Who can buy in Italy

A fair question

People do ask, and they are right to. Plenty of countries restrict what foreigners may buy — Canada, Australia and Switzerland among them. Italy has rules too. They are simply less famous.

The short version, as of 2026:

• EU and EEA citizens (the EEA adds Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) buy exactly as Italians do. No permits, no checks, no conditions.
• Non-EU citizens legally resident in Italy — a valid permit for work, family or study, or an investor visa — also buy freely.
• Everyone else buys under a condition called reciprocity: Italy lets you buy here to the extent your country would let an Italian buy there.

One detail that catches people out: Switzerland is in EFTA but never joined the EEA. Swiss citizens therefore go through the reciprocity check — more on that below.

Reciprocity, and who actually checks it

The rule sits in Article 16 of the preliminary provisions to the Italian Civil Code, and it is verified neither by the estate agent nor by you but by the notary, case by case, before the deed. The working references are the Foreign Ministry's country notes and its treaty database; the responsibility is the notary's. This is not a formality: a deed signed without reciprocity is void, and an Italian court has already voided one.

How the nationalities we see most often stand, as of July 2026:

Passport	Position
United States	Reciprocity recognised in notarial practice. No particular limits for private buyers.
United Kingdom	Non-EU since Brexit, but reciprocity is satisfied: English law does not restrict foreign buyers, so Italy does not restrict you.
Switzerland	Limited. Italy mirrors the Lex Koller: a second home up to 200 m² of net habitable surface and 1,000 m² of land. No limits if you take up residence in Italy.
Canada	Currently blocked for residential property. Canada bans foreign purchases of residential property until 1 January 2027; Italy reflects the ban back. Narrow exceptions exist — the notary decides.
Australia	Limited. Australia bans foreign purchases of existing homes from April 2025 to March 2027; the mirror applies.

A Swiss couple resident in Zurich want a villa on the Trieste coast as a holiday home. Net habitable surface: 260 m². As matters stand in 2026, the notary stops the purchase at the 200 m² line. Their options: a smaller property — or Italian residence, at which point the limit disappears. Worth knowing before the viewing, not after.

Two housekeeping notes. Canada's ban expires on 1 January 2027 and Australia's in March 2027, so both positions are due for review — we track them. And if your passport is not in the table, the answer is not "no"; it is "ask". We put the question to the notary before you commit to anything, least of all your heart.

Buying a house does not buy the right to stay

Worth stating plainly, because the assumption is common. A deed gives you a home, not a visa. Non-EU visitors — Americans and Britons included — remain on the Schengen clock: 90 days in any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. And Italy has no property-linked "golden visa": the Italian Investor Visa exists, but its qualifying investments (as of 2026: €2 million in government bonds, €500,000 in an Italian company, €250,000 in an innovative startup, €1 million in philanthropy) pointedly do not include real estate.

What ownership does do is strengthen a visa application — it shows you have somewhere to live.

The elective residence visa, in outline

For those who want to live in Italy without working in Italy: pensioners, mostly, and people living on capital. It is a national type-D visa, applied for at the Italian consulate covering your place of residence. In outline, as of 2026: income from passive sources only — pensions, rents, investments; a salary does not count — above the statutory floor of €31,000 a year for a single applicant, set by a ministerial directive of 2000. In practice consulates expect comfortably more, and roughly €38,000 for a married couple. Add proof of housing in Italy (owned or rented), health insurance, and the fact that it does not permit you to work. Consulates enjoy wide discretion, and use it. Within eight days of arrival you apply for the residence permit at the Questura.

One footnote from notarial practice: an elective-residence permit does not, by itself, replace the reciprocity check. Irrelevant if you are American or British; relevant if your nationality is not on the safe list.

Treat all of this as a sketch. The consulate's own checklist is the one that counts.

The first concrete step: a codice fiscale

The Italian tax code — the identifier that unlocks everything else: the deed, the preliminary contract, utilities, a bank account if you ever want one. It is free, it never expires, and there are two routes: the Italian consulate in your country of residence, or the Agenzia delle Entrate in Italy with form AA4/8 — including through a delegate, which means your notary, your lawyer or we can obtain it without you boarding a plane. Consular practice varies: some issue it readily for notarial purposes, others prefer the delegate route. Only the code issued by the Agenzia counts — not one "calculated" by a website.

If you are serious about buying, get it early. It costs nothing and removes a bottleneck.

Do you need an Italian bank account?

For the purchase itself: no. There is no legal requirement. The price can travel by international wire, SEPA or SWIFT, from your own account abroad. What Italy does insist on is traceability: every payment is declared, item by item, in the deed, and the notary will want a clean answer on where the funds come from — anti-money-laundering checks are taken seriously here. Have the paper trail ready.

One instrument worth knowing: the notary's price deposit (deposito prezzo). At the request of either party — and the request alone suffices — the notary must hold the balance in a dedicated, segregated account until the deed is recorded in the land register. The funds cannot be attached, even by the seller's creditors. For a buyer wiring a large sum across a border, that is quiet insurance at the price of asking.

An Italian account becomes convenient afterwards — utilities, property taxes, a mortgage if you want one — but it is not a condition of the deed. The mechanics of transfers, currencies and timing are covered in Moving money into Italy.

Where this leaves you

If you are an EU, American or British buyer: the door is open, and your first two moves are a codice fiscale and an honest budget — for the latter, see Purchase taxes in Italy: the honest numbers. If your passport is more exotic: ask first, browse the portfolio second. The full sequence from offer to keys is in How buying a home in Italy works, and how we walk it with you is at /compra.

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An overview, not advice. Reciprocity positions move — Canada's and Australia's are due for review in 2027 — and on any specific purchase the last word belongs to the notary, on tax to your commercialista. TriesteVillas accompanies international buyers through every stage, notary included. richieste@triestevillas.com · +39 331 8940822 (WhatsApp welcome).