Some moves are shaped by urgency.
Others are shaped by patience.
This is a story about the second kind.
This is the real story of two of our clients.
We’ll call them Anna and Markus, just for privacy.
A German couple in their early 40s, both still working — Markus remotely for a company based in Munich, Anna transitioning to freelance consulting — they weren’t retirees chasing a tax incentive.
They were building a life at their own pace, which meant they had the freedom and the instinct to test before committing.
That instinct served them well.
It also nearly cost them a property purchase they’d already mentally moved into.
How They Found Wanderlust Abruzzo
Markus and Anna had been researching Abruzzo for over a year before making contact.
Methodical, spreadsheet-driven, they had compared regions, read every relocation forum they could find, and built a genuinely thorough picture of what they wanted.
What they didn’t have was reliable, honest local contact.
Every property enquiry they sent to Italian agents either went unanswered or came back with information that later turned out to be incomplete.
They found Wanderlust Abruzzo through AI-based research and reached out to us through our website directly.
Partly because we could communicate with them in German, and partly because — as Anna put it in one of the first calls — “we wanted someone who would tell us the uncomfortable parts, not just the nice parts”.
That request shaped the entire relationship that followed.
Phase 1: Planning — Testing Before Committing
Renting first, deliberately
Unlike many clients who arrive ready to buy immediately, Markus and Anna were clear from the start: they wanted to rent for at least a year before making any purchase decision.
This is a genuinely smart approach, and one we consistently recommend.
Renting first gives you time to properly understand an area before committing to it long-term.
However, the current rental market is becoming quite difficult due to the seasonal rentals, as we also mention in our blog post about renting vs buying in Abruzzo.
Since they weren’t targeting the 7% flat tax for retirees — not relevant to their working-age situation — their search wasn’t restricted to smaller qualifying towns.
That opened up considerably more options, including larger towns with stronger infrastructure.
We pre-selected rental properties in the area around Chieti, close enough to Pescara’s services and airport, with good connectivity for Markus’s remote work, and settled them into a rental within a couple of months.
The transparency problem, again
During the rental search, Markus and Anna ran into the same pattern we see with almost every client, regardless of nationality: Italian agents who simply weren’t forthcoming.
Two separate agents showed them properties with vague or evasive answers about condominium fees.
One property was described as having “recently renovated” utilities that turned out to be original to the building.
For Markus specifically, this was a genuine cultural friction point.
Not the paperwork itself, but the gap between German expectations of documented, itemised precision and the more relationship-based, verbally-negotiated way information tends to move in Italian real estate.
As we told him early on:
It’s not that anyone is being dishonest exactly — it’s that the standard for proactive disclosure is simply different here than in Germany.
And you have to actively ask rather than assume it will be volunteered.
This is precisely why we handle agent communication in Italian directly — not just for translation, but to ask the specific, pointed questions that get real answers rather than reassurances.
The house that almost was
After a year of renting and genuinely getting to know the area, Markus and Anna found a property that seemed almost too good.
A stone house with land near Penne, priced well below what comparable properties in the area were listed for.
They were, understandably, excited.
We recommended the usual due diligence, including checking the full cost picture before making an offer — and this is where the surprise came in.
Once notary fees, land registry costs, cadastral updates, and registration taxes were calculated, the total additional cost came to nearly 15% on top of the purchase price.
Significantly higher than either of them had anticipated, and enough that the “bargain” price no longer looked quite so favourable once the full picture was in front of them.
In Italy, notary fees aren’t a minor administrative line item.
The notary (notaio) is a mandatory part of any property transaction, responsible for verifying the property’s legal status and formally registering the transfer.
Fees typically range from 1–2.5% of the purchase price depending on value, and on top of that sit registration tax, cadastral tax, and mortgage tax, which together can add a further 9–10% for a second home purchase.
On a very low purchase price, these largely fixed and percentage-based costs represent a much larger proportion of the total spend than they would on a higher-priced property — which is exactly what caught Markus and Anna off guard.
Rather than proceeding on the assumption that the low price meant low total cost, they stepped back, recalculated their full budget with these costs properly built in, and decided to look at other properties instead.
Including some priced slightly higher upfront but with a genuinely better total cost once notary and registration fees were properly accounted for.
Finding the right property, the second time
With a clearer, fully-loaded budget in hand, they found a different property nearby Città Sant’Angelo.
A renovated farmhouse with a smaller plot of land, priced a little higher than the first house but with a total cost, once all fees were included, that was actually lower than the “bargain” property would have been.
We accompanied them to the final viewings, confirmed the property’s documentation was in order, and connected them with our surveying partner for a final technical check before the purchase went ahead.
