Do you need to get a mortgage from an Italian bank to be able to buy you dream home at Lake Como?
No panic! Lakeside offers you all the financing assistance step by step.
Here below is an overview of all that you need to know about mortgages: paperwork required, costs, and interest rates.

1 - Paperwork required to ask for an Italian mortgage

• Personal documents (copies of your passports) and your Italian Tax Code. In addition, the banks require now also your Tax Code in your country;
• Last six months personal bank statements;
• All kinds of incomes (e.g. the ones coming from property rentals contract);
• Last three pay slips;
• The two last Tax Return documents;
• Dividend payments;
• A reference letter from your Bank, stating you are a good client (this is required by some banks only).

In addition to these, four further documents (related to the property you are buying) are requested:

• Copy of last title/provenance contract (Atto di provenienza); 
• Copy of the Cadastral plans issued by Land Registry; 
• Copy of the building license;
• Copy of the preliminary agreement contract, showing the payment conditions and all the details of the deal. 

Regarding all these additional required papers, Lakeside will provide to the Bank everything related to the purchase. No headache for you!

IMPORTANT: all the income documents must be translated in Italian and certified through the Apostille certification. Your Consulate can do that, through some specific licensed translators; otherwise you can ask a Notary, who will certify the translation and documents through this international guarantee.

2 - Costs related to start a mortgage in Italy

• An external technician is employed by the bank to make a survey to the property. His average cost is between € 300-800. This sum is paid directly to the consultant as he/she is not an employee of the bank.
• The supplied amount is charged with a tax called Imposta sostitutiva: 0,25% if the new home becomes your residency, or 2,00% for non-residents. This is withheld by the bank which looks after the payment to the Income Revenue Authority (Agenzia delle Entrate) on behalf of clients.
• Notary who will follow the purchase final contract will also prepare the mortgage notary one. This cost is charged to the Buyer.

3 - Penalty fee if closing your mortgage in advance? The answer is NO.

You can settle part of your mortgage with a partial payment or pay it off with a one-shot installment: charging a penalty fee is strictly prohibited by the Law.

4 - Average interest rate of a bank mortgage

Nowadays, you can find really good loans in Italy. It is safe to say that to finance a maximum of 60% of a house purchase, the market offers a fixed rate of 1,5 % up to 3,5 % according to the loan length. A variable rate, on the other hand, ranges from 1,2% to 2%.

5 - Fixed, Variable and Mixed rate

Fixed rate is the main choice option due to the very small difference with the Variable one; what’s more, it enables the security of a stable monthly installment for the whole duration of the loan.
The Variable rate is normally lower than the fixed one, and it generates a cheaper installment. Being tied to the rate trends, the monthly amounts will have a tendency to increase and decrease.
The combination of the two creates the Mixed rate, which allows the possibility of switching from a fixed to a variable rate (or vice versa) according to preset contractual conditions.