Documents for buying a house in Italy: the full list

Buying a house in Italy takes about fifteen documents, and the seller provides most of them: the land registry record and floor plan, the deed by which they acquired the property, the energy performance certificate (APE), the building permits, the certificate of fitness for use, the certificates for the electrical, gas and heating systems and, in a block of flats, a statement from the building manager. You bring your identity papers, an Italian tax code and, for a mortgage, your income documents. Everything leads to the rogito, the final deed signed before a notaio (notary), the public official who checks the property and the parties and registers the sale.

All the documents in one table

Get a codice fiscale first

The codice fiscale is the Italian tax code, and you need one before you can sign a preliminary contract, open a mortgage application or appear in the deed. If you live abroad you apply to the Italian consulate in your country; you can also send form AA4/8 to a Revenue Agency office, and non-EU citizens can apply in person at any Revenue Agency office by appointment. A valid passport is accepted as identity. Once the code is assigned you get a certificate you can use until the card arrives (Revenue Agency, tax code).

Before the offer

An offer to buy (proposta d'acquisto) binds you once the seller accepts it, so first get the documents that tell you what you are buying and from whom.

You can download the visura catastale yourself, free, with an Italian digital identity (SPID, CIE or CNS), even for a property you do not own (step by step). You need the municipality, sheet and parcel numbers and the subalterno, the number of the individual flat, which the seller knows. The floor plan is different: only people with rights in the property, or someone they delegate, can request it from the Revenue Agency. It is free if it has been digitised and 30 euros plus stamp duty if it must be copied from paper archives. Ask the seller for it and compare it with the house when you view.

The APE must be made available from the start of negotiations, handed over at the end and attached to the deed; if the clause or the attachment is missing, the parties pay a fine of 3,000 to 18,000 euros (D.Lgs. 192/2005, article 6). Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna let you check it in a public regional register (energy rating of a house).

The title deed (atto di provenienza) is the sale, gift or inheritance by which the seller became the owner. They can give you a copy at once, and the notary will ask for it in any case. If the house came from a gift, law 182/2025 changed the rules: see the due diligence checklist.

How the visura, a survey, the APE and the other technical papers differ is set out in Visura, survey, APE, CDU and area report.

Before the preliminary contract

The compromesso, or contratto preliminare, is the preliminary contract that fixes the price, the deposit and the date of the deed. These papers take longer, as they come from the Comune (the local council), the building manager and the property registers.

Your surveyor (geometra, architect or engineer) asks the Comune for the building files under the right of access to public records (law 241/1990, articles 22-25) and reconstructs the stato legittimo, the lawful state of the property: the permit for the original building or for the last work on the whole property, plus later permits for partial works (DPR 380/2001, article 9-bis). The seller's written authorisation is usually needed. Each Comune sets its fees: in Milan 50 to 100 euros plus VAT, in Rimini 30 euros, in Forlì online viewing is free and copies are charged.

The deed is the reason to do it now. For buildings begun after 17 March 1985 the deed is void unless it states the details of the building permit or of the amnesty permit (DPR 380/2001, article 46). The land registry check is a separate one: since 1 July 2010 the deed must contain a declaration that the registry data and floor plan match the property as it is, or it is void (law 52/1985, article 29, paragraph 1-bis, added by decree-law 78/2010 as converted by law 122/2010).

For new or substantially rebuilt properties, fitness for use (agibilità) is now a certified notice filed within 15 days of the end of the works (DPR 380/2001, article 24); older homes have a certificate of fitness or habitability issued by the Comune. The notary and the bank ask for it, or at least for proof that it was applied for.

For electrics, gas and heating the document is the installer's declaration of conformity. For systems installed before 27 March 2008, if it cannot be found, a declaration of compliance signed by a qualified professional can replace it (DM 37/2008, article 7). Since 2008 these no longer have to be attached to the deed, which is exactly why you should ask for them early and write into the preliminary contract what happens if they are missing.

In a block of flats, ask the seller for the building rules and for the building manager's statement on payments and on lawsuits in progress, which the manager must issue to an owner who asks (civil code, article 1130, no. 9), plus the minutes approving any major works. The buyer is liable, together with the seller, for the charges of the current year and the previous one (article 63 of the implementing provisions of the civil code). The full request is in Questions for the building manager.

A search of the property registers (ispezione ipotecaria) shows the owner and any mortgages, seizures or registered court claims. For someone else's property it costs 8 euros per name or property and 5 euros per entry, 20% less online. The notary repeats it just before the deed; doing one before the preliminary contract stops you paying a deposit on a house that has been seized. In the provinces of Trento and Bolzano and the other land book municipalities, the same check is made in the libro fondiario (land book).

The preliminary contract and the deposit

The preliminary contract must be in writing and registered with the Revenue Agency within 30 days of signing: 200 euros of registration tax, stamp duty (16 euros every four pages) and 0.5% of the deposit and any advance payments, which is later deducted from the taxes on the deed. If an estate agent is involved, they are also responsible for registering it, and the same applies to an accepted offer that already contains everything a preliminary contract needs.

With a caparra confirmatoria, the usual deposit, if the buyer pulls out the seller keeps it; if the seller pulls out, they must pay back double (civil code, article 1385).

If a notary draws it up, the preliminary contract can also be recorded in the property registers. That costs an extra 200 euros of mortgage tax and 35 euros of registry fees, and protects you against later mortgages, seizures and sales to third parties. The protection lasts until one year after the date set for the deed and never more than three years (civil code, article 2645-bis).

