Buying Property in Italy: How to Negotiate the Price Beyond the Asking Figure

One of the questions clients ask me most frequently when buying property in Italy is deceptively simple:

“How much should we actually offer?”

They have found a property they like. The asking price may be €250,000, €300,000 or €500,000. They have checked similar listings, calculated the price per square metre and estimated the cost of renovation.

All of that matters.

But when I approach a property negotiation, one of the first questions I want answered is usually a different one:

Why is the seller selling?

Because a successful negotiation is not based only on what the property is theoretically worth. It also depends on understanding what the seller actually needs.

A recent property negotiation in Sicily

A recent case in Sicily illustrates the point well.

My clients had found a large villa with a garden in an inland area of the region. The property had considerable potential, but it had been unoccupied for years and required substantial work.

The asking price was approximately €260,000.

The obvious approach would have been to start discussing percentages.

Should we offer 5% less?
10% less?
20% less?

Instead, I wanted to understand the history behind the sale.

The villa had originally belonged to an elderly woman who had inherited it from her mother. After her death, approximately one year before, the property passed to her son.

The son, however, had built his entire life in Northern Italy.

His family lived there. He returned to Sicily only occasionally, and neither his wife nor his adult children had any particular interest in using the property.

Over time, what had once been a family home had become something else entirely:

an asset generating costs without providing any real benefit to the family.

There were taxes to pay.

Maintenance to deal with.

Travel whenever something needed attention.

And, perhaps most importantly, a large house continuing to deteriorate while remaining empty.

That information began to change the way we looked at the negotiation.

Why the history of the listing matters?

We then considered how long the property had already been on the market.

The villa had been listed for more than eight months.

There had been interest and some previous offers, but several potential buyers needed mortgage financing.

This created an additional difficulty.

During our enquiries, we had identified certain issues concerning the property that needed to be regularised. They were not necessarily impossible to resolve, but they were significant enough to make a mortgage-financed transaction more complicated.

This is particularly relevant in Italy.

A buyer who needs financing will normally have to satisfy not only the seller and the notary, but also the bank and its technical requirements.

A cash buyer may therefore sometimes offer something extremely valuable to the seller: greater certainty that the transaction will actually reach completion.

The seller was not simply selling a €260,000 property

At that point, the picture looked very different.

The seller was not simply the owner of a house with an asking price of €260,000.

He was the owner of:

• a property located hundreds of kilometres away from where he lived;
• a house his family no longer intended to use;
• an asset generating continuing costs;
• a property that had already been marketed unsuccessfully for months;
• and a property that was not especially easy to sell to buyers relying on mortgage financing.

Once you understand these factors, the negotiation is no longer simply about whether €260,000 is the “correct” market price.

The real question becomes:

What does the seller value enough to accept a significantly lower price?

Competing on certainty rather than price

My clients were in a strong position.

They did not need mortgage financing.

They were prepared to provide a substantial deposit.

They could proceed relatively quickly.

And they were willing to make a serious offer, subject only to the necessary legal and technical due diligence.

We therefore decided not to compete primarily on price.

We competed on certainty.

The offer was: €175,000.

Against an asking price of approximately €260,000.

It was unquestionably aggressive.

But it was not a random lowball offer.

There was a commercial logic behind it.

For the seller, accepting significantly less money would also mean receiving a meaningful amount immediately, dealing with buyers who clearly had the necessary funds, avoiding further months of uncertainty and having a realistic opportunity to finally close a chapter that had been open for some time.

That is a very different proposition from simply saying: “The property is overpriced, so we want a discount.”

Property negotiation is not only about market value

When negotiating the purchase of a property in Italy, market value still matters.

So do the condition of the property, comparable sales, renovation costs, location and potential defects.

But negotiation is rarely only about determining what a property is theoretically worth.

It is also about understanding the position of the person sitting on the other side of the transaction.

What does the seller want?

How long has the property been on the market?

Does the seller live locally?

Is the property vacant?

Is it generating costs?

Have previous transactions failed?

Does the seller need certainty?

Does the buyer need financing?

Are there legal or technical issues that may make the property more difficult to sell to somebody else?

These factors can materially influence the price at which a transaction becomes attractive to the seller.

Sometimes certainty is worth more than another €10,000

Foreign buyers sometimes assume that the strongest negotiating position is simply being willing to pay more.

That is not always the case.

Depending on the circumstances, the most valuable things you can offer a seller may be: certainty, speed, a substantial deposit and a clean transaction.

A buyer who can credibly say: “If the property checks out, we are ready to close.”

may be much more attractive than another buyer offering €10,000 or €20,000 more but requiring financing, long conditions or an uncertain timeline.

That can completely change the negotiation.

Before making an offer, understand the story behind the sale

If you are buying property in Italy, do not decide how much to offer simply by applying an arbitrary percentage discount to the asking price.

First try to understand the story behind the property.

Understand why it is being sold.

Understand how long it has been on the market.

Understand what problems the seller may already have encountered.

And understand what you can offer, beyond money, that may make your proposal more attractive than somebody else’s.

Because sometimes the most important number in a property negotiation is not the asking price.

It is the price at which the seller decides that moving on is worth more than waiting.

If you need legal assistance, feel free to get in touch.

Antonio Strangio
BDB Relocation and Legal