Skip to content
Vicinalia
Italiano Sign up

Massello: what to know before buying a home

A municipality in the province of Torino, Piemonte. Official data on earthquakes, population, services and transport.

Liveability index free for any address

Search for an address in Massello

The report looks at the exact point: landslide and flood risk, seismic zone, price per square metre for the area, services and nearby stops.

For example: Borgata Balziglia 1, Massello.

Massello, the Balsiglia and Waldensian history in the Val Germanasca

Massello is tied to an important chapter in the history of the Waldensians, the Protestant community of these valleys. At the hamlet of Balsiglia, at the end of the seventeenth century, a group of Waldensians who had returned to their valleys held out for a long time against a siege by French and Savoy troops. Today Balsiglia has a small museum, and the municipality remains one of the villages of the upper Val Germanasca, with hamlets spread out above a thousand metres.

The houses are stone, often built on slopes and linked by mule tracks and narrow roads. People looking here usually want a summer house or a mountain retirement, and find silence, woods and waterfalls. Before buying, allow for the snow, the drive down to services in the valley and climate zone F, the coldest band in Italy's heating classification, which makes heating a significant cost.

There were 57 residents in 2023 according to Istat, the national statistics office, down 1.7% since 2011. The estimated average age is 56.9, against 47.4 in the province of Turin, and over-65s make up 36.8%. Declared incomes are slightly below the provincial average.

Massello is in seismic zone 3, like 271 of the 312 municipalities in the province, with expected ground acceleration of about 0.134 g. For stone houses, it is sensible to have the walls, floors and roof checked before signing.

The Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) publishes cadastral maps for the municipality, so the report links the address to its land parcel. In a narrow Alpine valley, avalanches, landslides and stream floods are checked for the individual house on the official maps.

Key points

  • Hamlets in the upper Val Germanasca, above 1000 metres.
  • A small museum of Waldensian history at Balsiglia.
  • 57 residents in 2023, down 1.7% since 2011.
  • Seismic zone 3, expected acceleration about 0.134 g.

Overview

Massello is a municipality in the province of Torino, in Piemonte. At the end of 2023 it had 57 residents, among the smallest in the province (309 of 312).

Earthquakes

For Italy's Civil Protection Department, Massello is in seismic zone 3, a zone where strong earthquakes are possible but rare. The region uses a finer breakdown: here the classification is 3S. Most municipalities in the province (271 of 312) are in the same zone.

In the built-up area, the expected ground shaking (peak ground acceleration, PGA) is about 0.134 g, a moderate value: the level with a 10% probability of being exceeded in 50 years, on rock.

Even in zone 3, seismic standards apply to new buildings: for an older building, ask about the design year and any structural work.

Population

Compared with the 2011 census, the resident population has fallen by 1.7%. The estimated average age is 57 years, higher than the province average (47). 37% of residents are over 65 (the regional figure is 27%). Foreign residents make up 1.8% of the population. On average, a household has 1.4 members.

Income and climate

In tax year 2024, taxpayers in Massello declared an average taxable income of 24,383 euros, below the provincial average (27,231 euros). The Italian average is 24,895 euros.

Massello is in climate zone F, with 3,832 heating degree days, with no limits on when heating may be used. The same table puts the town hall at 1,188 metres above sea level.

Public transport

We do not yet have open public transport timetables for this municipality: the report says so explicitly, without inventing distances.

How built-up it is

Buildings, roads, car parks and other sealed surfaces cover 0.4% of the land in Massello, compared with 8.6% in the province and 6.7% in the region. In 2024 built-up land stayed almost the same.

Radon and contaminated sites

Massello is not among the radon priority areas designated by the Regione Piemonte in 2023. According to the ISPRA map, the estimated radon emission in the municipality is medium. Radon varies from building to building and can only be known by measuring it, especially on ground floors and in basements.

Official databases list no contaminated sites in Massello.

Landslides and flooding

Landslide and flood hazard changes from one street to the next even within Massello: the report checks the address against the ISPRA maps.

House prices

The Revenue Agency's price ranges per square metre (OMI) apply to zones, not to whole municipalities: the report gives the range for the address's zone.

Land registry

The cadastral maps for Massello are public: from the address the report finds the sheet and parcel number.

Liveability area by area

The Vicinalia liveability index runs from 0 to 100 and looks at the place, not the people who live there: services within walking distance, transport, green space, natural hazards, air, quiet, buildings and connection. Here it is worked out at the centre of each of the 17 inhabited census areas in Massello. Half of the residents live in areas scoring 65 or more.

Residents by band

  • fair 43.9%
  • good 56.1%

Vicinalia index by census area, licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Data: IdroGEO ISPRA (2026), Istat, INGV, EEA, AGCOM, Overture Maps and OpenStreetMap.

The colour is the value at the centre of the area. For an exact address, search for it above: the free check looks at that exact point. How the index is worked out

Data sources

ISTAT code 001145. The text on this page is generated automatically from the data.