Nobody is trying to hide these costs from you. They are simply spread across five different parties, and no single person has an incentive to add them up in front of you.
The rates below are the ones in force as I write. Tax rules move, and the local ones move most, so treat every figure here as the number to take to your notary and confirm for your own purchase.
The tax on the purchase itself
What you pay depends on two things: who is selling, and whether you qualify for prima casa treatment.
Buying from a private seller. The main charge is imposta di registro, plus fixed cadastral and mortgage duties.
- Second home: 9%, with a minimum of 1,000 €
- With prima casa relief: 2%, on the same basis and with the same 1,000 € minimum
- Imposta ipotecaria and imposta catastale: 50 € each
Buying from a company or a developer. VAT applies instead, and the fixed duties change with it.
- VAT on a second home: 10% of the price, rising to 22% for cadastral categories A/1, A/8 and A/9
- VAT with prima casa relief: 4% of the price
- The fixed duties become 200 € each, plus 200 € of fixed registration tax
What the tax is calculated on — the part that saves you thousands
This is where the money is, and it is the thing almost nothing written for foreign buyers explains.
Buying a home as a private individual from a private seller, you can ask at the deed for the tax to be calculated on the cadastral value instead of on the price you are actually paying. The cadastral value is derived from the rendita catastale through statutory multipliers, and it normally sits far below what the house costs you.
The mechanism is called prezzo-valore. It is not automatic, and nobody will apply it on your behalf: it has to be requested at the deed itself. On an ordinary purchase that single request is worth thousands of euro.
Ask your notary in advance whether it applies to your case, and make sure on the day that it is actually requested.
Prima casa: what it really requires
The relief takes the purchase tax from 9% down to 2%. It is not closed to foreigners, but it carries obligations:
- you must take residence in the municipality where the property is, within 18 months — and that means actually moving your residence, not merely intending to
- you must not own another home in the same municipality
- you must not own another property anywhere in Italy bought with the same relief
- the property must not be in cadastral category A/1, A/8 or A/9
Two things worth adding. The under-36 first-home scheme that still appears on a lot of pages expired in 2024 and has not been renewed — ignore any guide that still offers it. And if you claim the relief and then fail the conditions, it is withdrawn with interest and a penalty.
For somebody buying a holiday home who does not intend to move their residence to Italy, prima casa is simply not available. Claiming it anyway is not a clever move, it is an expensive one.
The notary
The buyer chooses and pays the notary. The bill has three parts: the fee, the taxes the notary collects on your behalf and passes to the state, and expenses for searches and registrations.
There is no official scale — notary fees are a free market. On an average purchase, expect 1,500 € to 2,500 €, plus VAT, plus the taxes.
Ask two notaries for a written quotation, and require each to separate the fee from the taxes. Otherwise you are comparing two numbers that are not the same thing.
The estate agency
Where an agency is involved, commission is paid by both the buyer and the seller. If you come from a market where the seller carries all of it, read that sentence again: in Italy you will be asked for your own share, and it is one of the largest lines after the tax.
- Commission charged to the buyer: 2% to 4%, plus 22% VAT
- No law fixes it, and it is negotiable
Two practical points. Commission normally falls due when the offer is accepted, not at the deed — so if the sale collapses later, it may still be owed. And you can negotiate it, but only before you sign anything.
Technical checks
- A geometra for planning compliance and a works estimate: quoted on demand. There is no list price, because the fee follows what the job actually is — a compliance check on a flat and a full survey of a farmhouse are different pieces of work
- A structural survey, where the building warrants one: 800 € to 2,000 €, depending heavily on the building
- My own pre-visit analysis is a fixed 590 €
Language at the deed, and buying by proxy
If you cannot follow the Italian deed, the law requires an interpreter, who is sworn in before the notary. The notary draws the deed in Italian; the interpreter translates it beforehand and reads it aloud during the signing. Budget 400 € to 900 € all in, and note that the cost of the language service falls on the buyer.
Whether two witnesses are also needed depends on the notary. The national notarial council takes the view that they are not required where the party, though not speaking Italian, can read and write — the interpreter already guarantees comprehension. Some notaries call them anyway. Ask yours early rather than on the day.
If you buy through a power of attorney, add the cost of drawing it up, plus an apostille and a sworn translation if it is signed outside Italy.
What it costs to hold the property
The purchase is one-off. These are not.
- IMU, the municipal property tax. A main residence is generally exempt outside the luxury categories; a second home is not. Each Comune sets its own rate: the city of Verona applies 1.14% on second homes and other buildings, while the lake comes down — Lazise is around 0.88%. A realistic range across the province is 0.86% to 1.14%, and it has to be checked municipality by municipality on the Ministry of Finance portal. Note that IMU is also calculated on the cadastral value, not on the price you paid.
- TARI, the waste charge, set locally and payable even on a house you use a few weeks a year.
- Condominium charges, if applicable.
- Utilities, which in Italy carry standing charges whether or not you are there.
For a holiday home used a few weeks a year, these running costs are the number people underestimate most.
Putting it together
Before making an offer, write down: purchase tax, notary, agency commission, technical checks, interpreter, and the first year of holding costs. That total is what the house costs you. The asking price is only the largest line in it.
For the sequence these payments follow, read buying property in Italy as a foreigner. If you are looking at a country property, what to check before buying a rustico covers the costs that hide in the building itself.