Buying in Italy
The price is not what you pay.
Tax, notary, agency — and a survey of your own, if you want one. They land on top of the number the agent gave you, and nobody adds them up for you before you commit.
So we did. Fill this in and see the real figure.
What you already know
What’s on the paperwork
This is the example figure, not yours Replace it with the one on your visura catastale: the total moves by thousands of euro on this single line.
You can leave the example figures and still get a total. Put the real ones in and it becomes your total.
They told you
€250,000
You actually need
€269,004
Worked out on the example cadastral income, not on yours.
That’s €19,004 more than the figure you were given — 7.6% on top.
Send it to yourself, or to whoever is buying with you. It reopens exactly like this — nothing to fill in again, and no email needed.
Where it goes
€19,004Tax, the day you sign€6,904
- Registration tax (9%)charged on the cadastral value, not the price you pay€6,804
- Land registry tax (fixed)€50
- Cadastral tax (fixed)€50
- Title searches and certificatesthe agency provides them free of charge€0
Everyone else who gets paid€12,100
- Notary — purchase deedfee cut by 30% because you asked for the cadastral-value method€1,750 (estimate)
- Estate agency fee (3% + VAT)€9,150 (estimate)
- Your own technical survey, if you commission onethe planning-compliance report, the energy certificate (APE) and any regularisation are the seller's, unless the preliminary contract says otherwise€550 (estimate)
- Translator or interpreter at signing€650 (estimate)
When they say yes
€216Your offer becomes a contract the moment the seller accepts. Not at the keys — right then. And a tax bill follows 20 days later, months before you move in.
Put the deadlines in your phone's calendar →- Registration tax on the accepted offer€200
- Stamp duty€16
Ask for these papers
Use the Italian names. Ask in English and you get a shrug; ask in Italian and you get the document.
6 papers to ask for before you make an offer, each with the Italian name to use and what it tells you. An agent who cannot produce them is telling you something.
- Visura catastale
- Planimetria catastale
- Atto di provenienza
- Relazione di regolarità edilizia (RRE)
- APE
- Liberatoria dell'amministratore
What can go wrong with this purchase
Every one of these is cheap to check before you sign, and expensive to fix afterwards. These are the ones your answers point to.
An agent who is not registered cannot charge you
Why it applies to you: An agency is involved: only a registered agent has any right to a commission.
You have no protection and no insurance behind the deal — and they have no right to a commission at all.
In the file. Who checks it: You, with the Chamber of Commerce
Moving your money into Italy takes longer than you think
Why it applies to you: Funds arriving from outside the EU need to clear well before the deed.
The deed is postponed and your deposit is at risk.
What to do: Have the funds in an Italian account two weeks before the deed, with documentation of where they came from.
Who checks it: You, with your bank
Closing costs are larger than people tell you
Why it applies to you: Second-home closing costs are the figure buyers most often underestimate.
On a second home the real total runs 8–10% above the price.
In the file. Who checks it: Notary
A power of attorney Italy will not accept
Why it applies to you: Signing from abroad: outside the EU a power of attorney needs an apostille and a sworn translation.
The deed is postponed, your deposit sits exposed, and someone else is deciding in your place.
In the file. Who checks it: Notary, and a lawyer who is yours
Take these figures with you.
We will email this breakdown with your own numbers in it — the price you typed, the taxes that apply to your case, and the total. Useful to have open on your phone while an agent is talking.
We send the breakdown to this address and store it on servers in the EU. Never shared with agents or third parties.
Go further
Can you live with this house?
Everything above is the day you buy. The question that decides the rest is the other one: what the house takes out of your pocket every year afterwards.
We answer that one in The whole picture, €79.
Where an agency is involved, the agent must file that registration and is jointly liable for the tax with you. Agree in writing who actually pays it, before you sign.
These are estimates, verified on 22 Aug 2026. They are not tax or legal advice — confirm the figures with a notary before you commit.
Risk catalogue checked 22 Aug 2026.
After the keys
You have 18 months to move your residence. Nobody will remind you.
If you took the first-home relief and you are not registered as resident in that municipality within 18 months, they take the relief back: you repay the discount, with a penalty and interest on top. Thousands of euros, for something that takes half an hour at the town hall.
And it is not the only deadline in your first year.