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Why towns in Italy’s Salento are offering new residents up to €30,000

As if the sunny south-eastern tip of Italy wasn’t enticing enough, towns in Salento have now announced big cash incentives for people moving in. Why is this needed, and what’s the catch?

Why towns in Italy’s Salento are offering new residents up to €30,000
If you're looking for your own piece of Italy's sunkissed Salento region - at a bargain price - you could be in luck. Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash

Another town in southern Italy has joined a long list of depopulated areas which are trying to offload old, unwanted houses at bargain prices and offering cash incentives to new residents.

The municipality of Presicce-Acquarica, which is made up of two adjoining villages, has announced it will soon offer grants worth up to €30,000 to those willing to relocate there.

READ ALSO: The cheap Italian properties buyers are choosing instead of one-euro homes

No doubt the offer will be tempting to anyone who has visited the sunny Salento area, in Italy’s south-eastern Puglia region.

Salento sits right at the bottom of the peninsula that forms the heel of the Italian ‘boot’. It’s a highly popular summer tourist destination known for scorching temperatures, sprawling olive groves, whitewashed houses and long coastlines dotted with wild, pristine beaches.

With its famously abundant local produce, warm climate and authentic, traditional feel, Puglia (and Salento in particular) is an increasingly popular destination for foreign second-home buyers as well as holidaymakers.

The Italian region of Puglia is known for its unspoilt landscapes and agricultural traditions. Photo by Mathilde Ro on Unsplash

But the newly-announced incentives are aimed more at those who would become full-time residents, as the council hopes to attract young families and people planning to start a business.

Those moving to the villages of Presicce or Acquarica must be willing to invest in an older property in the area, and the council says it will subsidise 50 percent of the cost of a property purchase and any renovation work up to a maximum of €30,000.

READ ALSO: Why Italians aren’t snatching up their country’s one-euro homes

Houses for sale as part of the deal are reportedly priced from around 500 euros per square metre, meaning you could buy a 50-square-metre property at around €25,000.

Like other cheap or one-euro homes on sale across Italy, the eligible properties have long been abandoned and are likely to need significant renovation work.

The location of Presicce-Acquarica at the southern tip of the Puglia region. Image: Google Maps

To be eligible for the grant, the council says individuals or families must move their official residency to the town – which would require being a full-time resident in Italy, to begin with, something which could prove problematic for those who would need a visa, or who only want to spend part of the year in Italy.

And buyers would have to be sure about their decision, as the town hall is expecting them to stick around.

“The maximum sum of 30,000 euros is envisaged only if the buyer decides to move their residence for at least 10 years after the purchase,” Mayor Paolo Rizzo said, according to newspaper Corriere della Sera

The municipal council has already launched several incentives to attract new residents, including tax breaks for business start-ups and ‘baby bonuses’ for families with children.

After just 60 births compared to 150 deaths last year, the town hall says it will also grant new resident families €1,000 for every baby born there.

READ ALSO:

The municipality now has around 9,000 residents, around half of whom live in the old town, where the properties for sale are located.

But attracting new families to this sleepy area may prove a considerable challenge: like many other parts of Italy trying to reverse population decline with generous-sounding incentives, Puglia’s villages often have little public transport infrastructure, scarce public services, and limited employment opportunities.

Many villages in rural Puglia have an older population and are struggling to retain younger residents. Photo: Rich Martello/Unsplash

Perhaps the council is relying on the area’s outstanding beauty to tempt new residents: Presicce-Acquarica is designated as one of Italy’s ‘most beautiful’ villages, with a historic centre filled with ornate churches and Baroque palazzi.

The town is nicknamed the “city of green gold” due to the high quality of the oil from the surrounding olive groves, and it’s only a short drive from the Ionian Sea and the popular tourist destinations of Gallipoli and Santa Maria di Leuca.

The full details of the scheme and application process have however not been finalised yet, and will be published on the town hall’s website in the coming weeks, according to Italian media reports.

Member comments

  1. I am an American based in Rome and have owned a house in sleepy Presicce for 20 years. The onslaught of friends who forwarded the articles about the latest scheme to attract new residents was astonishing. Presicce is a wonderful place as a second home, but living there as a full time resident would be a challenge. The richness of the olive oil is mentioned as part of what makes the village so renowned- too bad the punteruolo rosso has infested 90% of the groves throughout Salento and little progress has been made to eradicate the problem or even contain it as it spreads beyond Lecce towards Brindisi. Apparently not all strains of olive trees are affected by the pest, but after nearly a decade I sadly see little replanting with young, healthy, unaffected trees. It used to be olives as far as the eye could see, but is now vast hectares of what appears to be a petrified, desolate landscape. Needless to say, I bring my olive oil with me when relocating for the summer, I can’t imagine the amount of pesticides used on the few still fertile groves. Maybe new residents in the area will take up the cause and elicit some real action.

