Glossary of Italian property terms

The words and acronyms you find in land registry records, deeds and risk maps, explained in one sentence.

A B C F H I K L M N O P S V

ANNCSU , Archivio Nazionale dei Numeri Civici delle Strade Urbane (national register of street numbers and urban streets): Italy's official list of streets and street numbers, kept by Istat and the Revenue Agency and updated by each Comune.
APE , attestato di prestazione energetica, energy performance certificate: The document stating how much energy a home needs for heating, cooling and hot water, with its energy rating from A4 to G.
Average annual damage , Expected annual loss, also Average Annual Loss (AAL): What the damage from a natural event costs a building on average each year: the sum of every possible damage, each weighted by how likely it is.
Burnt area (area percorsa dal fuoco): Woodland or pasture burnt by a wildfire: under Italian law 353/2000 it must keep its previous use for 15 years, and no buildings may be put up on it for 10 years.
Census section , Sezione di censimento: The smallest area for which Istat publishes data on residents, households and homes. In cities it often corresponds to a single block.
Certificato di destinazione urbanistica (planning use certificate): The municipal document stating what the planning scheme provides for a piece of land: whether it is agricultural or building land, how much can be built and which restrictions apply.
Fine particles (PM10 and PM2.5) , particulate matter up to 10 and up to 2.5 micrometres across: Particles suspended in the air small enough to get into the lungs: PM10 up to 10 thousandths of a millimetre, PM2.5 up to 2.5.
Flood hazard (P1, P2, P3) , Pericolosità idraulica: How likely an area is to be flooded: P3 high, P2 medium, P1 low.
Foglio (cadastral map sheet) , Foglio catastale: One of the numbered sheets that a municipality's cadastral map is divided into. Together with the particella it identifies a land parcel.
Homogeneous zone (planning zones A, B, C, D, E, F) , Zona territoriale omogenea (ZTO), from decreto ministeriale 2 aprile 1968, n. 1444: The six categories, A to F, that Italian municipal plans use to divide their territory: historic centre, built-up town, expansion, industry, farming, public facilities.
IFFI , Inventario dei Fenomeni Franosi in Italia (inventory of landslides in Italy): The national record of landslides that have happened and been mapped, compiled by ISPRA with the Regions and autonomous Provinces.
kWp , kilowatt peak: The power of a solar panel system measured under standard conditions: how many kW the panels would give in strong sunshine at the right temperature.
Landscape restriction (vincolo paesaggistico) , Protected landscape assets under the Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio, D.Lgs. 42/2004: The protection that the Italian Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape places on an area: anyone who wants to change its appearance through works needs landscape authorisation first.
Limited traffic zone (ZTL) , Zona a traffico limitato: An area of a town where cars may enter only at certain times or with a permit, often checked by camera-controlled gates.
Mappale , Another name for the cadastral parcel (particella): Another name for the cadastral parcel: the number the plot carries on the land registry map, within its sheet (foglio).
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) , NO2: An irritant gas that comes mainly from engines, diesel in particular: it is the sign of traffic in the air of an area.
OMI , Osservatorio del Mercato Immobiliare (Property Market Observatory): The Revenue Agency office that publishes, twice a year, the minimum and maximum price per square metre of homes for every zone of each municipality.
PAI , Piano stralcio per l'Assetto Idrogeologico (hydrogeological plan): The plan in which the river basin district authority marks out the areas at risk of landslides and floods and sets out what can be built there.
Particella (cadastral parcel) , Particella catastale, also called mappale: The plot of land drawn on the cadastral map, with a number within its sheet (foglio). It is also called a mappale.
PGA , Peak Ground Acceleration: The maximum ground acceleration expected during an earthquake, expressed as a fraction of the acceleration due to gravity (g).
PGT , Piano di Governo del Territorio, the municipal land use plan in Lombardy: The land use plan of municipalities in Lombardy: it says what can be built and done in each part of the municipal territory.
Prelazione agraria (agricultural right of first refusal): The right of the tenant farming a piece of agricultural land, or of a neighbouring owner-farmer, to buy it on the same terms offered to the buyer.
Seismic microzonation , Microzonazione sismica (MS): The municipal study that divides the territory into small zones by how the ground responds to an earthquake: where shaking is amplified and where the ground may slide, liquefy or shift along a fault.
Seismic zone , Zona sismica: A municipality's earthquake hazard class, from 1 (the most hazardous) to 4 (the least hazardous), set by the Regions.
SIN , sito di interesse nazionale, site of national interest: A large polluted area whose clean-up is overseen by the Ministry of the Environment rather than the Region, such as Porto Marghera, Taranto or Bagnoli.
Subalterno (property unit number) , Subalterno catastale: The number that identifies a single unit inside a building: a flat, a garage, a cellar or a shop.
Subsidence , Subsidenza: The slow sinking of the ground surface, measured in millimetres a year, caused by the ground compacting or by the extraction of water, gas and oil from underground.
Visura catastale (land registry record): The Revenue Agency document showing the identifiers, category, cadastral income and registered owners of a property.

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