Is your dream to live in Italy? Do you wonder how to buy a house and how much it all costs? Would you like the Italian property and land tax explained? I have learnt a lot since last year and I describe how much taxes, bills and materials actually costs. Raw and honest with a little exploring of Italy mixed in.
Tips on the buying and renovating process plus what to avoid. For those wanting to buy land, olive groves or even a vinyard, I explain a fine and tax on the land, what you should be aware of, and how to avoid fines and taxes when you buy your house and land in Italy.
In this video you will find
– How much are utility bills in Italy?
– What is the best region to buy a house in Italy?
– Which utility companies I use in Italy?
– Land tax and how to avoid a fine in Italy.
– Update on costs, geometras, and what I was told before I bought versus what I am learning after I bought.
– What is the lifestyle in Italy really like?
– How to narrow your property search.
– Is living in Italy as good as I thought it was going to be?
That sort of thing. 👍 😎
★ Laura can be contacted via her website https://www.italyunfolded.com
Plus – locations in this video – Corinaldo in Le Marche, Perugia in Umbria, and the North end of Lake Garda in Trentino.
This is extra content to my main renovation and lifestyle project and channel which is about me restoration of a small countryside farmhouse in the Le Marche region of Italy. Raw and unfiltered detailed tips on what to do if you are looking to move to Italy, like me.
🇮🇹 Contact me
Feel free to contact me or help support me and my channel.
★ https://buymeacoffee.com/threeacresofmarche ❤️ 🙏
https://www.threeacresofmarche.com for the newsletter and the odd blog.
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Dream life in Italy
01:09 Utility Bills, Suppliers and Costs
01:46 Internet & Mobile
03:11 Electricity
06:25 Water
07:29 Gas
09:23 Banks & Codice Fiscale
12:53 Renovation Costs
14:39 Don’t make this mistake
15:58 The Geometra
17:58 Property TAX
21:11 Land TAX / FINE explained
22:28 My land situation
24:18 Reason for the FINE
25:26 The solution
26:48 Why the FINE was such a problem
28:23 How you can avoid the fine
29:42 Regions & Seasons
32:14 Focus on your search
33:45 Reasons I chose
34:21 Landscape restrictions
36:09 Negotiate HARD
37:25 Tips, Advice and Contacts
39:04 Final Message
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I enjoy reading your comments and am finding that there is a lovely group of like minded people starting to enjoy this and get involved in this channel. It is always great to hear from where you are watching in the world. Thank you for the subscriptions and all the support. I tend to read the comments once or twice a week and will reply or ❤️ when I can. 🙏
Best wishes,
Richard.
All music used on my channel is from my paid subscription with Epedemic Sound.
I edit myself and use the Studio edition of Davinci Resolve.
46 Comments
What location are you filming from when the mountains spring up from the water behind you in a village with somewhat Swiss architecture?
Many people fall in love with Italy and it is easy. But to go for a holiday a couple of weeks and emigrate to live there are two different things. When you come as a tourist you probably live in the "polished" areas and not the real Italy where the italians live. Italy is very much a ruin and it can be romantic for a holiday but annoying when you live there. I am from sweden and have lived during wintertime in Calabria and Sicily. Good but their cold, damp and freezing houses are really not pleasant during december and january. Maintenance do not exist – you repair when it is broken. Water and electricity can be gone without notice. You have to learn itaian – few italians speek english. But it is a pleasant country with pleasant people. My conclusion is to retire in Swweden and have my holidays in Italy. Good combo.
My advice is to rent something long term before you buy your house….renting can be a very good option to buy….
This was brilliant; thank you very much!
Top video Rich, some really really great info 🙂
Great knowledge sharing. Seriously reconsidering why I live in such an expensive city. Thinking there has to be a better way! Also, love the Lakes. Garda is superb and the whole Dolomites region feels like my spiritual home.
The ducks flying over toward the end there….
Hello Richard this video was very interesting and informative. That 2 price system you mentioned is not exclusive to Italy. About 15 years ago my wife and myself were looking for a house in the Dominican Republic. There was a for sale sign (Se Vende) on a house and we wanted to take a look at it. She told me to wait in the car and they went in to look. The price was good and the house was in great shape. I made the mistake of stepping out of the car while the owner was still there. The price just about doubled and it never worked out. I learned my lesson. Keep making the great videos.
Richard this was a very good video full of useful information
All the places you filmed this video were so beautiul
Maybe one day i will get to see Italy and see all of its beauty
Take care and see you in next video ❤❤❤❤❤❤
how did you open a bank account as non EU citizen?
thanks a ton
Hi Richard, thanks again for another informative vid!However, I have a
question on your remark about the geometra taking the questions and then go to “someone else “ to ask and get answers “ can you clarify your meaning here?Are you talking about he would go to an architect? Go to an Electrician? Or Plumber? I guess I’m just trying to understand what you were saying went wrong exactly.
I thought that you needed the geometra as he would be acting like a “code enforcer” would do his job would be walking around and look at the house to be sure structurally sound, and no unregistered work so it’s permissions and up to code, and if he found a situations or had reasons that he could not make an informed decision, wouldn’t it be his job to say ..hey this doesn’t look right, I think we need to get a structural engineer here to check this out or in architect to be sure those changes you want will fit into the approved permissions for your project. Or these old cast iron pipes to the septic tank need a proper plumber inspection to take a deeper look into the ground to know if they’ve broken down internally and no longer functioning. For a few examples. In my mind thatwould be part of the process anyway?, no different than a code enforcer. Unless you have other examples, I m not sure what you felt went wrong?! Is there something else that you would recommend be done. Are you thinking for example maybe on the plumbing situation I should just get up three different plumbers in here to quote me when it how things look does anything need to be repaired? Is everything functioning correctly and what’s it gonna cost to get the right size septic in and just cut out the geometra altogether and just work off making an informed decision based off quotes? I can see that working too, but are you able to get more than one quote from different professionals so you can make that inform decision and asking questions on any that appear to be different from others so you will know who might be the best professional/price for the work? oh, it’s must be so hard!!!
