Italy does not have one purchase tax. It has two, and which one a buyer pays comes down to a single question: is the home a first home, a prima casa, or a second home. For most buyers from abroad the answer is the second, and the gap between the two regimes is the largest single cost in the whole transaction.
Those rates come from the Agenzia delle Entrate, and on a resale they are charged on the property’s cadastral value rather than on the price. Add the notary, the estate agent and, when there’s a mortgage, a substitute tax on the loan, and the all-in bill for a foreign buyer usually lands between 4% and 15% of the purchase price. Here’s how the arithmetic works in 2026.
How Italy Taxes a Home Purchase: 2% Against 9%
Italy’s transfer tax on a home purchase is the imposta di registro, the registration tax. When the seller is a private owner, or a company selling a building that is exempt from VAT, a first home pays 2% and a second home pays 9%. Both carry a floor of 1,000 euros. On top of the registration tax, each sale carries a fixed imposta ipotecaria of 50 euros and a fixed imposta catastale of 50 euros, and those two are the same whichever regime applies.
When the seller is a developer and the sale carries VAT, the picture changes again. A first home pays 4% VAT; a second home pays 10%, or 22% if the building sits in the luxury cadastral classes A/1, A/8 or A/9, which covers stately homes, villas and historic palaces. On a VAT sale the registration, mortgage and cadastral taxes each drop to a flat 200 euros. Property tax on a purchase in Italy is really three charges stacked together, and the seller decides which set applies.
The Prezzo-Valore Rule That Cuts the Tax Base
On a resale, the tax is not normally charged on the price. Italy uses the prezzo-valore rule, which sets the base at the cadastral value: take the cadastral income, revalue it by 5%, then multiply by 110 for a first home or 120 for a second home. The Agenzia delle Entrate’s own guide to buying a house sets out the formula and the conditions in full.
That formula is why a buyer can face a 9% rate and still see a bill far below 9% of the price, because a cadastral value is usually a good deal lower than the market price. The rule applies only to sales charged to registration tax, only to residential property, and only when the buyer is an individual who asks for it in the deed. In return, the tax office accepts limits on how far it can revalue the deal later, and the notary has to reduce the fee by 30%.
Notary Fees, Commission and the Mortgage Tax
A notary is compulsory here: in Italy only a notary can complete the deed and register it. Since 2012 the fee is no longer fixed by a national tariff, so it varies from one office to another, though the prezzo-valore rule still obliges a 30% reduction and a typical residential purchase lands in the low thousands of euros. It also collects the registration, mortgage and cadastral taxes and pays them to the tax office on the buyer’s behalf.
An estate agent’s commission is negotiated rather than set, usually 2% to 4% of the price plus VAT, and it’s common for both sides to pay it. If the buyer takes a mortgage, an imposta sostitutiva replaces the ordinary loan taxes: 0.25% of the amount borrowed for a first home and 2% for a second home, under article 17 of the 1973 mortgage-tax decree. On a 200,000 euro loan that is a 500 euro charge or a 4,000 euro one.
What a Second Home Costs in Italy in 2026
Take a resale at 300,000 euros, bought as a second home from a private owner, with a cadastral value of 120,000 euros. Purchase taxes are small next to the professional fees:
- Imposta di registro at 9% of the cadastral value: 10,800 euros
- Imposta ipotecaria, fixed: 50 euros
- Imposta catastale, fixed: 50 euros
- Notary, with the prezzo-valore reduction: roughly 2,000 to 3,000 euros
- Estate agent, at 3% plus VAT: about 11,000 euros
Buy the same flat as a first home and the registration tax falls to 2%, which is 2,400 euros on the same base, and the notary is a little cheaper too. Below, the table sets the two regimes against each other on the charges that matter:
| Charge | First home | Second home |
|---|---|---|
| Registration tax, resale | 2%, minimum 1,000 euros | 9%, minimum 1,000 euros |
| Mortgage tax, fixed | 50 euros | 50 euros |
| Cadastral tax, fixed | 50 euros | 50 euros |
| VAT on a new build | 4% | 10%, or 22% for A/1, A/8, A/9 |
| Flat taxes on a VAT sale | 200 euros each | 200 euros each |
| Mortgage substitute tax | 0.25% of the loan | 2% of the loan |
Run the numbers and a foreign buyer who cannot claim the first-home relief pays about 24,000 euros to complete a 300,000 euro purchase, with the agency bill included. As a first home the same deal costs about 16,000 euros. That gap is the relief, not the negotiation.
What Agents Should Tell a Foreign Buyer Now
First-home relief is not open to everyone, and this is where foreign buyers most often lose money without noticing. Five checks are worth running before an offer goes in:
- Residency: the relief requires the buyer to live in the municipality of the home, or to move there within 18 months, and to declare that in the deed
- Ownership: a buyer who already owns a home bought with the relief anywhere in Italy is excluded, unless the old home is sold within a year
- Cadastral class: homes in classes A/1, A/8 and A/9 never qualify, so a villa or a historic palace pays the full 9%
- The seller: buying from a developer means VAT instead of registration tax, and the totals differ
- The extras: the notary, the agent and the mortgage substitute tax sit outside the headline rate
One more thing is worth saying out loud. Property prices and property taxes are two separate conversations. A cheaper home can carry a higher cadastral value than a dearer one, and because the prezzo-valore base follows the cadastral value, the cheaper home can end up with the larger tax bill. Idealista’s guide to Italian buying costs makes the same point for buyers working through the fees line by line.
Why the Italian Bill Is Higher Than It Looks
What an agent quotes, 2% or 9%, is only the registration tax, and on a resale it is often charged on a value well below the price. That pulls the bill down. What pushes it back up is everything the headline leaves out: the notary, the agent, the two fixed taxes, and, on a mortgage, a substitute tax that runs from 0.25% to 2% of the loan.
For a foreign buyer who can’t claim the first-home relief, a realistic all-in cost is closer to 12% to 15% of the price than to 9%. Knowing which of the two regimes applies, before the offer is written, is what keeps the estimate honest.
Questions Agents Ask About Buying in Italy
These are the questions that come up most often once a client has seen the tax figures.
Is the 2% registration tax available to foreign buyers?
Yes, but not by nationality. The prima casa relief turns on where the buyer will live, not on a passport. A foreign buyer who moves to the municipality of the home, or works there, and does not already own a home bought with the relief in Italy, can claim it exactly as an Italian resident can.
How much is the notary on an Italian purchase?
There has been no national tariff since 2012, so it varies with the notary and the deed. On a typical residential purchase it runs to a few thousand euros, and the prezzo-valore rule obliges the notary to apply a 30% reduction. The notary also collects the purchase taxes and pays them over.
Is the tax paid on the price or the cadastral value?
On a resale, usually the cadastral value, under the prezzo-valore rule, and that is normally lower than the price. On a new build sold with VAT, the base is the price itself. That is why two homes at the same asking price can carry very different tax bills.
Do non-residents pay extra when they buy in Italy?
Not on the purchase. Italy does not add a surcharge for foreign buyers the way some other countries do. The difference shows up in the annual property tax, the IMU, which a non-resident owner pays at the rate for a second home rather than the reduced rate for a main residence.
What happens if a buyer claims the relief and does not move in?
The tax office can claw the benefit back. If the buyer does not take up residence within 18 months, or sells within five years without buying another home within one, the difference between the reduced and the ordinary tax becomes payable, with interest and a penalty. A buyer who sees the deadline coming can ask the office to correct the position before it passes.
