Can an American Get a Mortgage in Italy? The Steps and the Rules

Say the house is found: stone walls, a view over vines, an offer ready to be made. The buyer holds an American passport and earns in dollars, and has one thing to find out before anything else, which is whether an Italian bank will consider the application at all.

This article follows those steps. It does not say which lender will lend to which borrower.

Does nationality matter to an Italian lender?

An Italian lender decides case by case whether to lend. The rules on home loans to consumers sit in the Consolidated Banking Act, the Testo Unico Bancario. They apply to a contract by which a lender grants a consumer credit that is secured by a mortgage on residential property, or that is made to buy or keep ownership of land or a building.^[2] The definitions of consumer, lender and credit contract do not mention nationality or residence.^[1]

The Bank of Italy’s guide for consumers says that anyone may apply for a mortgage, provided they can show that they are able to repay the sum over time, and that the lender assesses creditworthiness for that purpose. The borrower’s place of residence and the currency of the borrower’s income do enter the rules in one place: the rules on loans in a foreign currency, described further down.

Within the rules described here, how a lender treats income earned, credit history built or documents issued in the United States is a matter for each lender’s policy. For the financing condition in the preliminary contract and the other points a non-resident buyer meets, see “Mortgages for Non-Resident Buyers”. Borrowing in the United States against other assets is a different arrangement, outside this article, and a matter for a financial adviser.

What does the bank have to tell me first?

The lender or credit intermediary must make available, at any time, a document with clear information on the loans offered, the information sheet (foglio informativo). By law it must state which information and documentary evidence the consumer has to supply and by when. It must also warn that credit cannot be granted if creditworthiness cannot be assessed because the consumer chose not to provide what is needed.^[3]

If credit is refused, the lender must tell the consumer without delay.^[4] The Bank of Italy’s model sheet has a section for these documents and a line for the time the lender takes to process an application.^[5]

How does the bank decide whether I can repay?

Before the contract is concluded, the lender must make a thorough assessment of creditworthiness, the merito creditizio. It has to be based on information about the consumer’s economic and financial situation that is necessary, sufficient, proportionate and duly verified, and the lender may ask for clarifications.^[6]

The Bank of Italy’s guide lists the usual documents. They are personal details; evidence of income, which for employees means a statement by the employer, the latest payslip and tax forms, and for the self-employed recent tax returns and registration certificates; and documents on the property: a copy of the preliminary contract, the floor plan, the habitability certificate, the last deed of purchase or the declaration of succession. These are Italian forms. Within the rules described here, what a lender accepts as the equivalent from a borrower whose income is taxed abroad is for the lender.

Who values the house, and how much will the bank lend?

The property is valued before the loan is granted. The Banking Act requires lenders to apply reliable valuation standards.^[7] The valuation must be carried out by persons who are professionally competent and independent of the marketing of the credit, and it must be documented on paper or on another durable medium.^[7] The Bank of Italy’s guide describes the valuation as a report by an independent technician, on which the amount of the loan is based, and lists the valuation fee among the costs to be added to the interest.

The valuation also sets the size of the loan. The guide says that a loan is in general not more than 80% of the value found by the valuer, and that some lenders go above 80% but ask for further guarantees and often apply less favourable terms. The same ceiling appears in the rules for mortgage credit, the credito fondiario. The Bank of Italy sets the maximum in relation to the value of the property, and a resolution of the Interministerial Committee for Credit and Savings fixes it at 80% of the value of the mortgaged property or the cost of the works, with a possible increase to 100% if supplementary guarantees are given.^[8]

What happens when the bank makes an offer?

When the consumer has given the information needed, the lender or intermediary hands over the PIES, the European Standardised Information Sheet, in good time before the consumer is bound by a contract or an offer.^[9] Before the contract is concluded, the consumer has a reflection period of at least seven days to compare offers. During that period the offer binds the lender, and the consumer may accept it at any time.^[9]

The binding offer is given on paper or on another durable medium and includes the draft contract.^[9] The guide states that the seven days run from the receipt of the binding offer, and that the consumer can ask the lender, free of charge, to explain the documents and the effects of the contract.

How long does the loan take, and who chooses the notary?

The guide says that the time between the filing of the documents and the payment of the loan is stated in the information sheet, and that the client may choose the notary (notaio). It adds that the loan is usually not paid out on the day the contract is signed but some days later, when the mortgage has normally reached a greater degree of security under the law.

The guide asks the borrower to check that the time needed for the loan fits the time for the purchase. For the preliminary contract and the date of the deed, see “Offer, Preliminary Contract, Deed: Who Is Bound, and When”.

What tax is paid on the loan?

