Buying in Rome vs the UK: costs and taxes

In Rome, the purchase tax is often worked out on an official value well below what you paid. Back home, stamp duty is charged on every pound of the price, and living abroad pushes the rate up.

The short version

Buying a resale flat in Rome as your main home, registration tax is 2% (9% otherwise), and you can ask for it to be charged on the cadastral value rather than the price [7][8].
In England, a Brit living in Rome usually pays a 2% non-resident surcharge on stamp duty, and owning a Roman flat brings the 5% higher rates for additional homes too [1][2].
Italy doesn't restrict British buyers, but owning a flat doesn't give you the right to live in it beyond 90 days in 180.
Sell a Roman home after five years, or one you mostly lived in, and Italy usually doesn't tax the gain [9]. Sell a UK home from Rome and HMRC wants a 60-day report, tax or no tax [3].

Pound conversions use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = EUR 1.20).

What a Brit can buy in Rome, compared

Italy treats a British buyer like anyone else. There's no approval to apply for and no foreign-buyer surcharge, so a flat in Monteverde or a top-floor place in Prati is open to you on the same terms as a Roman. What isn't included is residence: since Brexit you need a visa or permit to stay longer than the visa-free limit, and buying a home doesn't change that.

Most Romans own flats in a condominio, outright and with no lease running down: closer to share of freehold than an English leasehold.

Back home, anyone can buy, whatever their passport or address. In England and Wales, houses are usually freehold and flats usually leasehold, with ground rent and service charges paid to a freeholder. Scotland has its own system.

Italy runs on an offer, a binding preliminary contract (compromesso) and the final deed (rogito) signed before a notaio, a neutral public official who collects the taxes. Our guide to buying a home in Italy walks through the steps.

Upfront costs side by side

Here's a EUR 350,000 resale flat in Rome against a £300,000 house in England, bought by a Brit living in Rome. The Italian figures assume a cadastral income (rendita catastale) of EUR 1,000, a made-up but plausible figure; yours will be on the listing or the land registry record.

	Rome: EUR 350,000 flat (about £291,600)	England: £300,000 house
Foreign-buyer surcharge	None	None for foreigners, but 2% if you're not UK resident [1]
Main home, standard rates	Registration tax 2% of EUR 1,000 × 1.05 × 110: EUR 2,310 (about £1,925) [8]	SDLT £5,000 if UK resident [1]
Not your main home	9% of EUR 1,000 × 1.05 × 120: EUR 11,340 (about £9,450) [7]	£20,000 at the higher rates, UK resident [1][2]
Non-resident buyer	No change	£11,000, or £6,000 with first-time buyer relief [1]
Non-resident and another home	No change	£26,000 [1][2]
Fixed extras	Mortgage and cadastral taxes, EUR 50 each [7]	HM Land Registry fee
Minimum	Registration tax at least EUR 1,000 [7]	None

Buy a new-build from a developer charging VAT and the picture changes: 10% VAT on the price (4% for a qualifying main home), plus three fixed taxes of EUR 200 each, with no cadastral-value option [7][8]. On EUR 350,000 that's EUR 35,000 (about £29,200), or EUR 14,000 (about £11,700) with prima casa relief.

The cadastral-value rule (prezzo-valore) only applies if you ask the notaio for it in the deed, and you must still state the real price [7]. Hiding part of the price brings penalties. Using it also cuts the notary's fees by 30% [7].

Prima casa relief needs the home to be in the comune where you live or work, or will move your residence within 18 months [8]. A holiday flat doesn't qualify.

The UK trap. HMRC's higher rates apply if you'll own residential property worth £40,000 or more anywhere in the world [2]. Keep your Roman flat and buy in Bristol, and the higher rates apply, plus 2% while you're non-resident. You can reclaim the 2% if you then spend 183 days in the UK within a year of buying; see our guide to buying UK property from abroad.

