buying a property in Abruzzo

(A general view providing an outline, The reason being laws change here quite often and its best to be accurate in this respect)

It is different here, often a buyer arriving will have no idea of an area other than it looks wonderful. Which is usually true although some Italian towns do seemed to have been designed and planned by cement manufactures. These stand out and its easy to see that maybe this is not what you are looking for in your Italian dream.

How then without spending days or weeks in a car stopping here and there do you get to know these things. Well that’s what the estae agent is for, that’s why communicating beyond the standard “I like this house send me more details” is important. If you have your visit planned fair enough look at the property and from that we can get a much clearer idea if that isn’t the one that suits what you are really after. With the picture of the property now a reality you can point out what you like or not, what makes it wrong in some little way or if it’s a complete disaster. That’s when we can really get to work.

That is also where the difficulty sometimes arrives, it’s a timescale thing, often people arrange sets of different viewings without realising the time and distances taken up when one is driving up and down hills or around mountains. That owners are often out at work and the next day or the weekend will be he only time to visit. This leads to rushing and basically rushing and home buying do not go together in making a good choice.

Which leads back to communicating, emails cost little and cost no more if they are long and full of detail, because that’s the basis on which we work, if you can get that part clear, establish those points that are essential, say you have children and have to be close to a range of schools to suit the various ages, this is what you might call a non emotional choice, but will often remove what might be an ideal house in terms of budget and condition from the list if every morning you have to get up and do an hours school run because your sixteen year old doesn’t have a school close by. So we ask people to communicate a lot, we definitely never want someone to go away saying the properties they saw were a waste of their time, fine if they are just not exactly right, we also have better things to do than waste anyone’s time, and we also don’t want to get disgruntled owners on our backs because they can see too if someone is really not interested at all in their home.

So give yourself time when visiting and give us a chance to understand what you want.

If a choice is made, a property suits and you are ready to buy the process can get underway.

The first step is the initial offer to the owner, in general terms this will be discussed with us as your agents first, as an offer has to be based on the price asked, the market values of other properties around, your ability to complete on the sale and the owners desire to either make as much as he can or maybe a need to get some ready cash for another house. So there are no rules about percentages but we can offer you the advise about what will be a suitable offer on the property. Initially this can be communicated verbally if its an offer that might require a lot of negotiation. However when a price is close to being fixed a written offer is made, this proposal once signed by owner and buyer is a legal and binding document with penalties if not followed and a time scale set for the completion of the purchase in its various stage

Its an important document involving a deposit generally around ten per cent of the agreed price and is also a conditional contract which again is why your estate agent is important and needs to know a lot about you. When you sign you have to be sure that you will be able to meet the deadlines set and the payments required. So you will be asked these questions. Importantly for the buyer other conditions are stated, that the seller has a right to sell, that the property is sold as seen and described. That essential things like the sale will only go ahead if in the investigation of the property no rights of way past your front door and through your proposed swimming pool for a mixed herd of sheep and cows exist. That maybe you will want a report on the condition of the building or if needing work an estimate of those costs before proceeding.


So lets say we have signed the proposal and that conditions have in all appearances been met there is another paper to sign, the date of this signing stipulated in the initial proposal. In a sort of on or before sentence. Unless agreed by both parties not arriving at this point by the time stated will negate the initial proposal. For this also you will in general need to meet a few other requirements, you will need an Italian tax, a bit like a NI number and a simple thing to get in your home country or here. Other identification documents, a further percentage to pay of the agreed price, generally taking it up to a minimum level of twenty per cent in total, more if the property is a lower priced property, the fees for the agent, the fees for the notary and the fees for an official translator of the document. We use a notary, for the signing of this next paper which is a promise to buy which is in general more binding and if you do not proceed after signing this you will loose the deposit if you are at fault. Why the notary, well he is independent, he is an expert in property law and ne will be resent and produce the final papers for the purchase of the property. By involving the notary at this stage he will have investigated and noted any problems in a legal sense with the sale\purchase and will point these out and the fact that they will have to be resolved before the sale completes.

He acts under the system here as an independent voice in all this and is bound by the law to make sure you understand what you are signing for and the consequences. That the sale is in all sense legally allowable. Using the notary at this stage will also allow in general a saving on his fee at the final act as a lot of the work he would have done then is already in place. More importantly for the client it adds in another level of security of mind to the whole process. Unless you understand Italian a translation of the document has to be produced and signed as a factual and accurate translation by an interpreter employed by you. A date is et for the final act of purchase


The final act brings you and the seller together again in front of your familiar by now notary in company with your translator. The notary will have drawn up an act of sale\purchase which will need to be checked carefully against plans etc and read out loud in both Italian and English with various conditions included . These include elements beyond the actual property and are more to do with the price and the tax to be paid. The price paid will be declared in this act and also a tax will be calculated on the taxable value of the house. This in most cases is lower than the market price, and the rate will be dependant on your residential status which you will declare in the act and also how many homes you own in Italy. You will also be bound to sign a declaration in this act stating any monies you have paid the agent as fees to do with the purchase. This act will be registered after it has all been signed so it has to be accurate and reflect the truth. Oh yes you will need to have cleared funds available at this stage to complete on the purchase, to pay the notary and to pay the tax.

After that the house is yours and you can take a deep sigh of relief. Actually this is basically how it should go and often does , but there are also more complicated sales and purchases, if you happen to get involved in one of these its not the end of the world. It does happen here, quite often in fact, a seller might have said he’s the sole owner but when investigations start a long lost relative might be found to have an interest in one of the roof tiles say. No we cannot remove the roof tile it has to be sorted. It happens, old rights of way might be found. These problems come along they have to be solved and can be. The point is that buyers need to know what is going on and that people are working to make things happen and a successful conclusion is arrived at. That’s the work of your agent and what we do. Hopefully better than most we think and at the end you too.

Just by visiting this site and reading through this you have made a good start,you have chosen to look at property for sale in Abruzzo,through a registered italian estate agency.You will find the details of how the agencey is registered on the home page.An important rule here to establishing that this is the fact is that all sites in Italy have to show their P.IVA number.Its important when starting to look for property for sale here in Italy that you are cautious.Establish the credentials of who you plan to look at your future home with.


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