Operations of medium and long-term credit carried out by credit institutions, defined as those with a contractual term of more than eighteen months, are exempt from registration, stamp, mortgage and cadastral taxes and from government concession taxes.^[10] The lender may, by a specific option exercised in writing in the loan deed, pay a substitute tax in their place.^[11] The substitute tax, the imposta sostitutiva, is 2% of the amount where the loan is not for the purchase of a first home, the prima casa.^[12] The same rate applies where the conditions for the prima casa exist but are not stated by the borrower in a declaration in the loan deed.^[13]

The Bank of Italy’s guide gives the rate as 2%, or 0.25% for a prima casa, and states that the bank withholds the tax, so that the sum the client receives is lower than the amount granted. The Agenzia delle Entrate, the Italian revenue authority, adds three points in a circular of 2005.^[13] The tax is paid by the lender but normally falls on the borrower.^[13] The lower rate must be requested by the borrower in a declaration made in the same deed.^[13] And “prima casa” for this purpose is not the same as “main home”.^[13]

Whether a given buyer meets the conditions of the prima casa is not decided here. They are described in “The Taxes on Buying a Home in Italy, 2026: Line by Line”.

What does the TAEG cover, and what does it leave out?

The TAEG (tasso annuo effettivo globale) includes interest and all other costs, including fees and taxes, except notarial costs.^[1] It includes the cost of the valuation and, where the credit depends on it, the premiums of related insurance. It excludes the costs of transcribing the deed of sale and any penalties for breach of the contract.^[1]

Beyond the rate and the taxes, the Bank of Italy’s guide lists further costs: the application fee, the valuation fee, the notarial costs of the loan contract and of registering the mortgage, and insurance premiums.

Can I repay early, or move the loan to another bank?

For loans taken out by natural persons to buy or renovate a dwelling, or premises for their own economic or professional activity, any clause that requires a payment, fee or penalty for early or partial repayment is void by operation of law.^[14]

The borrower may also move the loan to another lender, a step called surrogazione, or portability. The new lender takes over the guarantees, the transfer is made without penalties or other charges, and the borrower may not be charged fees for the new loan.^[15] The guide states that both the closing of the old loan and the granting of the new one are free of charge.

What if my income is not in euro?

Italian law defines a “foreign currency” for these purposes by reference to the borrower. It is a currency other than the one in which the consumer, when the contract is concluded, receives income or holds the assets from which the loan will be repaid, or other than the legal tender of the EU Member State in which the consumer resides.^[1] The Bank of Italy’s guide draws the consequence: a loan in euro may be treated as a loan “in foreign currency” if, at signing, the client receives most of their income in another currency.

For such a loan the consumer has the right to convert it, at any time, into the currency in which the main part of the income is denominated, or into the legal tender of the Member State of residence.^[16] The lender must tell the consumer if the value of the loan or of the remaining instalments moves by more than 20% against what the exchange rate at the date of the contract would give.^[17] The guide states that the right can be exercised when the exchange rate has moved by 20% or more since the contract, and that a flat fee may be required if the contract provides for it.

The Banking Act leaves the conditions of the right to a resolution of the Interministerial Committee for Credit and Savings.^[18] How a lender applies this to a given loan is for the lender. For the effect of the exchange rate on instalments, see “Mortgages for Non-Resident Buyers”.

Who is allowed to arrange a loan?

The Banking Act treats the arranging of loans as a regulated activity. A credit mediator is a person who puts banks or financial intermediaries in contact with potential customers for loans of any kind.^[19] Exercising that activity professionally towards the public is reserved to those entered on the list kept by the body that manages the lists of financial agents and credit mediators (OAM).^[19]

The mere introduction of a consumer to a lender, without payment and as an incidental part of another principal professional activity, is not credit mediation.^[20] The definition of a credit intermediary in the Terms box covers anyone who, for a fee, presents or proposes credit contracts.

Are the rules about to change?

A legislative decree of 31 December 2025, which refers to a European directive, amends several articles of this part of the Banking Act.^[21] Lenders and credit intermediaries must adapt by 20 November 2026 or, if later, within ninety days of the entry into force of the implementing provisions of the Bank of Italy.^[22] Consumer credit contracts concluded before that deadline continue under the earlier provisions.^[22]

This article states the Banking Act as shown on Normattiva in the version updated on 14 April 2026.^[23]

What should I ask a lender?

The answers depend on the lender and the borrower, and none can be given in general. Lending criteria vary by lender and change over time. These are the questions usually put:

– Does the lender lend to borrowers who live abroad, and to borrowers whose income is in dollars?

– Which documents are required, in which form, and do foreign documents need translation or certification?

– Who carries out the valuation, what does it cost, and what is the amount of the loan based on?

– How long does the lender take from the filing of the documents to the payment, and does that fit the date set in the preliminary contract?

– What do the PIES and the TAEG show, and which costs are outside the TAEG?

– Which rate of substitute tax is applied, and what declaration is needed in the loan deed?

– Is the loan treated as a foreign-currency loan, and on what terms can it be converted?

– What are the terms for early repayment and for moving the loan to another lender?

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