Mortgage

Obtaining a mortgage in Italy to buy your Italian property could be a good solution to think about: up to about 80% of the value of the property can usually be financed by the bank, which will then register a charge against the property as guarantee.

Once selected the bank who might offer the right loan based on your specific goals, you'll go through 3 different stages:

1. the mortgage pre-approval: the bank requires information about your income and inquires in order to know your creditworthiness; the mortgagor also pays for an expert’s report of the property for the bank’s purposes because the bank must know the market value of the property and if there could be difficulties for a future resale;
2. the mortgage approval: when everything is ok the board of the bank consents the mortgage. The draft of the agreement is checked by your notary in order to make it compliant to Italian law and the banker’s draft is then provided by the bank;
3. final signing: the mortgage contract is certified before the notary (often the mortgage and the sale contracts are formalized at the same meeting with the notary). Then the notary will register the mortgage.

As always: it is not strictly necessary to have a current bank account in Italy (escrow agent) and if you cannot return to Italy in time, for any reason, you could sign a power of attorney (maybe in front of the notary before you leave the country).

Sometimes banks provide services such as insurance contracts and the opening of a bank account: all these agreements should be examined very well otherwise your Italian dream could be very expensive.