Agricultural or building land in Italy: how to check

"Building land" (terreno edificabile) in a listing is the seller's promise. The municipality's word is in a specific document, the planning use certificate (certificato di destinazione urbanistica), and before you get there you can run a few checks from home with the sheet and parcel numbers of the land. Below is the order that works best.

The land registry record is not enough

The first document you usually have is the visura catastale, the land registry record. It gives the area, the notional incomes and the type of cultivation: arable, vineyard, olive grove, woodland. The land registry uses this classification to work out incomes, and it says nothing about what can be built. A plot in the middle of a residential area can be recorded as "arable" for years, and a field listed as vineyard can lie in a zone where the plan provides for housing. What you need from the record is the municipality, the sheet and the parcel, for everything else.

The plan map and its rules

What can be built is decided by the municipal land use plan: the piano regolatore, which in Lombardy is called the PGT and in Veneto the operational plan (piano degli interventi). Municipalities must publish it on their website, and it has no effect until it is published (D.Lgs. 33/2013, article 39). The map shows the zone the land is in; the implementation rules (norme tecniche di attuazione) give, for that zone, the building index (how many cubic or square metres can be built per square metre of land), height, distances and permitted uses.

Three things deserve a careful read. The first is the letter or name of the zone: zone E, or "agricultural area", usually means building only for farming and with minimal indices, at most 0.03 cubic metres per square metre for homes under the 1968 decree (the zones explained). The second is whether a detailed plan is needed before building: in many expansion zones a single plot is not enough and a development scheme with the other owners is required. The third is infrastructure: a building permit is issued only if roads, sewers, water and power are there, if the municipality plans to provide them within the next three years, or if the builder undertakes to provide them (DPR 380/2001, article 12).

Watch the dates too. If the municipality has adopted a new plan that has not yet been approved, permit applications that conflict with the adopted plan are put on hold, for three years from adoption or five in some cases (again article 12). Land that is buildable under the current plan may already be blocked by the one on its way, and the other way round.

The municipal certificate

The planning use certificate states, for the parcels listed, the plan zone and its rules. Anyone can request it from the planning office, often online, with the sheet and parcel numbers. The municipality has 30 days to issue it and it is valid for one year, as long as the plan does not change; if the municipality does not reply in time, the seller can replace it with a declaration confirming that the request was made and stating the land's designation (DPR 380/2001, article 30).

When land is sold the certificate is attached to the deed, or the deed is void, except for the yards and gardens of buildings recorded in the land registry under 5,000 square metres. The notary will ask for it in any case. It is worth having it before the offer or the preliminary contract, because the price of building land and that of a field can be very far apart. Each municipality sets its own fees: in Milan 100 euros plus two 16-euro revenue stamps, in Rimini 60 euros for up to ten parcels plus stamps.

Restrictions on top of the plan

Even land in a building zone can carry restrictions that limit or prevent building. Landscape protection (D.Lgs. 42/2004), the hydrogeological restriction on hill and mountain land (regio decreto 3267/1923), buffer zones along roads and around cemeteries and wells, and the landslide and flood areas of the river basin authorities' plans. Then there are fires: on burnt woodland and pasture nothing can be built for ten years, the designated use cannot change for fifteen, and the deed of sale must mention the restriction (law 353/2000, article 10). The certificate lists many of them, but for landscape and fires the definitive answer comes from the Soprintendenza and from the municipal register of burnt areas. An overview of plan and restrictions is in What can be built on a plot in Italy.

If the land is agricultural

Agricultural land is bought under different rules. A tenant who is an owner-farmer (coltivatore diretto) and has farmed the land for at least two years has the agricultural right of first refusal (prelazione agraria): they can buy it on the same terms offered to you (law 590/1965, article 8). If the land is not let, the right passes to a neighbouring owner-farmer who owns the adjoining land (law 817/1971, article 7). The seller must notify the preliminary contract to whoever holds the right, who has 30 days to reply; without that notice, they can buy the land back from the purchaser within one year of the deed being registered. Ask early who farms the land and who the neighbours are, and discuss it with the notary before signing.

What the report says about land

Find the land by sheet and parcel or by coordinates: straight away, free of charge, you see the land summary, with area, slope, elevation and what is around it. The full report, choosing "A plot of land", adds risks and restrictions and the questions to ask before the deed:

• in Lombardy, Veneto, the Province of Bolzano and the Metropolitan City of Turin, what the municipal plan provides for the parcel, for example agricultural area, built-up area, transformation area or area for public facilities, with the share of the parcel in each (Municipal plans);
• across Italy, landslides and flooding from the ISPRA maps, landscape restrictions, parks and Natura 2000 sites, and burnt areas seen by satellite (Landscape, wildfires and noise);
• the questions for the municipality, starting with the planning use certificate, and the one for the notary on the right of first refusal.

The report does not say how much can be built: indices and heights are in the plan's rules, and the binding answer is in the certificate. The local prices per square metre in the report are for homes, not for land. Everything else is on Check land in Italy before you buy it and in the guide What to check before buying land in Italy.

Sources

• DPR 380/2001, article 12 (building permit and safeguard measures) and article 30 (planning use certificate).
• D.Lgs. 33/2013, article 39 (publication of plans).
• DM 2 aprile 1968, n. 1444, text published by the Chamber of Deputies, article 7 (density in agricultural zones).
• Law 590/1965, article 8, and law 817/1971, article 7 (agricultural right of first refusal).
• Law 353/2000, article 10 (burnt areas); D.Lgs. 42/2004 (landscape); regio decreto 3267/1923 (hydrogeological restriction).