Owning property in Italy and especially in Tuscany is many a person’s dream: the chance to live the good life or as Italians would say, La Dolce Vita, but if you are not a cash buyer and require a mortgage, here is some useful information about acquiring one.
Italian banks are favourable to making mortgage loans to foreigners whether they are resident in Italy or not.
The procedure however is long:
- Timelines can be anything from 2 to 3 months, occasionally even longer.
- Before acquiring the mortgage you will first need to decide on the property you wish to buy i.e. you are acquiring a mortgage on a pre-determined property.
- The bank will do both a valuation and a survey on this property in order to ascertain its viability.
- The survey will not only assess the property’s structural condition, but also determine whether or not it is fully compliant to national and local planning laws.
Mortgages to foreigners rarely exceed 50% to 60% of a property’s market value.
Generally, banks give mortgages for 20 years or less, but 30 years is a possibility, depending on your age; the requisite being that one’s loan is paid back in full before one reaches the age of 75 years.
If you are applying for a dual loan, at least one of the two parties, must be within this age limit.
In order to apply for a mortgage you will need to supply the bank with the following paperwork:
- a codice fiscale (Italian tax code) and/or social security number (US), or equivalent
- tax returns for the last two years (which will need to be translated into Italian and legally authenticated in Italy)
- Proof of personal financial liquidity (bank statements) as well as details of all personal assets.
- All pertinent documentation on the house (act of provenance, floor plans, visure, signed preliminary contract and/or binding offer of purchase.) These documents can be provided by your estate agent.
If you are living overseas while the mortgage is being processed, it is possible – with some banks - to give a power of attorney to a third party in order for all necessary paperwork to be signed at each step of the process.
The interest rates on a 20 (or 30) year loan would depend on your age, your income and the value of the property estimated by the bank.
Interest rates can vary from 1.2% to 2%.
All of this information has been carefully sourced, but please double check its accuracy before taking any action.
