; 9% of cadastral value in case of second homes or luxury homes.
  • Imposta ipotecaria: €200.
  • Imposta catastale: €200.

Commissions

• Notaio: The profession of notaio is unique to the Italian legal system. The notaio is a court-appointed officer who takes on the responsibilities of both a lawyer and a notary public, and certifies the legality of the real estate transaction. It is necessary to engage a notaio if you want to complete a transfer of property title in Italy. The notaio will generally charge a commission of 1% of the purchase price; the commission might be lower for larger transactions (€500,000 and above).
• Real Estate Agent: Most homes are listed through a real estate agent. While there is no fixed commission for agents, the fee charged to most home buyers is approximately 3% of the purchase price. Please note this can vary based on the region, market and even property.

Mortgage

All of the costs listed above may be higher in case you are financing the purchase of your home with a mortgage. Mortgage costs:

• Istruttoria (mortgage fee): 1% of mortgage amount.
• Perizia (appraisal): €250-500.
• Imposta Sostitutiva (Mortgage Tax): 2% of the mortgage amount.
• Notaio: the notaio will have to certify the mortgage contract and require a charge of 1% of the mortgage amount.

Special Situations

In case you are purchasing a second home or luxury property and your imposta di registro is expected to be a significant charge, there are legal ways to reduce your fiscal expenses by transferring the title to a business entity rather than an individual.

For newly constructed homes (that are purchase directly from the developer within 5 years of completion) a higher tax (between 10% and 22% of the purchase price) is levied on the buyer in place of the Imposta di Registro. This is however extremely rare, as the overwhelming majority of residential real estate in Italy is not newly constructed.

Example

Let’s take the example of a centrally-located condo, in the municipality of Firenze, that is being acquired as a primary residence. Let’s assume the market price of the condo is €600,000 and the cadastral value is €500,000.

The prospective buyer may expect to incur the following expenses: