How to sell your home yourself in Milan

You need four things from your building. First, the regolamento di condominio, which sets out what owners can and cannot do with their units. Second, the tabelle millesimali, which are the ownership share tables used to calculate each owner's portion of common costs. Third, a written liberatoria or dichiarazione spese from the amministratore di condominio (the building manager, usually a professional firm in Milan) stating your service charges are fully paid and listing any extraordinary works already voted on but not yet invoiced. Fourth, the verbali delle ultime assemblee, meaning the minutes of the last one or two condo meetings, so buyers can see what decisions are pending. The liberatoria is the one that trips sellers up most: if even one quarterly installment is unpaid, the notary will not proceed until it is cleared. Get all four documents before you list, because serious buyers ask on the first visit.

The buyer pays the registration tax (imposta di registro), not you as the seller. The rate is 2 percent if the buyer is buying a prima casa (main home, with the standard residency conditions) or 9 percent otherwise, applied to the valore catastale, which is the cadastral value derived from the rendita catastale, not the agreed sale price. The cadastral value is typically well below market value, so the actual tax bill is often lower than buyers expect. The minimum payable is 1,000 euros. On top of that there are two fixed taxes of 50 euros each: the imposta ipotecaria and the imposta catastale. The notary calculates, collects, and remits all of these at the rogito. Confirm current rates and first-home eligibility conditions with the Agenzia delle Entrate before you quote numbers to buyers.

Yes, and it is common. Italian law lets any owner list as a privato on the major portals, Idealista, Immobiliare.it, and Casa.it, all of which accept private listings. Milan draws a significant share of relocating professionals and international buyers, so a platform with cross-border reach matters. If you skip the agent commission, you can list on the three main Italian portals or on Anyone.com, where you post free and handle viewings yourself without a middleman. Whatever route you take, two things remain mandatory: a valid APE (energy certificate) attached to the deed, and a notaio to execute the rogito. There is no legal shortcut around either.

The compromesso (formally contratto preliminare di compravendita) is the binding preliminary contract you and the buyer sign after the initial offer is accepted. It locks in the price, the property description, and the expected closing date, and the buyer pays a caparra confirmatoria (a deposit, typically 10 to 20 percent of the price) at this stage. If the buyer walks away without cause, they forfeit the deposit. If you walk away without cause, you owe them double. The compromesso must be registered with the Agenzia delle Entrate within 30 days of signing. Registration is done online via the Modello 69 form or through the notary if they are handling the preliminary. The registration tax on a compromesso is 0.5 percent of the caparra amount, credited toward the final deed. Missing the 30-day window triggers automatic penalties, so put the deadline in writing when you sign.

In most cases, no. Italy exempts private sellers from capital gains tax (plusvalenza) if you have held the property for more than five years, or if the home has been your main residence for most of the period you owned it. If you sell within five years of buying and the home has not been your primary residence, the gain is taxable either as ordinary income or, optionally, at a flat 26 percent substitute tax (imposta sostitutiva) elected at the time of the rogito. If you received the property by inheritance, the clock on the five-year exemption runs from when the original owner bought it, not from when you inherited. Confirm your exact position with the notary or a commercialista (tax professional) before signing a preliminary contract, since the tax treatment affects your net proceeds.

This step is called verifica della conformita catastale e urbanistica and it catches one of the most common reasons Milan sales stall or collapse at the notary stage. A geometra (a licensed surveyor) checks that the floor plan held at the Catasto (the land registry) matches the actual layout of the apartment, and that any works done since the original build were properly reported to the Comune di Milano with a SCIA (Segnalazione Certificata di Inizio Attivita) or similar permit. In Milan's older housing stock, informal changes to kitchens, bathrooms, or internal walls are common. If a discrepancy exists, you need to file a variazione catastale to update the cadastral record, or in the case of an unauthorized structural change, a sanatoria to regularize it, before the deed can be signed. Budget one to three weeks and a few hundred euros for a straightforward conformity check; regularization costs more and takes longer. Do this early so it does not delay your closing.

Milan is the fastest large market in Italy to find a buyer. idealista measured an average of about 84 days to sell in 2025, against a national average of 107 days, and a RE/MAX Italia and YARD REAAS observatory reported about 85 days for the city. In central, renovated apartments in good condition, agencies report sales in under 60 days. The two things that move that number are correct pricing to your specific zone and a complete, verified document file ready on day one, so a serious buyer is not stalled while you chase paperwork. Remember this is time to an accepted offer; the compromesso and rogito then add roughly three to six months on top.

The citywide average asking price was about 5,143 euros per square metre in idealista's Q3 2025 report, up 0.8 percent on the quarter and 3.1 percent year on year, and a second portal, Immobiliare.it, showed about 5,653 euros per square metre in April 2026. But the average is almost useless for pricing your home, because the spread by zone is enormous: the Centro Storico ran about 10,739 euros per square metre on the same report, while peripheral districts sit at a fraction of that. Price against recent sold comparables in your exact district, not the city figure, and verify current numbers before you set an asking price.

No. Selling as a privato removes the agency commission entirely. It is worth knowing what you are avoiding: the Italian norm is 2 to 4 percent of the price plus 22 percent VAT, and unusually for buyers and sellers used to other countries, the commission in Italy is most commonly split so that the seller and the buyer each pay a share, with the percentage agreed in writing in the mandate. There is no legal cap. As a privato, you can post directly to idealista, Immobiliare.it, and Casa.it for free. If you skip local portals and market to international or relocating buyers, direct-to-owner platforms that span 29 countries and charge no listing fees let you manage viewings and negotiations in one workspace without intermediaries. If you go direct, you still carry the unavoidable seller costs (a valid APE, around 150 to 250 euros for a Milan flat, and any geometra conformity check), plus the notary's fee, which the buyer customarily pays.

The liberatoria from your amministratore di condominio. Because nearly all Milan homes are apartments, the building paperwork governs the sale, and the written clearance confirming your service charges are fully paid is the piece that stops deals at the notary. If even one quarterly instalment is unpaid, the notaio will not proceed until it is cleared. Get it, plus the regolamento, the tabelle millesimali, and the last assembly minutes, before you list. Pair that with a verified cadastral conformity check by a geometra, since informal changes to kitchens, bathrooms, or internal walls in Milan's older stock can need a variazione catastale or sanatoria to clear first.