Estate Agent fees

[tuscanhills]

Can anyone provide a good rule of thumb on estate agent fees?

I know that in the UK it about 1.5%, but I suspect that things may be different in Italy.

Any ideas?

[neilmcn]

Italian estate agent fees are higher than those of the UK - typically somewhere in the region of 2 to 4% of the price paid for the property (rather than its declared value).
In addition, it is common for the responsibility for payment of the estate agent fees to be split between the purchaser and vendor 50/50, so that can be a surprise hidden cost for the unwary.

[Ian and Sandra]

I think it can be be more than 4% - split between the purchaser and the vendor. It can be between 4% - 8%, depending on what they (the agent) do for you - like get it all sorted!!!

Naive purchaser ( although he did do a great deal).

ps. I suppose the message is get it all in writing and signed. Italians like this, very much, very renaissance.

[Charles Joseph]

The provisions made in article 1755 Codice Civile and article 6 legge 39 dated 03/02/1989 regulate the subject of commissions payable to agents/brokers.

Normally commissions are between 2% and 3%. In some places like Tuscany for example, they can be higher (5%). However, the law sets out that terms for mediation may be implied, with the exception of any specific conditions that may apply, by custom of a locality. This means that you could be asked for more but my advice is not to pay more than the 3%.

[latoca]

Usuallly, In Italy, an estate agent would get 3% from the seller and 3% from the buyer.

Paola

[Karen]

Originally Posted by latoca

Usuallly, In Italy, an estate agent would get 3% from the seller and 3% from the buyer.

Paola

Now I know why so many estate agents are starting up here ! Where I come from, the agent only gets between 1.5 and 2 % from the Vendor. The purchaser doesnt have to pay anything. LaToCa - you're in the wrong place - you should be practising here in Piemonte !
Ciao Karen

[latoca]

That's sort of what I am doing!

Paola

[Graham Lane]

We work in collaboration with nearly 70 estate agents throughout the whole of Umbria and have never found one that charges less than 3% commission. This fee is levied on both the buyer and the seller. A few charge more and I believe that IPN charge 6%! There is a reason why charges are higher than in the UK. The bureaucracy in Italy is legendary and agents do a lot of work between making an offer and the final contract. In addition, foreign buyers are unlikely to speak Italian well (it's a whole new vocabulary when buying a house even if you are nearly fluent), need an Italian fiscal code (codice fiscale) and a bank account, which is all additional work for the agent.

[Linda]

Generally speaking you can expect to pay between 2 and 5% depending where in Italy you are.

However, when you decide on a property you want to buy, you can try negotiating with the agent as to the fee payable to the agent. I have done this for many of my clients :)
Linda Stubbs
www.intouchitalia.co.uk

[brendangfc]

In response to Graham, if people get the chance whilst they are in Italy they can, of course, get their own codice fiscale and open a bank account. Both very straight forward tasks in our experience and I'm not sure whether it's worth doing it through an agent. Obviously if you are paying an agent anyway then I suppose you may as well get them to do it for you - although it's no bad thing to get to know the bank manager yourself (and them to know you). As has been mentioned before on this forum you can also get your codice fiscale from the Italian Consulate in the UK - which is in fact what we did and it took us 10 minutes.