Seems so complicated. Better rent a furnished house and avoid all the paperwork. Live like a tourist with no involvement whatsoever.
So “cash works well here” – I think that’s a core aspect of living there. Can you add an addendum explaining why?
Where are all the people? No one living there?
They are making a Fiat version of that car, it’s called the Topolino and looks just like an original 500
Torbole ❤
About the property tax, in my case was a bit different: if during the purchase you declare you´ll move the residency in the new house (benefit "prima casa"), you´ll pay a reduced tax and you will have 18 months time to do it. Until that day you still need to pay the possession tax (IMU).
If you dont do it within 18 months, you gotta pay the difference plus a fine (in my case was 10k difference). The 5 years rule is about the "prima casa" benefit: you are not allowed to sell the house within the first 5 years, unless you sell and then buy another house and move the residency into that.
Anyway I gotta warn that the IMU (possession tax) it´s not a bill that you will get sent at home or per email, you need to go to any fiscal expert and actively request the form for payment twice a year (June and December).
If you forget to pay, no one reminds you, until they send you the bill with the fine.
Where is this, please. Minor detail.
I got it, Corinaldo. Thanks
Where is the lake? It’s incredible.
Got impatient. It’s lake Garda 🤣
Great video thanks for sharing! And love the different locations.
1 min in and where are you at that intro? That's just crazy. Thanks burch much for the great content.
Please do a video about the regions and your experiences with them. Would love to hear your opinion.
Richard just wanted to thank you for this extremely useful video.I will be contacting Laura , just the person you need to steer the way through the admin. Jungle. I have stopped using any online payment schemes cos too many scamers but i will try and find some way to support you when i am in ..Italy.
Thanks again for such an information packed video!!
My wife and I bought a small property in Le Marche ten years ago and from the purchase to repairing, after the earthquake, I can honestly say that we have never encountered a single problem. The local people have been wonderful, from helping us get our water restored ,after I'd forgot to pay the bill, dropping off fruit and vegetables when we arrive, and best of all never allowing us to have empty wine glasses when we're at the bar.
I'm counting down the days until we return in July.
Great video, I enjoy you are being yourself , I have had to turn off others ie Sicily couple they were just to much. Iam watching this as I type and you just said Garda , I knew it looked familiar , we were there last year beautiful area . Not sure if I mention to watch I bought a ruin absolutely incredible only 5 episodes the couple , primarily the wife is a architect but her video skills and dialogue incredible, when you have a moment check it out , ty again great job
You talk too much. the places are gorgeous. you talk too much about inconsequential things. show the average restaurant bills, the price of drinks, a boat ride, a taxi ride, etc. but you were too busy talking about the number of times you go to the bank per months.
Thanks!
National of snakes
Fantastic information as always, thanks for sharing.
Thanks!!
Do you pay council tax
Just use Revolut… And save all the Waffle …
Awesome to see! I just came back from an erasmus close to Lake Garda, and spent 6 days hiking around the entire thing, best adventure of my life!❤
All the money spent… I would just go to hotels every year and in different places , you will pay far less in the Long run than being an Owner. Once you buy you are a Target 🎯 for infanent Taxes and barreking from local Authorities WEF2030
I thought it was a nice summary Rich. Hope to be able to buy you that glass a wine or three when we meet in person. Hope our paths will cross soon. I know its not so easy when we are both busy doing things. Something on solar… I have solar and the house looks after itself for the most in the sunny months, unless I charge my car (not surprisingly). I sell out to the grid when I am not there, but also have a battery, which runs everything at night. Marche is wonderful! I´m so glad we chose Marche also. Cheers Roger.
Wonderful video. I wish the algorithm had brought you up on my feed earlier. I bought a house at the top end of Lake Como in 2022 and am doing it up steadily. It was amazing to me how many of the same decisions you made I have also made. From utilities and phones to staying non resident and not wanting to sell electricity to the grid. Good luck on your journey
Fortunately, my only drama so far has been finding no water meter when the guy came to turn it on. Solution was, I had to remove the old manhole, he came back and installed the meter, then I had to rebuild the manhole round the new meter. Exactly the same as the one I had removed. A bit of time I hadn't planned but nothing more.
Also, I am planning on getting rid of the bank account as Revolut works for everything.
I love this channel so much. Inspired me and gf to open a high yield savings account to start saving for our dream property in Italy in the next five years. Worst part about being caught up on all your videos is waiting for the next one to come out!
Great video, I appreciate all your information. I’d like hear more about your experiences in buying your property. I just returned home from a week in Abruzzo. We found a property online contacted the agency and booked a flight to see the place in person a week later. When we arrived at our meeting we were told that the property was sold. It was heartbreaking as we loved the property and the town. They took us to a few other properties but we didn’t find the right home for us.
Hi, Richard. Although we won't be buying in Italy (I wish!), I do enjoy your videos. Must say that was an enjoyable listening to all the information you outlined while being in lovely locations. As Californians, we have a similar Mediterranean climate and landscape, so Italy in many ways looks very similar, but more beautiful because the country recognizes its heritage. Hope you get that house finished so that you can enjoy both the outside and inside!
I still do not understand who paid the fine, and also how could the farmer prove that they had paid you? Also, it was the duty of the seller to disclose the "contract" when he sold you the house. You could have obtained a release from the farmer before purchasing the land. It seems you were badly advised by your attorney.
Thanks for this video.
❤