Scotland and Wales have no non-resident surcharge, but Scotland adds a flat Additional Dwelling Supplement to LBTT for second homes, and Wales charges higher rates of Land Transaction Tax. Revenue Scotland and the Welsh Revenue Authority publish the current figures.

Financing: Italian bank or UK lender?

In Italy, banks lend to foreigners, but expect a long list of documents (codice fiscale, income proof, tax returns) and, as a non-resident, often a lower loan-to-value than a resident would get. Each bank sets its own limit. Italian income and residence help, and it's slow, so start before you sign the compromesso.

Back in the UK, borrowing while living in Rome narrows the field. Plenty of high-street lenders won't lend to people abroad or won't count income in euros, and those that do usually want a bigger deposit. Our guide to UK mortgages for Brits living abroad explains the foreign-currency rules.

Owning it: property tax and running costs

In Rome, IMU, the council property tax, isn't charged on an ordinary main home. It is charged on a second home, and on luxury categories, at a rate the comune sets within national limits, on a value derived from the cadastral income. Add the spese condominiali for the building.

Italian residents who keep a UK home also meet IVIE, Italy's tax on property abroad. It's currently 1.06% a year, usually on the purchase cost for a non-EU property such as a UK house, and the exemption for a main home abroad rarely helps someone who lives in Italy [10]. That surprises a lot of Brits.

In the UK, council tax is the yearly bill. If the house sits furnished and empty while you're in Rome, English councils can charge a second-home premium of up to 100% since April 2025, if they choose to [5].

Let it out and the tenant normally pays council tax, while you meet the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme. Your letting agent, or a tenant paying more than £100 a week, takes basic rate tax off the rent unless HMRC has approved you to be paid gross [4]. You apply on form NRL1, then file a Self Assessment return each year. Budget 2026 lists a property basic rate of 24% from 2027/28 [1]. See renting out your UK home.

Tax when you sell

The Italian side

Italy only taxes a gain on a home as income if you sell within five years of buying [9]. Even then there's no tax if the home was the main residence of you or your family for most of the time you owned it, or if you inherited it [9]. Where a gain is taxable, you can ask the notaio to apply a flat substitute tax at the deed instead of ordinary income tax [9]; the notaio will confirm the current rate.

The UK side

Selling your UK home while you live in Rome. Report the sale to HMRC within 60 days of completion and pay any tax in the same window, even when nothing is due [3]. Residential gains are taxed at 18% or 24% in 2026/27, with a £3,000 annual exempt amount [1]. The UK–Italy convention lets the UK tax gains on UK property; where Italy taxes the same gain, it deducts the UK tax from its own bill [6]. A UK house you've owned for more than five years usually falls outside Italy's five-year rule anyway. Private residence relief can still cover years you lived in the house; our guide to selling UK property as a non-resident explains the 90-day test for years abroad.

Selling your Roman flat after moving back. Once you're UK resident again, the UK taxes your worldwide gains, measured in pounds at the exchange rates when you bought and sold. If Italy has taxed the gain under its five-year rule, the UK normally gives credit for the Italian tax. Private residence relief may apply to a home that was your main residence, but that's general information. A tax adviser who knows both countries can check your case.

Which makes sense for whom

Moving to Rome for good. Buying locally can be cheap on tax, especially with prima casa relief and the cadastral-value rule, and a sale after five years is usually untaxed in Italy.
In Rome for a few years. The notaio, agent and taxes are sunk costs, and IVIE applies to a UK home you keep. Renting may be the simpler bet.
Keeping the UK house. Weigh IVIE and the NRL scheme against the rent, and diarise the 60-day return for when you sell.
Buying back in the UK from Rome. Check stamp duty first. Living abroad and owning a Roman flat can turn £5,000 into £26,000 on a £300,000 home.

Compare notaio stories with people who've done it in our community group for Brits in Italy.

Buying in Rome vs back home: cadastral values, the notaio and the taxman