How much is the cost of running an Italian property? / Gtres
How much is the cost of running an Italian property? / Gtres

So you know where you want to buy property in Italy and what the average house price is there, but what about the continuing cost of maintaining the place? When you buy a home in Italy, you’ll want to know what recurring expenses you’ll have to pay, not including the obvious ones like electricity, water and internet bills.

Property taxes

  • IMU Municipal Property Tax (Imposta Municipale): You only have to pay this Italian tax if your house is a second home, rather than your main residence. It is calculated at 7.6% of the cadastral land value of the property, although it can be slightly more or less depending on the specific region you live in. In reality, there are ways of reducing the amount of tax you pay, such as if you sign the property over to your children, parents or ex-spouse, in which case you would only pay half the tax; if you rent it out, you get a 25% discount on the tax. In order to pay, you have to fill out form Modulo F24 and either make a bank transfer or in an Italian post office. It is an annual tax split into two equal parts to be paid before 16th June and 16th December each year.
  • TASI Indivisible Services Tax (Tassa sui Servizi Indivisibili): This tax is a kind of council tax levied on public services such as street lighting and road maintenance, but you don’t have to pay if your house in Italy is your main residence. If you rent it out on a long-term basis, you have to pay 70-90% of it, while the rest is paid by the tenant, but if you let it for short periods as a holiday rental, you are responsible for the whole tax. It is worked out as between 1% and 3.3% of the property’s cadastral value, depending on the municipality it’s in. You can choose to pay in one block payment on 16th June, or in two payments on 16th June and 16th December.
  • TARI Waste Tax (Tassa sui Rifuiti): This is a tax on garbage collection which is paid by all homeowners without exception. It is made up of two parts, one fixed based on the useful surface area of the property, and one variable based on the number of persons resident there, though each Italian region may apply more factors to this calculation. The municipality has a lot of freedom when it comes to this tax, so it is difficult to say precisely how much is to be paid and when.

Other expenses

  • Home insurance: For a house in Italy as with anywhere else, it’s always advisable to have home and contents insurance. The rates charged by Italian insurance providers is usually about 180 to 380 euro per year, depending on the features of your house.
  • Home administrator: If all this seems too much for you alone, especially in Italian, you can always get a property manager to do the paperwork and organise your payments for you. For just 100 or 150 euro a year, you can sit back by the pool in the sun in your Mediterranean home and let someone do all the hard work related to the running costs!