Buying a house in Italy
Recent tax and planning changes mean that homebuyers can
benefit when renovating or restoring an old property
Good news for those who are looking for buying a property in
Italy.
If the "piano casa" (house project) is approved by the
government, this could mean good news for anyone looking to buy a property in Italy.
The current law provides for an increase of 20% of the volume of the
existing building when renovating or an increase of 35% if there is demolition and
a subsequent reconstruction of the building using
modern, ecological materials and techniques.
Under this law a lot of smaller properties can be enlarged,
thus creating a new
market of medium-sized properties. For example, a former one-bedroom home can
be transformed into one with two bedrooms, a property with two bedrooms into
one with three bedrooms and so on.
The following example more precisely illustrates the effect
of the law:
A property of 65m2 on two levels has a minimum
volume of 175.50m3
An increase of 20% means 35m3 or 13m2
which is more than the minimum for a double bedroom.
Not only is it possible to increase the volume but also
the building cost can be reduced by
50% and, of course, it is still eligible for the tax reduction of 36% for renovation,
55% for modifications which
improve the house's energy efficiency and the reduction to 10% VAT for renovation
work.
Another advantage of the law is that in the future, the
obtaining of a building permit in
the future will be a much quicker and simpler procedure with the bureaucracy
drastically reduced.
The third and final advantage is that industrial buildings,
warehouses etc could be transformed into apartments and lofts assuming, of
course, that they have all the necessary requests to be habitable.
The law is valid only for existing buildings and does not
include properties in historical centres,
properties of historical and/or artistic value and monuments.
Under the Italian Constitution, the government
defines the general structure but it is up to the
individual regions to establish exactly how they will apply the law allowing the use of these
advantages.
Author Ing. Gunther Desaever
http://www.livingintuscany.eu
Buying a house in Italy
|
