Selling your Trieste home to a foreign buyer: deed, proxy, money

Selling to a buyer from Vienna, Munich or Boston is the same sale under Italian law, with four extra checks: whether the buyer may buy, the language of the deed, how a signature from abroad arrives, and how the money moves. In Trieste a fifth matters more than anywhere else: if the price waits in the notary's escrow account until registration, the Libro fondiario's median of 15.7 months can stand between you and your money.

None of these stops a sale. Each one, left to the last week, can delay it.

In short

• Can they buy? A foreigner legally resident in Italy has the civil rights of an Italian. Others buy subject to reciprocity: have the notary confirm it before the offer.
• The language: a buyer who does not know Italian signs with a translation beside the deed, through the notary or a sworn interpreter, with a witness who knows the language.
• Signing from abroad: a power of attorney needs the same form as the deed, and usually an apostille.
• The money: never €5,000 or more in cash. Either party can ask the notary to hold the price in a ring-fenced account.
• The checks: notary and agent must identify the buyer and who stands behind them. If they cannot, they must step back.

Can a foreign buyer buy my house?

Usually, yes. A foreigner legally resident in Italy enjoys the civil rights of Italian citizens (Legislative Decree 286 of 1998, article 2). For everyone else, the general rule still dates from 1942: a foreigner enjoys the civil rights of a citizen on condition of reciprocity, subject to special laws (preliminary provisions of the civil code, article 16).

Have the notary confirm it before anything is signed. How the most common passports stand is in who can buy in Italy.

For a seller: ask the buyer's nationality and residence at the first serious visit, not at the offer. A buyer who cannot buy is worse than one who offers less.

What language is the deed in?

Italian, unless the parties declare they do not know it. Then the notary can draw up the deed in the foreign language, if the notary and the witnesses know it, with an Italian translation alongside (Notarial Law 89 of 1913, article 54).

If the notary does not know the language, an interpreter chosen by the parties takes part. The interpreter swears before the notary, cannot be one of the witnesses, and signs every page of both texts. The deed stays in Italian with the translation beside it. If the parties can sign, at least one witness, besides the interpreter, must know the language (article 55).

For a seller: an English or German speaker at the deed means a date that suits the notary, an interpreter and a witness. Fix all three when you fix the date.

Can the buyer sign from abroad?

Yes, through a power of attorney. Italian law requires it to have the same form as the contract the attorney will sign (civil code, article 1392): for a house sale, in practice, a deed before a notary.

A notarial act made abroad and used in Italy needs, under the Hague Convention of 1961, an apostille from the country that issued it, unless an agreement between the two countries waives it (articles 1 to 3).

For a seller: ask for a draft of the power of attorney weeks before the deed. A proxy missing a power, such as the power to pay or to receive the keys, sends everyone home.

How will the money arrive?

By bank, always. Italy bans cash transfers of €5,000 or more between different people (Legislative Decree 231 of 2007, article 49). The buyer's side of the transfer is in moving money into Italy.

At the request of at least one party, the notary must hold the price, or the balance, in a dedicated account (Law 147 of 2013, article 1, paragraph 63). The money there is a separate fund: it cannot be seized by the notary's creditors (paragraph 65). The notary releases it only after the deed has been registered and made public, and after checking that no new burdens have appeared (paragraph 66).

Why does escrow matter more in Trieste?

Because registration here means the Libro fondiario, the land register, and its judge checks every application. We counted the Trieste office's decrees on six lists in the Region's Official Bulletin in 2026: 1,346 decrees, with a median of 15.7 months between filing and notice. 72% took more than 12 months.

The law speaks of registration and publicity. Whether, in Trieste, that means the filing or the judge's decree is for the contract to settle.

Worked example: a house sold for €600,000, with a €60,000 deposit at the preliminary contract. The buyer asks for the €540,000 balance in escrow. If release waits for the decree and the file behaves like the 2026 median, the money stays put for about 15.7 months. At a hypothetical 2% a year, that is about €14,130 of interest you do not earn. The figures are a hypothesis, our arithmetic on the Bulletin counts.

For a seller: agree in writing, in the preliminary contract, when the escrow is released: at filing, or at the decree. The register itself is explained in the Trieste land register.

What checks will the buyer face?

Anti-money-laundering checks, by law. Notaries and estate agents are among the professionals obliged to carry them out (Legislative Decree 231 of 2007, article 3). They must identify the buyer, identify the beneficial owner when a company or trust buys, and gather information on the purpose and nature of the transaction (article 18).

If they cannot complete those checks, they must abstain from the transaction (article 42). They must also refuse it when a trust, a fiduciary company, or an anonymous or bearer-share company based in a high-risk third country is a party.

For a seller: a buyer who will purchase through a company should send the company documents early. The checks are about the buyer, but a stalled deed is your problem too.

What to do now

• Ask the buyer's nationality and country of residence at the first serious visit.
• Agree the deed's language, interpreter and witnesses with the notary when you fix the date.
• If the buyer will sign by proxy, get the draft and check its powers well before the deed.
• Write in the preliminary contract whether there will be escrow and when it is released.
• Have the buyer send identity and, for a company, ownership papers to the notary early.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sell my house in Italy to a foreigner?

Yes. Foreigners legally resident in Italy have the civil rights of Italians; others buy subject to reciprocity, which you should have the notary confirm first.

Does the deed have to be in Italian if the buyer is foreign?

It can be in the buyer's language, with an Italian translation alongside, or in Italian with a translation made by a sworn interpreter.

What is notary escrow in Italy?

On request of either party, the notary holds the price in a ring-fenced account and releases it after the deed is registered and no new burdens appear.

Can a foreign buyer pay in cash?

No. Cash transfers of €5,000 or more between different people are banned; the price goes by bank.

Where this guide stops

It does not cover the seller's taxes, mortgages, the preliminary contract's registration or the buyer's visa. For the deed, the notary; for taxes on the sale, an accountant (commercialista).

If you are selling in Trieste to a buyer from abroad, we check whether they can buy before the offer, prepare the papers in English and German, and settle language, proxy and escrow with the notary before they cost you weeks. Request a confidential valuation.

These are the rules, not legal advice: on your case the last word belongs to the notary. Write to richieste@triestevillas.com or WhatsApp +39 331 8940822.