Guide for buyers

Buying a home in South Tyrol

Residents' restriction, land register, second homes: buying here has its own rules. What to know before you sign.

  1. First: work out what you are allowed to buy

    In this province this step comes before the budget, and buyers from outside almost always skip it. Part of the housing stock is reserved by law for people who live or work here, and in some municipalities new dwellings cannot be second homes. Knowing this first means searching among the right properties; learning it afterwards means losing a deposit.

  2. Then: check the property, not just view it

    The land register extract says who owns the property and what encumbers it; the floor plan says whether what you saw matches what is recorded; the CasaClima certificate says what it will cost to heat. Three documents, read in an afternoon, and the difference between buying a property and buying a problem.

  3. Finally: sign knowing what you are signing

    Between the accepted offer and the keys there is a deposit, a preliminary contract and a deed, and each of the three protects or exposes the buyer depending on how it is written. Here there is one step more than in the rest of Italy: until the deed is entered in the land register, the property is not yet yours.

Guides for buying a home in South Tyrol

The residents' restriction, second homes, the land register, taxes, mortgages: the answers written out in full, with the official sources beside them.

Restricted housing in South Tyrol: who is allowed to buy

This comes before the budget: part of the housing on sale here cannot be lived in by just anyone. Here is how to work out whether it concerns you.

What buying a home costs beyond the price

The taxes on the deed are the buyer's, and they are not calculated on the agreed price but on a cadastral value, almost always lower. Here is the real sum, item by item.

Buying a second home in South Tyrol as a non-resident

The short answer is yes, but not to everything. The line does not run between buyers: it runs between properties, and it is written in the land register extract.

Buying in South Tyrol: the land register and the buyer

It is the most important difference between buying here and buying in the rest of Italy, and it concerns the exact day the home becomes yours.

Mortgage and timing: how long it actually takes

The pace of a purchase is not set by the buyer: it is set by the bank's underwriting. Knowing the order things happen in heads off almost every surprise.

Offer, deposit and preliminary contract: the buyer's protections

The signature that binds you hardest is the first one, the one that feels informal. Worth knowing what it says before you put it there.

The CasaClima class: what it tells a buyer

In South Tyrol the energy certificate is a provincial document and has to be attached to the contract. For a buyer it is also the most reliable estimate of what living there will cost.

Seven checks to make before you buy

None of these checks needs an expert and none costs much. Together they account for almost every purchase that ends badly.

Where we work

The rules apply across the province; the market does not.

Note

This guide is general information written by an estate agency. It does not replace advice from a notary, an accountant or the surveyor handling the property. The rules cited are those in force at the date of publication.

Looking for a home in South Tyrol?

Tell us what you are looking for — area, size, budget, whether the dwelling has to be free of the residents' restriction. We will flag what comes in, often before it reaches the portals.

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