Sound advice for purchasing property in Le Marche Italy
There are many guides for available online (I even have my own guide to buying real estate in Le Marche) to advise prospective purchasers on how to buy property in Italy and normally they only mention the legal and formal processes involved when purchasing a house or land. I will set out in this blog a slightly different take on the whole process and start from the point where you are still sitting in the UK and making the first tentative searches on the internet for your dream Italian home.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people start down the road to purchase a property in Italy and have not bothered to do even the smallest amount of research before they board a flight to go to find their dream home.
The first thing to is to try and find the area in Italy which you really like and where you feel that you would really like to buy a property. I believe this can be the hardest part of the whole property buying process, it took me nearly two years and many, many visits to Umbria and Tuscany before I finally settled on Le Marche in 1999. A friend whose parents were from Le Marche told me about this wonderful undiscovered part of Italy called Le Marche and as Ryanair had just started flying there I booked a trip.
Flying into Falconara airport at Ancona with the Monte Conero to my left I felt I might just have found the area in Italy that was right for me and within 20 minutes of driving south on the Autostrada I had made up my mind to find a property and base myself in this magical place.
Once you have narrowed down the area in Italy which you like it is then time to find a property. This will normally take several visits over many months, try not to get carried away and buy one of the first properties that you see, as tempting as that is!! While on one of these trips go to the Ufficio delle Entrate in your local town or city and obtain a Codice Fiscale, basically a code which identifies you in Italy and that you will need to open Bank accounts, register with Utility companies and most importantly to buy a property. Without this document you cannot really move forward and though it is possible to get one in the UK from the Italian Consulate it will prove very time consuming.
It might be also be a good idea if you open and Italian bank account at this stage as well, try to use a larger Bank which also offers on line banking as this will make life much easier in the long run.
Most foreign buyers do not obtain a mortgage when buying property overseas, this often leads to the temptation of not bothering with paying for a survey, this is a very bad idea indeed. Even if the property is a total ruin a comprehensive survey report will also include checks at the local Comune on ownership, recent changes in title or permissions on the property and also a detailed map of the plot in the case of a country house. In case of a village or town property the survey might also include an outline quotation of how much restoration might cost.
So please do get a survey carried out and by an independent professional if at all possible, I would normally recommend a independent structural engineer as their fees are much less than in the UK and they are more highly qualified than a Geometra/surveyor, who are still much used by foreign buyers and often recommended by the owner or agent.
Once the dream property has been found it will be time to agree a price with the owner and then arrange for a deposit of between 10 and 20% to be paid and the Compromesso document to be signed. This document formally ties the vendor and purchaser to a agreed completion date with financial penalties if either pull out of the sale.
Finally all parties meet at the Notaios office and sign the completion documents and exchange the balance of the monies due on the property. This final signing can take between one and three hours depending on the complexity of the property documents and sometimes the many different owners who all have to sign and be present in front of the Notaio.
Don’t forget to bring your Italian cheque book to the signing as taxes and fees need to be paid on the day of the Rogito and don’t expect to get any paperwork for months!!
You will now have the keys, but don’t forget to make sure that you get all the details of utility companies, the local Comune to which you will pay ICI a type of council tax and any other details which will be hard to find out when you are back in the UK.
Please also see my Le Marche property buying tips page on my website.
