How to find out the energy rating of a house in Italy

In Italy the energy rating of a home for sale has to come from the seller. The law requires it to appear in the listing, the certificate to be made available to the buyer when negotiations start and handed over at the end, and a copy to be attached to the deed (Legislative Decree 192/2005, article 6, paragraphs 2, 3 and 8). If the listing does not show it, ask before you even book a viewing.

Where to look first

The listing must give the energy class and the energy performance index, the figure for how much energy the home needs per square metre in a year. This applies to online portals too: it is a legal requirement, not a courtesy from the agent.

The document itself is the energy performance certificate, the APE (attestato di prestazione energetica). Its first two pages, written for non-specialists, show the class from A4 to G and the assessor's recommendations, meaning the most significant and cost-effective works to improve it. Further in, the certificate also gives the estimated yearly consumption under standard use. It is valid for ten years from issue and must be redone if a renovation changes the class, so check the date as well.

The certificate code lets you check that the APE has really been lodged with the Region. Some Regions let anyone do this, others do not: the table below says what you can do, region by region.

The energy register of each Region

Each Region keeps the register of certificates issued on its territory. Few of these registers let you look up a certificate without logging in; more often you only see statistics by class and municipality, and a copy of someone else's APE needs a formal request for access to records. Nationally, ENEA's SIAPE collects the certificates and publishes statistics only, down to the municipality.

We opened and checked every link on 26 September 2026. The sites are in Italian.

For a buyer the search by cadastral details is the most useful: in Emilia-Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lombardy and Piedmont all you need is the building's sheet and parcel, which you can find free by typing the address, as explained in How to find the cadastral sheet and parcel from an address.

What the report tells you

Type the address above: straight away and free, you see the liveability index of the area. For homes in Lombardy and Piedmont the full report also has an energy rating section, built on the certificates the two Regions publish with their address (CENED in Lombardy, SIPEE in Piedmont).

The section counts the certificates of the flats at the same address and gives their most common class, how many are rated F or G and the stated construction period. It then does the same for certificates within 300 metres, to compare with the area. The building is described only if it has at least three certificates: with one or two you could read the class of a particular home, and the report never gives the class of a single flat. The class of the flat you want to buy is the one on its own APE.

In other regions certificates are not published with the address, and the section does not appear. How we handle this data is explained on the source page: Energy rating of buildings.

From G to A: what it means for a buyer

The class scale starts from a reference building: the same home, with the same shape and in the same place, built with insulation and systems meeting the minimum requirements in force since 2021. That value is the boundary between classes A1 and B. A home is rated G when it needs more than 3.5 times the energy of that reference building, and A4 when it needs 40% of it or less (ministerial decree of 26 June 2015, national guidelines, in Italian).

The index measures non-renewable primary energy under standard use, not the bill. Two flats in the same class can spend quite different amounts depending on how many hours the heating runs, who lives there and energy prices. The bills from recent winters, if the seller will show them, help you understand the real cost.

What really changes is the work to be done afterwards. A home rated G or F usually has uninsulated walls, old windows or an inefficient heating system, and the APE's recommendations say where you would start. In a block of flats, though, external wall insulation, the roof or a shared boiler are not up to the person buying one flat: they are decided at the owners' meeting. Before you buy, ask the building manager (amministratore) whether any works have been approved or are under discussion: the questions are in Questions for the building manager before buying a flat.

The European directive on the energy performance of buildings, (EU) 2024/1275, asks each member state to reduce the average energy use of homes, with milestones for 2030 and 2035, and leaves the choice of tools to each state. The text is on EUR-Lex.

Frequently asked questions

Can I find a home's energy class from its address?

Only in part. Friuli Venezia Giulia lets you look up a certificate by address as well; Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Piedmont by cadastral details. Elsewhere you ask the seller. In Lombardy and Piedmont the report gives the prevailing class of the flats in the building, never that of a single flat.

The listing does not show the energy class: is that normal?

No. The class and the performance index must appear in sale and rental adverts, in any medium (article 6, paragraph 8, of Legislative Decree 192/2005). You can ask the agent or the owner for them before the viewing.

How long does an APE last?

Ten years at most from issue, and it must be updated when a renovation or a new heating system changes the class. A certificate from 2016 on a home refurbished in 2023 may no longer describe it.

Why is the flat's class different from the rest of the building?

Each flat has its own certificate. The floor, the orientation, replaced windows or a new independent boiler can give it a different class from the neighbours, even in the same building.