The area report to hand to sellers and buyers

Buyers now arrive at the first viewing having already looked up the address online. If the house sits in a flood zone, if the municipality is in seismic zone 2 or if the asking price is above the local range, they often know it already. The report lets the agency know first, from the day it takes on the listing, and answer with a document that names the body, the map and the date behind each piece of information.

Before signing the listing agreement

The valuation meeting with the owner is when a picture of the area is most useful. From the address the report finds the cadastral parcel (foglio and particella) and checks, at that exact point, the flood risk, the landslide risk, the seismic zone with the expected ground acceleration and, where the municipality has a microzonation study, how much the ground amplifies shaking. It adds landscape restrictions, land burnt by wildfires in recent years, contaminated sites nearby and radon.

For prices it shows the minimum and maximum per square metre for the area published by the Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate), for sale and for rent, with the trend over recent years and the number of sales in the municipality. It is the range for the whole area, and the report says so: the price of that property remains a decision for the agency and the owner. When a seller wants a figure outside that range, having the official data on the table makes the conversation easier.

In Lombardy, Veneto, the province of Bolzano and the metropolitan city of Turin the report also says what the municipal plan provides for the parcel: zone, designation, restrictions and areas earmarked for change. How it works is explained in What can be built.

A document for the property file

The PDF can be attached to the listing file or sent to anyone who asks. Every topic has its result (favourable, worth considering, critical or for information), an explanation in plain words and, at the end, the source with its licence and the date of the data. Whoever receives it can check everything independently, which is what makes it credible.

In an Italian property advert the energy class is compulsory and comes from the seller's certificate (Legislative Decree 192/2005, article 6). In Lombardy and Piedmont the report adds the classes of the certificates lodged with the Region for flats in the same building and in the area, a comparison that helps present a renovated home or explain a low class: energy rating of a house.

Buyers' questions about risk

"Does it flood here?" is the question that causes the most trouble, because the honest answer depends on maps few people can read. The report translates it: a house in a frequent flood area (P3) on the ISPRA national map is described as a place that floods on average once every 20 to 50 years, with a pointer to the river basin authority's plan for the official check. The same goes for landslides and for the seismic zone, which says how hazardous the area is, not how safe the building is. The public explanations are in flood zone house, landslide risk and seismic zone.

The version for buyers also includes a buying guide with the questions to ask the seller, the building manager, the surveyor, the notary and the agency. Some of them come straight to you: for example how the asking price compares with the local range and which floor area it is based on. Knowing them in advance lets you prepare the answers and the documents.

The report with the agency's branding

With the Studio plan the PDF carries the agency's logo, name and colour. The sources stay, because every figure has to show where it comes from. Up to 5 people work on the same plan and see the reports their colleagues have created, so the agent handling the sale finds the one made when the listing was taken.

Properties on your books

A listing can last months. With monitoring the site follows the properties you choose and sends at most one email a day, only when there is something new: a result in the report that changes because a source has been updated, the local price ranges that come out twice a year, an earthquake that may have caused damage (magnitude 4 or more within 20 kilometres, 5 or more within 50). Pro follows 30 properties, Studio 200.

Pro and Studio plans

Both include unlimited reports, annual billing, side-by-side comparison of up to 5 properties, export to Excel or CSV and an API for your management software. Studio adds users and branding. If you already handle the buying guide yourselves, you can create the report without that part. Prices are on the Prices page, and the tools shared with valuers and surveyors are described in Professionals and valuers and surveyors.

The report works on the cadastral parcel and the building. Floor, floor plan and cadastral income of the individual flat (subalterno) are not open data and stay in the land registry search (visura catastale).

An example to open

The full report on our registered office building is produced by the site exactly like the ones you would create, and can be downloaded as a PDF. A topic-by-topic summary for a building in Rimini is in the sample report. To try it with one of your properties, type the address: straight away and free of charge you see the area's liveability index and the cadastral parcel.