Buying
Buying a house in Italy without an agency
Italian law lets the agent charge both sides, so a buyer normally owes 3 percent plus VAT on top of the price, and the biggest portal gives you no way to filter that away.
English
Where private sellers actually list in Italy
Each of these is a separate pool. A saved search on one tells you nothing about the others, so set up alerts on every one you intend to use.
- Anyone.com Listed by the owner
Homes put on the market by the owners themselves, which counts for more in Italy than almost anywhere: with no mediatore in the deal, nobody has a claim on your side of it either. You agree terms with the owner, and the notaio draws up the rogito exactly as always.
More than 31 million active listings across 31 markets, agent-represented and owner-listed together. Immobiliare.it carries agency and private listings, with no way to show only private ones.
Search owner-listed homes ↗ - Immobiliare.it Owners can list
Buyer filter None. Buyers have been asking for one in the site's own Q&A for years
The largest Italian portal takes listings from private owners but gives buyers no way to show only those. That is unlikely to be an oversight: the company sells agencies a lead product built on exactly those sellers, so the private listings are worth more to it unfiltered. You can still find them, by opening listings and looking at who the contact is.
- Casa.it Owners can list
Buyer filter Da privati, which has its own address you can bookmark per city
This is the one to start with. The filter is real, free, and built into the URL, so you can save a private-only search for a city and come back to it. Smaller inventory than Immobiliare.it, but the filtering makes up for a lot.
- Idealista.it Owners can list
Buyer filter A da privati ordering, which may sort private listings first rather than showing only those
Worth using, with one caution: the parameter behind it is named for sorting, so check the results are actually private-only rather than merely private-first before you rely on it.
- Subito.it Owners can list
Buyer filter No filter, so buyers type senza agenzia or privati into the search box
General classifieds, heavily private, badly organised for this. The workaround people actually use is a keyword search, which tells you how much demand there is for a filter nobody has built.
How many homes this really covers
Private listings are a real share of the Italian market rather than a curiosity, but they are spread across four portals with inconsistent filtering, and the largest one deliberately offers none. Expect to run the same search in three places. The bigger practical constraint is not supply, it is paperwork: unregistered building work and cadastral records that do not match the property are common, and they are what stops a mortgage.
Article 1755 of the Codice Civile
The mediatore is entitled to commission from each party who made use of them. Two consequences worth knowing before you view anything. First, your 3 percent is the rule rather than a negotiation you lost. Second, and this is where people get caught: the entitlement attaches to the introduction, not to the paperwork. See a house through an agency and then try to close directly with the owner, and the fee is still owed, with the agency having a year from the deed to claim it. If you want to buy privately, find the property privately.
In force since 1942, as interpreted by settled Cassation case law. Read the legislation
Buying one, step by step
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Find it privately if you intend to buy it privately
This is the step that costs money if you get it wrong. Once an agency has introduced you to a property, their fee is owed even if you complete directly with the owner. Start on Casa.it's da privati pages and Subito rather than walking into agencies to browse.
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Ask for the visura catastale and the planning history
You want the cadastral extract, the floor plan, and the permits for anything built or altered. Discrepancies between the plan and the actual layout are the single most common reason an Italian purchase stalls.
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Get a geometra or architect to look at it
A few hundred euros for someone to check the property matches its paperwork and to price any regularisation needed. On a private sale there is no agency that has already been through this with the seller.
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Use the prezzo-valore rule
Buying a home from a private individual lets you elect to have registration tax calculated on the cadastral value instead of the price, which is normally far lower. That option does not exist when you buy from a company, and it is a genuine financial advantage of buying privately. Tell the notaio you want it.
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Register the preliminare
The preliminary contract can be signed privately, but registering it through the notaio protects your deposit and your priority if the seller sells to somebody else. Do it, particularly where there is a long gap before the rogito.
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Complete at the rogito
Balance, taxes and the notaio's fee are settled there, and the deed is registered. Funds move through the notaio rather than to the seller directly.
Check before any money moves
- The visura catastale and the planimetria, and whether they match what is physically there
- Building permits and any sanatoria for work done without one, plus the cost of regularising anything outstanding
- The certificato di agibilità, and the APE energy certificate which is compulsory at sale
- Mortgages, liens and pending enforcement registered against the property
- Whether registration tax will be 2 percent as a prima casa or 9 percent, and on what taxable base
- For a flat, the condominio accounts, arrears attached to the unit and any works already voted
Selling one instead? See where to list a home yourself in Italy , or the full guide to selling without an agent in Italy .
Common questions
Does the buyer really pay the agent in Italy?
Yes. Article 1755 of the Civil Code entitles the mediatore to a fee from both parties, and the Cassation has confirmed it repeatedly. Expect 2 to 4 percent plus 22 percent IVA from your side, with the seller paying separately.
I saw a house with an agency. Can I buy it directly from the owner?
Not without owing the fee. The right to commission arises from the introduction, and the agency has a year from the deed to pursue it. This is the most expensive mistake in the Italian market, and it is why finding a property privately from the start matters.
Where can I filter for case da privati?
Casa.it, which has proper da privati pages per city that you can bookmark. Idealista.it offers a private ordering, though check whether it excludes agencies or merely ranks them lower. Immobiliare.it, the biggest of them, offers nothing.
Is a notaio required if there is no agency?
Yes, and that is the point. The notaio is a public official who has to draw the deed and is liable for the checks behind it. That protection is unrelated to whether an agent was involved.
What is the prezzo-valore advantage?
When you buy a home from a private individual you can ask for registration tax to be charged on the cadastral value rather than the price you paid, and the cadastral value is usually much lower. Buying from a company does not give you that option, so a private purchase can cut your tax as well as the commission.
Sources
Every legal, tax, and process claim on this page traces to one of these. We re-check them on a schedule and date the page when anything changes.
- Codice Civile, article 1755: diritto alla provvigioneBrocardi · brocardi.it
- Case da privati in venditaCasa.it · casa.it
- Compravendita immobiliare tra privati senza agenziaFiscomania · fiscomania.com
- Imposte sull'acquisto della prima casa e prezzo-valoreAgenzia delle Entrate · agenziaentrate.gov.it