Buying a home in Puglia is rarely the hard part. Understanding how the Italian system works around that home is where most international buyers lose time, money and confidence.

The role of an estate agent in Italy is not the same as in the UK, the US or the Netherlands. The commission is split differently. An accepted offer binds you sooner than you expect. The notary who registers your purchase is not acting for you. None of this is a problem once you know it, and all of it becomes one if you find out late.

The white towns of the Itria Valley, the sea at Monopoli and Polignano, the trulli standing in olive groves that have been worked for centuries. It is a region people fall for quickly, and buy in slowly, and the gap between those two moments is where an agent either earns their fee or simply collects it.

For context: 766,757 homes changed hands in Italy in 2025, up 6.4% on the previous year, worth roughly €124 billion. The figures come from the 2026 Residential Property Report published by the Agenzia delle Entrate, the Italian Revenue Agency. A busy market means more agencies, more listings, and more difficulty telling apart the ones doing the work from the ones running a shop window.

What an estate agent does in Italy

An Italian estate agent works as a mediatore: a professional intermediary who brings buyer and seller together without acting on behalf of either one. The work includes valuing the property, marketing it, running viewings, collecting the offer, checking the documents and coordinating with the notary, surveyors and banks.

There is one duty most buyers never hear about, and it matters more than anything else on the list. The Italian Civil Code requires the agent to disclose every circumstance they know of that could affect the transaction: planning irregularities, restrictions, discrepancies between the property and its registered plans, anything that could change your decision. The agent is liable if they stay silent.

So the question is not whether an agency will tell you what it knows. It is how much that agency has taken the trouble to know before it speaks to you.

One check you can run yourself in two minutes: to trade legally as an estate agent in Italy, a business must be registered with the local Chamber of Commerce under Law 39/1989. An agency that is not registered has no right to any commission at all. You can verify any company on registroimprese.it using its name or VAT number.

Three things that work differently from the UK or the US

You will pay commission too, not only the seller

In most English-speaking markets the seller covers the agent’s fee. In Italy the Civil Code entitles the agent to a commission from each of the parties when the sale completes through their involvement. Buyer and seller each pay their share.

This is not a charge invented for foreigners. It is how the Italian system is built, and it changes the arithmetic of your budget. Agree the figure in writing at the start, and factor it in alongside notary fees and purchase taxes.

An accepted offer is already binding

In the UK an offer sits comfortably outside the law until contracts are exchanged, and either side can walk away. Italy does not work like that.

You sign a proposta di acquisto, a written purchase offer, usually with a deposit attached. Once the seller accepts it and that acceptance reaches you, you are committed. The compromesso, the preliminary contract, and the rogito, the final deed before the notary, follow later, but the decision point has already passed.

The practical consequence is simple. Every check you assumed you would run “before contracts” needs to happen before that first signature, not after.

The notary is not your lawyer

The notaio is a public officer. They confirm that the deed is valid, that the seller has title, that the mortgage position is clear, and they register the transfer. They are impartial by law and act for neither side.

That impartiality is a strength, and it is also a gap. Nobody in that room is looking after your interests specifically unless you have arranged it. Buyers arriving from a conveyancing system where a solicitor represents them personally often discover this at the worst possible moment.

Five questions to ask before you sign

Who checks the paperwork, and when?

The single most important question. If the property does not match the floor plan filed with the catasto, the Italian land registry, the deed cannot go ahead.

Since 1 July 2010 the seller must declare before the notary that the registered data and floor plan correspond to the property as it actually stands. Without that declaration the deed is not valid, and in 2021 the Italian Supreme Court confirmed there is no room for interpretation. Italian notaries set out the detail here.

A mezzanine never declared, a wall moved, a veranda enclosed: these are what push completion dates back by months. Ask when the agency runs this check. If the answer is that the notary will handle it, you are buying a risk you will discover once your deposit is already paid.

How much is the commission, and when is it due?

No law sets the percentage. It is agreed and written into the agency agreement.

What the Civil Code does say is that the fee is earned when the sale concludes through the agent’s involvement. You are paying for the result, not for the effort. If the transaction does not complete, no commission is due.

Ask for four things in writing: the amount or percentage, what it is calculated on, when it becomes payable, and what it includes. An agency that answers this without hesitating will answer everything else the same way.

If something is wrong with the documents, who deals with it?

This is where agencies separate. A planning or land registry discrepancy does not always end a purchase, but it has to be handled: whether it can be regularised, how long that takes, what it costs and who pays.

Ask who does that work in practice. A surveyor you have to find yourself, a lawyer you call once the problem has surfaced, or a professional who has been inside the file since day one. At Trulli & Dimore Real Estate it is handled by our in-house property lawyer.

How do you work with buyers who live abroad?

Buying from another country adds steps: an Italian codice fiscale, or tax number, an Italian bank account, a power of attorney if you cannot travel for the signing, and a schedule that has to work across time zones and a notary’s diary.

