Real estate in Rome
Further to recent posts about real estate in Rome, and the difficulties and otherwise of living in Italy’s capital, I’ve fielded a few questions about the logistics of actually buying there, the taxes, fees and so forth. I don’t want to go into too much detail, as there are entries elsewhere on keyitaly.com that deal with the legal specifics of buying property in Italy, but suffice to say that buying real estate in Rome isn’t insurmountably difficult for foreigners … after all Britons and Americans have been doing it for generations.
The basics include the fees to the notary (notario), which are on a fixed scale, starting at €1000 for properties of €5000 (of which there ARE none in Rome) up to €4500 on properties of €2.5m. The notario’s job is to transfer the deeds of the property and his fees are set by law. You’ll have to pay the Italian version of VAT/sales tax on your house: it’s called IVA (imposta sul Valore Aggiunta) and is 10% on standard homes and 20% on luxury ones. What is a luxury property in Italy? Again, it’s defined by law. Ask your realtor or notario. There is stamp duty payable on real estate in Rome, usually 7%, plus real estate tax, (imposta ipotecaria e catastale) - usually 3%. You’ll also have local taxes based on the value of the property, anywhere between 0.4% and 0.8%. You’ll also, of course, have your mortgage fees, estate agents charges, and don’t forget that you may need a UK as well as an Italian lawyer, architects’ fees, surveyor’s fees, connection to the electricity, phone, gas and water services.
Phew! Assuming we’ve not put you off real estate in Rome by now, you’re done. You’ll also find there are one-stop services offering to do the whole Rome purchase thing for you.
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