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Italian mortgage rates fall for first time in two years

Mortgage interest rates fell in December for the first time after 24 months of increases, Italian banking association ABI said on Tuesday.

Published: 16 January 2024 15:07 CET

Italian mortgage rates fall for first time in two years

Mortgage rates in Italy are seeing a downturn for the first time in two years, data showed on Tuesday. Photo by Babak Habibi on Unsplash

ABI said the average interest rate applied to new mortgages at the end of 2023 was 4.42 percent, down from 4.5 in November, reported financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.

The small drop marked the end of two years of consecutive monthly rises to the average rate, giving some hope to prospective home buyers facing a steady rise in the cost of borrowing.

READ ALSO: What to expect from Italy’s property market in 2024

In December 2022 the average rate on a mortgage in Italy was recorded at 3.01 percent.

Mortgage rates have risen as a result of the European Central Bank’s interest rate hikes designed to combat inflation, reported Il Sole 24 Ore.

The ECB was expected to starting cutting interest rates later in 2024, further easing the pressure on borrowing, and there has already been a decrease on rates on loans between banks in anticipation.

Italy’s property market slowed down notably in 2023 after growing for the first time in years amid the pandemic, with the number of mortgages granted in the first half of 2023 down by 30 percent on the same period the year before.

The number of property sales in Italy was expected to fall again in 2024, according to the Real Estate Market Observatory from Italian data analysts Nomisma.

They also predicted average property prices will rise slightly, by 0.2 percent, though this was a predicted decrease on the growth of the last two quarters.

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Six surprising Italian building laws that you might not know about

Owning a home in Italy is the dream of a lifetime for many.

But whether you’ve already bought a casa in the country and are now in the process of renovating it, or just have your eyes set on a picturesque farmhouse in the Tuscan hills, you may already have some level of familiarity with the intricate bureaucracy that goes along with purchasing and revamping property in Italy.

That includes complying with a fairly long series of building regulations, some of which can often be hard to believe, even for locals.

Mandatory bidets

Most Italians can’t begin to imagine a bathroom without a bidet – a low, oval basin which is generally used to wash one’s nether regions (or feet). But that’s not the only reason why the item is a ubiquitous feature in Italian homes.

Bidets are a legal building requirement in Italy as a Ministerial Decree issued in 1975 states that in each house “at least one bathroom must have the following fixtures: a toilet, a bidet, a bathtub or shower, and a sink”.

READ ALSO: Are bidets legally required in Italian homes?

Italian law also says that there should be a minimum distance between the bidet and other bathroom fixtures (for instance, the bidet should be at least 20 centimetres away from both the toilet and the bathtub or shower).

A stylish bathroom

Bathrooms in most countries in the world don’t feature a bidet, but things are quite different in Italy. Photo by Sidekik Media via Unsplash

As outlandish as it may sound, the above requirement is necessary to the issuance of the Certificato di Agibilità, which attests that a building abides by the relevant health and safety regulations and is therefore safe to be occupied.

Bathroom wall tiling requirements

While we’re on the subject of bathrooms, each Italian municipality (or comune) has its own set of building regulations (or regolamento edilizio, RE), which, among other things, establishes the minimum height of bathroom wall tiling in private homes.

For instance, in Milan and Naples wall tiles must have a minimum height of 1.80 metres.

It’s also worth noting that some comuni may not give precise height indications and take the bottom or top of a bathroom’s window as the minimum permissible height.

AC rules

Some parts of the country experience bouts of extreme heat over the summer, and an air-conditioning system is generally the most effective way to keep your Italian house cool over the hot months. But if you’re the owner of a flat, installing an AC system may be a bit of a headache.

AC system

Installing an AC system in Italy is generally far easier for owners of single-family houses than it is for flat owners. Photo by Carlos Lindner on Unsplash

Specific building regulations may prevent owners from having external AC engines on the building’s facade or demand that AC engines are of the same colour as the building.

READ ALSO: What are the rules for installing air conditioning in your Italian home?

Flat owners should also be mindful of article 907 of Italy’s Civil Code, which specifies that any type of external construction, including AC engines, should be at least three metres away from the windows or terrace of the floor directly above them to avoid obstructing the view.

Minimum size for windows

Like in other countries, national building regulations establish minimum height and surface requirements for all rooms in private homes.

For instance, a bedroom for one person must have a surface area of at least 9 square metres in, whereas bedrooms for two people must be at least 14 square metres in size.

But there are size requirements for windows too. In fact, the surface area of a room’s window opening must be at least one eighth of the room’s surface area (e.g., 1.25 square metres for a 10-square-metre room).

Are in-sink garbage disposal units legal?

If you’ve spent any meaningful amount of time in Italy, you may have noticed that in-sink garbage disposal units are nearly non-existent in the country and food scraps are generally kept in a small organic waste container that’s emptied out once or twice a week.

Disposal units (or tritarifiuti in Italian) are technically legal in the country, but, under Italian law, their installation is only possible after “verification of the existence of a depuration system” in the sewer network on the part of its operator and following a notification of successful installation to the water network operator.

READ ALSO: Sheds and sewage: How neighbour disputes complicate life in Italy

Most Italians prefer to regularly take out their food scraps to their local garbage collection area to the hassle of that procedure.

Keeping plants on the balcony

Though this is not strictly related to building regulations, it’s still worth a mention for owners with a green thumb.

Some buildings can occasionally prevent flat owners from keeping plants in common areas (like a hallway, or a stairwell landing) to avoid any obstruction to the passage of other residents.

Having plants on a private balcony is generally permitted. However, owners should be cautious when watering them.

Water dripping from your balcony to the balcony of the flat (or flats) right below on a regular basis may amount to the offence of Reato di getto di cose pericolose (literally, ‘throwing of dangerous things’).

This comes with a fine of up to 206 euros, and in the most serious cases, a jail term of up to a month.

This list is non-exhaustive. If you know of any other surprising building laws in Italy, let us know in the comments below.

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