Phase 2: Arrival — From Renters to Homeowners
Once the deed (rogito) was signed, Markus and Anna transitioned from their Chieti rental into their new home near Città Sant’Angelo.
We accompanied them to register their residency at the Comune, which — since they’d already been living in Abruzzo for a year on their rental — was a comparatively smooth process, though the address change and the 45-day verification window still required proper handling.
From there, we assisted with utilities setup at the new property — transferring and establishing new contracts for electricity, gas, water, and a fibre internet connection, since Markus’s remote work made reliable connectivity non-negotiable.
We also supported their ASL registration for the national health service, updating their address from the previous rental and confirming their GP registration transferred correctly.
Phase 3: Settling In — A Working Life, Not Just a Holiday One
Because Markus and Anna were both still working — one remotely, one building a freelance consulting practice — their settling-in phase looked a little different from clients who are fully retired.
Ongoing questions tended to be about practical, working-life logistics:
- confirming their internet provider could support video calls reliably
- understanding Italian invoicing requirements for Anna’s freelance clients
- and finding a reliable local handyman for a few small jobs the new house needed
We also connected them with a trusted tax partner, before the purchase closed, to help Markus understand how his German remote employment would be taxed once he became an Italian tax resident, and how the regime impatriati might apply to reduce his Italian tax burden for the first several years.
The Moral of the Story
What Markus and Anna got right
- They rented first, deliberately, and used that year to genuinely learn the area rather than rushing a purchase
- They asked for the uncomfortable, precise answers upfront rather than accepting vague reassurances
- They recalculated the full cost of a “bargain” property before committing, rather than anchoring on the asking price alone
What caught them off guard
- The gap between German expectations of proactive disclosure and the Italian norm of information you have to actively request
- How significantly notary fees, registration tax, and cadastral costs can shift the real cost of a lower-priced property
- That a cheap house isn’t always the cheaper option once every fee is properly accounted for
How the right support changed the outcome
- A property that looked like a bargain, and would have added an unexpected 15% in fees, was properly evaluated before any commitment was made
- The eventual purchase cost less in total than the “cheaper” property would have, once all fees were included
- A year of renting turned into genuine local knowledge, rather than a guess based on a few viewing weekends
If you’d rather work through this exact sequence — renting to test an area, budgeting for the real total cost of a purchase, and settling in properly — before you need to make a single call in Italian, our Complete Move to Abruzzo Blueprint walks through the same structure we used with Markus and Anna.
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Planning Your Own Move to Abruzzo — Rental, Purchase, or Both?
Whether you’re still deciding between renting and buying, or ready to make an offer, we help you see the full picture before you commit — not after.
At Wanderlust Abruzzo, we support English- and German-speaking expats through every practical stage of relocating to Abruzzo.
Personal, bilingual, and on the ground.
Get in touch today and let’s talk about your move to Abruzzo
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much are notary fees when buying property in Italy?
Notary fees typically run 1–2.5% of the purchase price, depending on the property’s value, and the notary is a mandatory part of every Italian property transaction. On top of the notary fee itself, buyers should budget for registration tax, cadastral tax, and mortgage tax, which together can add roughly 9–10% for a second home purchase — meaning total additional costs on top of the purchase price can reach approximately 10–15%. On lower-priced properties, these largely fixed and percentage-based costs represent a proportionally larger share of the total spend.
Is it better to rent or buy first when moving to Abruzzo?
For most people without an urgent timeline, renting first is genuinely the lower-risk approach. It gives you a real understanding of an area across different seasons before committing to a purchase, and it removes the pressure to make a major financial decision based on a handful of viewing weekends. Our rent versus buy guide for Abruzzo covers the current market in more detail.
Do I need to target a small town in Abruzzo if I’m not retiring?
No. The 7% flat tax incentive that limits many retirees to towns under 30,000 residents doesn’t apply to working-age movers, which meaningfully widens the realistic property search. Working-age expats and remote workers can consider larger towns with stronger infrastructure, better connectivity, and more services without needing to weigh a tax trade-off against location.
Are Italian real estate agents transparent about a property’s true condition?
Not always, and not to the standard that German, US, or other northern European buyers typically expect. This isn’t necessarily dishonesty — the norm in Italian real estate is that buyers are expected to actively ask specific questions rather than have every detail volunteered upfront. This is one of the most consistent reasons clients ask for bilingual, local support during a property search, regardless of nationality.
Can working expats get tax benefits when moving to Italy?
Potentially, yes. The regime impatriati offers a partial income tax exemption (commonly 50%) for several years to eligible workers — including remote employees of foreign companies — who establish Italian tax residency. Eligibility depends on individual circumstances, so we always recommend confirming your specific situation with a qualified tax advisor before making a move.
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