Guides · Selling
Selling a home: the step-by-step guide.
The questions to ask before putting a home on the market, with the rules for 2026.
What the home is worth, what taxes you pay on a sale, what it costs you to keep it while you wait, what happens between the offer and the rogito (the deed of sale signed before the notary).
Updated on . Sources: Agenzia delle Entrate (the Italian Revenue Agency), Comune di Milano (Milan City Council).
The price
What is my home worth?
Value is shown by sales completed in the area, not by listings: a listing is an asking price, not a price paid.
One public reference is the values of the Agenzia delle Entrate’s Osservatorio del mercato immobiliare (OMI, the property market observatory): for each area and type of home, a range of prices per m², updated every six months.
It is a starting point. The condition of the home, the floor, the light, the condominium charges and today’s demand move the price within the range, and sometimes outside it.
Capital gain
What taxes do you pay when you sell?
If you sell within five years of purchase or construction, the gain (sale price minus the purchase price and documented purchase costs) is a taxable capital gain (plusvalenza). This also applies to a home received as a gift: for a gift, the five years run from when the donor bought it.
It is not payable if the home was inherited, or if for most of that time it was the main residence of you or your family members. At the deed of sale you can ask the notary to apply the 26% substitute tax; otherwise the gain goes into your income tax return.
A separate rule applies to homes where work under the Superbonus (a tax incentive for building work) was completed no more than ten years ago: on the first sale after the work the gain may be taxed, with the same exceptions. Other building bonuses do not count.
These are general rules for private individuals. Before setting the price, check your case with the notary or the accountant.
Tax relief
Did you buy with the first-home tax relief?
If you sell or give away the home within five years of purchase, you lose the prima casa (first home) tax relief, unless within one year you buy another home to use as your main residence.
Those who lose it pay the difference in tax, interest and a 30% penalty.
- Will you buy again within a year?The relief is kept, and the tax paid on the first home becomes a credit to use on the new one.
- Are you buying the new home before selling the old one?Since 2025 you have two years to sell the home you already owned.
- Not buying again?Include it in your sums before setting the price: the difference may weigh more than a few months of waiting.
Holding costs
What does waiting cost?
A home that is not your main residence pays the IMU (municipal property tax) every year. The base is the rendita catastale (cadastral income) × 1.05 × 160; in Milan in 2026 the rate for an empty home is 1.14%, and for a home let at an open-market rent 1.04%.
With a cadastral income of € 1,000, an empty home pays about € 1,915 a year in IMU. On top of this come condominium charges, utilities, maintenance and, if there is one, the mortgage.
Set out side by side, these costs show whether it pays to wait or to sell straight away.
The steps
From the decision to the deed of sale.
- 01 · Documents
Before publishing
Provenance, land registry, compliance, energy performance certificate, condominium. The guide to documents
- 02 · Price
A reasoned price
Based on sales in the area and the condition of the home. A price that is too high does not bring in more money: it brings in more months.
- 03 · Offer
Viewings and offers
An accepted offer binds both buyer and seller: read it carefully before signing.
- 04 · Deed
Preliminary contract and notary
The preliminary contract sets the price, the deposit and the date; at the deed of sale the keys are handed over.
The first step is a conversation
Would you like the figures for your case?
A guide gives the general rules. To know what pays for you, we put the figures for your home on the table.