An agency that has done this many times moves through it quietly. An agency that has not will slow down at exactly the point where you need speed.

Who looks after the file after the offer is accepted?

An accepted offer is a beginning. The preliminary contract, the mortgage application, the land registry searches and the preparation of the deed all come afterwards, and months pass.

Ask who updates you during that period and how often. It is the stretch where buyers, especially those several countries away, feel most alone.

Why paperwork checks matter more in Puglia

Puglia’s building stock has a long history, and history leaves traces on the documents as well as the stone.

In the historic centres of Monopoli, Ostuni and Locorotondo you find houses with barrel, star and vaulted ceilings that have been reorganised repeatedly: mezzanines added, rooms merged, windows relocated. Every one of those works should have passed through the catasto. Not all of them did.

Out in the countryside the picture changes without getting simpler. Trulli, lamie, masserie and stone farmhouses extended in periods when paperwork followed looser conventions. These are authentic buildings, and that is precisely why they deserve a careful check before you make an offer rather than after.

Then there is tourism. A great many properties across the region have been adapted for guests, and the use recorded on paper does not always match the use on the ground. If you are buying with rental income in mind, our guide to holiday rental rules in Puglia covers what has to be in order before you host anyone.

What an in-house lawyer changes

In most agencies legal support arrives from outside, and it arrives late: once the problem is visible and the job is damage limitation.

At Trulli & Dimore Real Estate the legal adviser sits inside the agency and works on your file from the first day. Our property lawyer in Puglia, Stefania Lisi, reviews the documents before you sign a purchase offer, assesses any discrepancy that emerges, and stays with the transaction through to the deed. It is not an optional extra you request. It is how every file is built.

We have worked in the Puglian market for over twenty years, we are FIAIP members, and we guide you from the first viewing to the rogito. Our relationships with international buyers are long-standing, and several of them have been through more than one purchase with us. We know where a transaction slows down when one of the parties lives abroad, because we have been there many times.

Buying or selling in Puglia: how the process runs

If you are buying, the first job is narrowing the search to properties that genuinely match what you want, so you are not spending flights and weekends on viewings that were never right. Then the visit, the document check, the offer.

If you are selling, it starts with the valuation and the paperwork: the deed by which you acquired or inherited the property, the land registry plan and extract, building permits, and the energy performance certificate. Then the agency agreement, the marketing, the viewings.

From there the path is the same for everyone: offer accepted, preliminary contract, mortgage if you need one, final deed. Several months usually pass between the offer and the signature, and those are the months when someone has to hold the pieces together.

Choosing an estate agent in Puglia means choosing who checks the documents before you commit, who explains the commission without evasion, and who stays with you through the long middle stretch. Everything else is a shop window.

If you are thinking about buying or selling in Puglia, talk to us before you sign anything. Get in touch for a first conversation, or browse our current listings.

FAQ

What does a foreign buyer need to purchase a home in Puglia?

Two documents, in practice. An Italian codice fiscale, the tax number issued by the Revenue Agency, which is required for the deed, the utilities and the bank. And an Italian bank account, since payments to the seller and the notary are normally made from one. Residency is not required, and buyers from the EU, the UK and the US can purchase freely under the principle of reciprocity. Start both as soon as your offer is accepted: neither is complicated, but neither is instant.

Who pays the estate agent in Italy, the buyer or the seller?

Both. The Italian Civil Code entitles the agent to a commission from each of the parties when the sale completes through their involvement. There is no percentage fixed by law, so the figure is negotiated and written into the agency agreement. Budget for it alongside notary fees and purchase taxes.

Do I need my own lawyer if a notary is involved?

It is not compulsory, but it is often sensible. The notary guarantees that the deed is valid and is impartial between the parties, which means nobody is representing your interests specifically. A lawyer acting for you gets involved earlier, at the purchase offer and preliminary contract, where the conditions, deadlines and protections are decided. It matters most if discrepancies emerge, if the building has a complicated planning history, or if you are buying from abroad.

Is an accepted offer binding in Italy?

Yes. Once the seller accepts your written purchase offer and that acceptance reaches you, you are committed, and a deposit is normally already attached. There is no equivalent of the British “subject to contract” stage. Any survey or document check you would normally run before exchanging contracts needs to happen before you sign the offer.

What happens if the floor plan does not match the property?

The deed cannot be completed until the position is corrected. Since 2010 the seller has to declare before the notary that the land registry data and floor plan correspond to the property as built, and without that declaration the deed is not valid. Most discrepancies can be resolved through a technical filing, but they need to surface before the offer, not in the final weeks.

Do I have to be in Italy to complete the purchase?

No. If you cannot attend the signing, you can grant a power of attorney to someone you trust to sign on your behalf. The preliminary steps, tax number and bank account included, take time, so they should be started as soon as your offer is accepted rather than in the final weeks before completion.

Article by the Trulli & Dimore Real Estate editorial team, with legal review by Avv. Stefania Lisi.