For the mortgage

Banks ask for three sets of documents, according to the Bank of Italy guide updated in February 2026: personal details, including marital status and any property agreement between spouses; proof of income, which for an employee means an employer's letter on length of service, the latest payslip and the annual tax certificate or return, and for the self-employed the latest tax returns and business registration; and papers on the house, namely the preliminary contract, the floor plan, the habitability certificate and the title deed. Each lender sets its own list, so if your income is earned abroad ask the bank early which documents it accepts.

The bank then sends its own valuer. The valuation can come in below the price, and the loan does not normally exceed 80% of it. Before signing you receive the European standardised information sheet (PIES) and have at least seven days to consider the offer.

For the deed

The National Council of Notaries publishes the list of documents to bring. Both parties need an identity document, the tax code, an extract of the marriage certificate or a certificate of single status or civil union, and any agreement on matrimonial property; non-EU citizens also bring a residence permit or entry visa. The buyer adds copies of payments already made, the preliminary contract, the estate agent's details and fee, and the bank's contact. The seller brings the title deed, floor plan, building manager's documents, building permits, fitness for use certificate, APE and, if a mortgage is being paid off, the papers to cancel it.

In the deed both parties declare how the price was paid and whether an estate agent was involved, with their details and fee: a missing or false statement carries a fine of 500 to 10,000 euros. Notarial deeds are written in Italian. If you do not understand the language, tell the notary early: the law provides for a translation alongside the Italian text, or for an interpreter you choose (notarial law 89/1913, articles 54 and 55).

First-home relief (prima casa) is tied to residence. The house must not be in cadastral category A/1, A/8 or A/9, and in the deed you declare that you live in the municipality or will move your residence there within 18 months, that you own no other home in the same municipality bought without the relief, and, if you already own a home bought with it, that you will sell it within two years (law 207/2024, article 1, paragraph 116). From a private seller you then pay 2% registration tax, at least 1,000 euros, plus 50 euros each of mortgage and cadastral tax. If you will not live there, the registration tax from a private seller is 9% (Revenue Agency guide, October 2025).

After the deed

The notary registers the deed, records it in the property registers and updates the land registry in a single online filing. Recording must happen within 30 days, after which the notary is liable for the delay (civil code, article 2671). A visura a few weeks later confirms the house is in your name.

The rest is up to you. Send the building manager a certified copy of the deed, because until then the seller remains jointly liable for the charges, and give the manager your details for the owners' register within 60 days (civil code, article 1130, no. 6). If you took the first-home relief, keep the 18-month residence deadline in mind. Keep the whole file too: you will need the same papers when you sell.

Buying privately, without an agent

The documents are the same, but without an estate agent nobody chases them for you. The seller downloads the floor plan and asks the building manager for the statement, your surveyor uses the seller's authorisation to request the building files, and you prepare your own papers. If you write the preliminary contract yourselves, you register it yourselves within 30 days. Many buyers bring in the notary from the compromesso, so that the notary drafts, registers and, if needed, records it. In the deed you will declare that no agent was involved.

The questions to put to the seller are in Questions to ask the seller, and what you can check about a house in Italy before you even travel is on Buying a house in Italy: what you can check from the address.

What the report adds

The papers on this list describe the property in legal terms. The report tells you everything else, starting from the address: 32 topics from 50 official sources, each with its source and the date of the data. Flooding and landslides on the plot from the national ISPRA maps, the seismic zone and how hard the ground can shake, the price range per square metre for the area, the local plan and the energy rating of buildings where the regions publish them, air, noise, summer heat, services and transport within walking distance, broadband. The sheet and parcel numbers and the liveability index of the area come free straight after the search (how to find the sheet and parcel).

At the end is a buying guide with the questions for the seller, building manager, surveyor, notary and Comune, and the documents on this page, with where to ask and what they cost: you reach the surveyor and the notary already knowing what to ask. A real example, page by page, is the full sample report; how to read it is in How the report works. All the checks in the right order are in the guide What to check before buying a house in Italy.

Sources

Laws read on Normattiva on 22 October 2026; conditions and fees of public bodies checked on their official pages on 14 September 2026 (land registry, property registers, municipalities) and 22 October 2026 (taxes, mortgages, notaries, tax code):

• D.Lgs. 192/2005, article 6 (APE).
• Law 52/1985, article 29, paragraph 1-bis, added by decree-law 78/2010 as converted by law 122/2010 (land registry compliance).
• DPR 380/2001, article 9-bis (lawful state), article 24 (fitness for use) and article 46 (permit details in deeds).
• Law 241/1990, articles 22-25 (access to records); fees of the municipalities of Milan, Rimini and Forlì.
• DM 37/2008, article 7 (declarations of conformity and compliance for systems); article 13 repealed by decree-law 112/2008.
• Civil code, articles 1130, 1385, 2645-bis and 2671; implementing provisions, article 63.
• Notarial law 89/1913, articles 54 and 55 (language of the deed, interpreter).
• Revenue Agency, tax code, floor plan, property register search, land registry update, first-home conditions and the guide L'acquisto della casa: le imposte e le agevolazioni fiscali (October 2025).
• Law 207/2024, article 1, paragraph 116 (two years to sell a first home already owned).
• Bank of Italy, Comprare una casa: il mutuo ipotecario in parole semplici (February 2026).
• National Council of Notaries, real estate law checklist.