Casetta Lucciola on our first visit and before our restoration
If you are a foreigner and considering buying and restoring a house in Italy via a mortgage to put it simply it is not something to consider if you don’t like stress, bureaucracy, introspection. If you are a thinking about a restoration mortgage as an option don’t unless you have an amount of ready cash available to help pay for works.
If you are a UK based buyer do make a note that unlike if buying in Spain or France UK banks do not recognise Italian property. Barclays is a high street bank who has an international division located in Italy who will think about it – but as a cautionary warning we were turned down for not apparently having saved enough for our mid-30 age! Your mortgage application will be processed in Italy and they don’t seem to factor in any cultural differences, namely that as UK citizens we don’t live at home with our parents after the age of 18 unlike Italians, and in affect have less cash in the bank than your average Italian.
Unless you are a big-shot in the city with a bank balance that will make any bank manager salivate at the prospect of your account there is not a lot of point going down this road; instead try a broker. You will have to dig deep and find pieces of paper from years ago and answer what seemed quite very pedantic questions but he does get results and offer you a choice from the top banks that offer these mortgages for foreigners in Italy.
The terms of a restoration mortgage are quite simple if still somewhat weird. You will receive up to half of your restoration mortgage towards the work after you have actually bought the house; do not rely on this type of mortgage to purchase your house in Italy. You will not receive the rest until your project has been completed and you have received a certificate from your local town hall to say so. After this the bank will ask for every single invoice to be sent to them so that they can see that the 70k euros, (the minimum amount that all banks lend for a restoration mortgage), do tally up to what they are giving you. After this they will send a Surveyor to assess the total value of your property once work has been completed and only then will they issue the final cheque, so just to reiterate once again you need available funds of your own to fund your work or a very patient builder.
Euribor® – what does it mean?
Euribor® – Euro Interbank Offered Rate is the rate at which Euro interbank term deposits within the euro zone are offered by one prime bank to another prime bank. It is sponsored by the European Banking Federation (EBF), which represents the interests of some 5000 European banks and by the Financial Markets Association (ACI). The rate is published at 11.00 a.m. CET for spot value (T+2). Click here to read find out more about Euribor®
Useful Italian vocab
Mortgage – ipotecare
Pay by monthly installments – rata
Author: Roddy Newlands
Roddy Newlands is an Associate Member of Life In Abruzzo, as well as antique book dealer and web and graphic designer. Abruzzo allows him to get his mountain-air fix, & satisfy his passion for pasta & panettone.