With the property market on hold and in-person house viewings suspended, many agents are offering online viewings instead – but would you buy or rent a home you’ve never seen in person?

Read here the true experiences of three American couples who have dared to buy in Italy during lockdown and travel ban.

Yes, We Purchased Two Houses Through
a Video Call

2020 has been a challenging time for the world due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. In early 2020, many states in the U.S. were shutdown with a stay-at-home order in effect. During that time, we decided to look at homes in Europe via the Internet. Italy was at the top of our list because we had recently visited and because we love the history, culture and traditions of the Italian people. Pat and I are both of European descent, Me from Italy and Pat from Spain.

The main reason we were looking to invest in Italy is we began to see a declining stock market in the U.S. and wanted to invest our money in Real Estate. This enabled us to seek a great opportunity for a return on our investment along with an amazing country to visit. Purchasing during the pandemic, we were able to find many properties with reduced prices, creating great value for us. We also were driven by the accessibility to the rest of Europe by Italy’s central location.

In the beginning, we conducted hours, days and weeks of research on the process of purchasing property in Italy. We discovered many laws, rules and regulations which needed to be followed. The process is very different from the U.S. At first, we were hesitant but the more we learned about the process the more comfortable we felt.

Back in March, when Italy started its first very strict lockdown, I thought that 2020 was going to be a very quiet year with no clients and no sales; As I am a positive person by nature, I started to focus on other aspects of my job: finding new beautiful houses to put on the market, writing nice blogs for our readers, catching up with the always neglected boring admin jobs.

At the same time, I wanted to give people abroad the possibility to carry-on dreaming about their house in Italy and start planning for the future, also as a “therapy of happiness” during the various lockdowns around the world and continuous bad news from the media.

I thought we could give our clients the possibility to visit their favorite houses remotely from their homes, through a Video Call during which they could walk around the house, ask to stop and see a particular detail, ask to look at the view from a window or just have a little walk in the neighborhood to breath in the atmosphere of the town.

Today’s technology makes it possible and easy, so why not?

I did not expect to sell houses this way. I simply considered it as a little service for those people who were planning to eventually visit in person and also as a good way to start narrowing down their list of favorite properties.

What kind of visa can you get as a US citizen looking to move to Italy, and how much money will you need?

Over the past few years, as more American citizens have purchased houses in Italy, the demand for more information on how to buy property here has increased. Many American clients write to us asking whether special documents are necessary to go through with the purchase of property in Italy and if they have to pay higher taxes compared to EU citizens.

In response we decided to write this article to answer to the most frequently asked questions American citizens may have.

FAQ about buying property in Italy as an American

Table of contents

1. I am an american citizen: Can I purchase a house in italy?
2. What are mutual agreements?
3. Do americans pay higher taxes to purchase a house in Italy?
4. I am an american citizen who would like to purchase a holiday home in Italy: Which documents do I need to have?
5. I am an american citizen who wishes to become a resident in Italy: Which documents are required?
6. How long does the elective visa last?
7. How to register as a local resident?

I am an american citizen: Can I purchase a house in italy?

The answer is yes! American citizens can buy houses in Italy without needing to have any special documents and do not have to pay higher taxes compared to EU citizens. This is because Italy has mutual agreements which enable the buying and selling of real estates in Italy by foreign citizens.

What are mutual agreements?

Basically, the current regulations allow the purchasing of property by foreigners as follows:

 According to Wikipedia, Abruzzo is considered the greenest region in Europe as almost half of its territory, the largest in Europe, is set aside as national parks and protected nature reserves. There are three national parks, one regional park, and 38 protected nature reserves.

The three national park are: The Gran Sasso and Laga Mountains National Park located mostly in northern part of Abruzzo region, bordering with Lazio and Le Marche region; The National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise in the North – West area of Abruzzo, bordering with Molise and Lazio; and the Majella National Park in the southern part of Abruzzo.

The Gran Sasso and Laga Mountains National Park includes the territory of three regions (Abruzzo, Marche and Lazio), five provinces (L’Aquila, Teramo, Pescara, Rieti and Ascoli Piceno) and forty-four communes; it cover a surface of 150,000 hectares.

The park has been established in 1995, the area holds the highest pick of the Apennine, the Gran Sasso d’Italia, 2912 m, the beautiful Campo Imperatore plateau, the largest in Italy, Lake Campotosto, the largest artificial basin of the continent and the Calderone glacier, the unique in the Apennines and the most southern in Europe. The park contains one of the most biologically diverse areas of Europe. Visiting the Gran Sasso and Laga Mountains National Park means experiencing biodiversity, culture and excellent wine-and-food tradition.

The extent and array of altitude and lithology are reflected in the diversity of landscapes in the Park. At high altitude, where the peaks reach three thousand meters, we find the kingdom of wilderness, with endemic fauna and flora and also glacial relicts.