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TAXES

IMU: Who has to pay Italy’s property tax?

The first instalment of Italy’s main property tax IMU is due by Monday, June 17th, this year – but not all homeowners in the country have to pay it.

IMU: Who has to pay Italy’s property tax?

Italy’s main property tax, IMU (Imposta Municipale Unica, or Unified Municipal Tax) was introduced in 2012 to replace the local ICI levy.

It applies to both private and commercial property, building areas and agricultural land, and its exact amount varies by the type, value and location of the property.

IMU must be paid in two yearly instalments, with the first payment normally due by June 16th (the deadline was moved to June 17th this year as June 16th is a Sunday) and the second one due by December 16th. 

But the tax is a frequent source of confusion for homeowners in Italy as the rules on exactly which types of property it applies to have changed multiple times over the years.

Taxpayers are fully responsible for calculating and paying the amount of IMU they owe, meaning you won’t get a bill from local authorities specifying how much you need to pay for the relevant year.

Who does IMU apply to?

IMU is generally owed by owners of the following types of property:

  • Agricultural land (or terreno agricolo in Italian)
  • Building land (area fabbricabile)
  • Private houses other than the owner’s main residence (or prima casa), meaning second, third, fourth homes etc.
  • Luxury dwellings (case di lusso) falling under Italy’s cadastral categories A1 (stately homes), A8 (villas) or A9 (castles), regardless of whether they are the owner’s main residence or not.

Essentially, besides agricultural and building land owners, IMU is owed by all second-home owners in the country and owners of properties categorised as ‘luxury’ under Italy’s cadastral system.

READ ALSO: The Italian tax calendar for 2024: Which taxes are due when?

The tax doesn’t apply to main residences (prime case) but owners must be Italian residents and be registered as such under Italy’s national registry (Anagrafe) in order to qualify for this.

If you’re a foreign resident owning property in the country, you’ll have to pay IMU on it.

There are a number of IMU exemptions and discounts available to some categories of homeowners. 

These include for instance a 50-percent discount for retirees residing abroad and claiming a ‘totalised pension’ (pensione totalizzata), meaning a hybrid ‘Italian-foreign’ pension merging contributions made in Italy and those made in the foreign nation they reside in (as long as this country has pension totalisation agreements in place with Italy).

How do I calculate IMU?

Much like most other Italian taxes, calculating IMU is by no means an easy process, especially if you have little to no experience with paying it. 

That’s why it’s generally advisable to consult a chartered accountant (commercialista) who can ensure that the correct amount is paid and even arrange the transaction for you.

READ ALSO: What is an Italian commercialista and do you really need one?

That said, as a rough guide, you’ll need to take the cadastral value, or valore catastale, of your property (this is generally reported in the public deed of purchase but you can also request it at your local land registry).

Once you know the cadastral value, you must increase it by 5 percent and then multiply that number by a coefficient, which varies by the type of property you own. For instance, private residential buildings and flats have a coefficient of 160. 

Doing this will give you your property’s taxable base and from there you’ll be charged anything from 0.5 to 1.06 percent of that figure, depending on the rate (aliquota) applied by the municipality (comune) where your property is located.

How do I pay?

IMU can be paid via Italy’s standard tax form F24, which is used when paying most types of taxes in Italy, including Irpef income tax instalments.

The form can generally be found and submitted at most bank branches and post offices in the country. Some Italian banks even offer customers the option to complete and submit an F24 form directly online.

Alternatively, you can ask an Italian accountant to complete and submit the form on your behalf.

What happens if I don’t pay?

The Italian taxman shows little in the way of leniency when it comes to late filing or failure to pay IMU. 

Late filing can be punished with a fine of up to 30 percent of the IMU owed, whereas failure to pay can lead to enforced credit recovery procedures (recupero coattivo del credito) from local authorities. 

The good news here is that Italy has a procedure known as ravvedimento operoso (literally ‘active amendment’) which allows taxpayers to self-report and quickly rectify the delay in their IMU payments in exchange for significantly reduced fines.

For example, under this system, fines for late payment are reduced to 0.1 percent of the sum owed per day if the payment is made within the first 14 days from the relevant deadline.

Please note that The Local is unable to advise on individual cases. Find more information on the Italian tax office’s website or seek independent advice from a qualified tax professional.

For more information on property in Italy, check The Local’s property section.

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