Buying a house in Italy: what you can check from the address

From an address anywhere in Italy you can find out whether the building stands in a flood or landslide area, which seismic zone the municipality is in, the price range per square metre for the area and which land registry parcel the house is on. These are public data from Italian bodies such as ISPRA, the Civil Protection Department and the Revenue Agency, and they can be checked from abroad before you book a viewing. What the address cannot tell you is anything about the individual flat: that needs Italian documents, which the seller, a surveyor and the notary provide.

What the address tells you

Type the address in the box above. Straight away and free of charge you see the liveability index of the area and the cadastral parcel; the full report goes through each topic below, with the source and date of every figure.

Natural hazards come first, because they are the one thing a renovation cannot fix. The report checks the exact point against the national flood map, which brings together the plans of the river basin authorities and splits flood-prone land into frequent, less frequent and rare scenarios (flood zone house). It does the same for landslide hazard and for landslides already recorded nearby (landslide risk). For earthquakes it gives the municipality's seismic zone, from 1, the most hazardous, to 4, plus the expected ground acceleration at the address (seismic zone).

Prices come from the Revenue Agency's property market observatory (OMI), which publishes a minimum and a maximum per square metre for each zone of each municipality twice a year, for buying and for renting. The report shows that range and how it has moved. It is a range for the whole zone, useful to see whether an asking price is in line, and says nothing about the value of a particular home: house prices in the area.

The land registry parcel is the plot the building stands on, identified by a sheet (foglio) and a parcel number (particella). It is how the notary, the surveyor and the council will refer to the property, and the report finds it from the address: sheet and parcel from an address.

In Lombardy and Piedmont the regional energy registers publish the certificates with the address, so the report shows the energy classes of the flats in the same building and nearby: energy rating of a house. In Lombardy, Veneto, the province of Bolzano and the metropolitan city of Turin it also says what the municipal plan allows on the parcel: what can be built.

What the address cannot tell you

Italian open data stops at the parcel and the building. The individual flat, with its floor, rooms, floor plan and cadastral income, has its own number in the land registry, the subalterno, and those details are not public in open form. Nor can an address tell you whether the flat matches its building permits, whether there are debts to the condominium or whether a mortgage is registered against it. For that you need the documents below.

The Italian documents you will hear about

The names stay in Italian because that is how you ask for them at an office or on a government website.

The energy certificate rule is in Legislative Decree 192/2005, article 6, which also requires property adverts to show the energy class. The land certificate rule is in Presidential Decree 380/2001, article 30.

What the notary does

In Italy the sale is completed before a notary (notaio), a public official with legal training who drafts the final deed (rogito), registers it and checks that the sale is lawful. Before signing, the notary identifies the owners recorded in the land registry and checks that they match the property registers (Law 52/1985, article 29), and the deed must include the owners' statement that the cadastral data and floor plan match the property as it is. For buildings begun after 17 March 1985 the deed must also state the details of the building permit, or it is void (Presidential Decree 380/2001, article 46).

The notary does not inspect the building. Whether the flat matches its permits is a job for a surveyor (geometra, architect or engineer) you appoint, and it is worth doing before the preliminary contract (contratto preliminare), when you usually pay a deposit. The full list of checks is in what to check before buying a house in Italy and, for professionals, in the due diligence checklist.

Where the data comes from

Each source has its own page with the licence, the update date and its limits: landslides and floods, earthquakes, local prices, cadastral maps, energy rating and municipal plans. A full report on a real building is in the sample report, and prices are on the Prices page.

Frequently asked questions

Can I check a property in Italy without going there?

Yes, for the area and the building. Natural hazards, the price range for the zone, the land registry parcel and, in some regions, the energy classes nearby all come from public data and only need the address. The state of the flat itself still needs a visit, by you or by a surveyor.

Does the report tell me what the house is worth?

No. It shows the official minimum and maximum per square metre for the zone, which helps you judge an asking price. A valuation of one specific home is a job for a valuer, and a bank lending on it will send its own.

Is a flood zone a reason not to buy?

Not necessarily. It changes the questions to ask: whether there are basement rooms, how high the ground floor is above the street, whether the building has flooded before. The national map is a first indication; the official reference is the river basin authority's plan.

Do I need an Italian digital identity to get the documents?

For the free online land registry search, yes (SPID, CIE or CNS). Without one, the seller, the estate agent or your surveyor can obtain it, and the notary carries out the register searches before the deed.