Can Foreigners Get a Mortgage in Italy? A 2026 Guide for Non-Residents

Yes. No Italian law stops a foreigner or a non-resident from borrowing to buy a home in Italy, and new home loans averaged an estimated 3.56% in August 2026, according to the Italian Banking Association. Banks do lend non-residents less than residents: plan on 50 to 60% of the value, and expect the bank to approve the house as well as you.

This article is part of our complete guide to buying property in Tuscany. It covers who can borrow, how much, at what rate and at what cost, and the two moments where foreign buyers most often get caught out: the currency they earn in, and the day they sign an offer.

Key takeaways

• There is no legal bar. Italy’s rules on home loans protect every consumer, whatever their passport and wherever they live. What changes is each bank’s lending policy, and some standard products are written only for EU citizens and for residents.
• Plan on 50 to 60% of the value. Italian banks normally lend at most 80% of their own valuation. For non-residents, in our experience, 50 to 60% is the realistic range, and one bank’s rules cap it at 70% for borrowers paid in another currency.
• If you earn in dollars or pounds, your euro loan is a foreign currency loan. That is how Italian law classifies it. It can limit which banks will lend to you, and once the exchange rate has moved by 20% or more you can switch the loan into your own currency, which stops further currency risk but does not undo a loss already made.
• Put the mortgage in your offer. A signed offer is usually irrevocable for a set period, and once the seller accepts it, it binds you both. If it has no mortgage condition and the bank says no, the seller can keep your deposit, or even sue you for more.
• Budget beyond the rate. On a holiday home the bank withholds a 2% substitute tax on the amount it lends, and there are arrangement, valuation, insurance and notary costs on top. Repaying early carries no penalty.

Can a non-resident get a mortgage in Italy?

Yes. The Bank of Italy’s official guide for borrowers sets no condition of residence or nationality: “Anyone can qualify for a mortgage, provided they can demonstrate that they are able to pay the amount borrowed back over time” (Buying a home: mortgages made easy, updated February 2026).

A mutuo is an Italian mortgage, a medium or long term loan secured on property. The rules that protect the borrower sit in the Consolidated Banking Act, the TUB, in the chapter that brought the European mortgage credit directive into Italian law (articles 120-quinquies and following). They apply to any consumer who borrows against a home or to buy one, whatever their nationality and wherever they live; residence matters only for details, such as which currency counts as foreign. What the law does require is that the bank assess your creditworthiness thoroughly before it lends, and that it tell you without delay if it turns you down (article 120-undecies).

So the real question is not whether a foreigner may borrow, but whether a particular bank’s lending policy includes you. Each Italian lender publishes the eligibility conditions of each product in a general information sheet. Here is what two of Italy’s largest banks said in September 2026.

Sources: the information sheets of BPER and of Intesa Sanpaolo’s XME Mutuo and Mutuo Domus Fisso. Banks update these documents often, so read the current version before you apply.

Two things follow. A non-EU citizen who does not live in Italy, an American, a Canadian or, since Brexit, a Briton, falls outside BPER’s standard fixed-rate mortgage as written. Intesa Sanpaolo’s sheets leave the door open up to 80% of the value, which is more than most non-residents obtain in practice. Neither sheet is a promise: each bank still decides case by case, and finding the lender that will actually consider a non-resident is most of what a good mortgage broker does.

Whether you can buy a property in the first place is a separate question, answered by the reciprocity rule for non-EU citizens, which we cover in our guide on whether foreigners can buy property in Italy. And borrowing, like buying, does not by itself give you any right to live in Italy: see whether buying property in Italy gives you residency.

How much will an Italian bank lend a non-resident?

Normally no more than 80% of the value, and for a non-resident usually less. The ratio between the loan and the value of the property is the loan-to-value, or LTV. The Bank of Italy’s guide states that the amount approved cannot be more than 80% of the property’s value as determined by an independent valuer; banks sometimes go higher, but only against extra guarantees and often on less favourable terms.

That ceiling applies to everyone. Across Italy in 2025 the capital lent came to about 79% of the estimated value of the homes bought with a mortgage, a figure the Agenzia delle Entrate presents only as a proxy of the average LTV (Rapporto Immobiliare 2026, published in May 2026). In Tuscany, 49.9% of the homes bought by individuals in 2025 were bought with a mortgage, and the average loan was €148,800.

Non-residents get less. In our experience with foreign buyers, 50 to 60% of the value is the realistic range; the guides published by specialist brokers mostly quote the same range, and a few go up to about 70% for the strongest applicants. It is a market practice rather than a written rule: of the information sheets we read, only BPER’s sets a lower ceiling, 70%, and only for loans in a foreign currency. The reason is practical. A bank lending to someone whose income, assets and credit history are abroad has fewer ways to check them and fewer ways to recover its money, and it asks for a larger deposit instead.

One detail changes the arithmetic more than people expect. The percentage applies to the bank’s own valuation, the perizia, and some banks, BPER among them, apply it to the lower of the valuation and the price. On a house priced at €600,000, 60% is €360,000. If the valuer puts the house at €540,000, 60% becomes €324,000, and you need €36,000 more of your own money.

Remember too that the purchase taxes, the notary and the agency fee are paid on top of the deposit, in cash. Our guide to the cost of buying a house in Italy gives the figures with a worked example.

What are Italian mortgage rates in 2026?

The average rate on new loans for house purchase in Italy was 3.56% in August 2026, up from 3.40% in July, according to the ABI monthly report of September 2026. The latest month is an estimate that the ABI revises the following month.

Bank of Italy figures from Banche e moneta, 9 September 2026. Tuscany from the Rapporto Immobiliare 2026.

Three things to read into these numbers. First, the averages predate the latest move by the European Central Bank, which raised its key rates in June and again in September 2026, so offers made this autumn may come in higher. Second, most new Italian home loans still carry a fixed rate: in July 2026, 71% of the value of new home loans had the rate fixed for more than a year, although the share fixed for a year or less, mainly variable, rose to 29% from about 20% in June. Third, there is no official statistic on the rates offered to non-residents, so the averages are a reference point, not a quote.

To compare offers, use the APRC, in Italian the TAEG, the annual percentage rate of charge. It adds the bank’s fees, the substitute tax, the valuation and any insurance the bank requires to the interest, and every lender must show it. It leaves out the notary. Before you are bound by any offer, the bank must also give you, free of charge, a personalised ESIS, the European Standardised Information Sheet, called PIES in Italian. And remember that the rate printed in an information sheet is only an example: a fixed rate is set when the bank makes you its binding offer, on the market swap rates of that moment.

How much income do you need, and is there an age limit?

Enough for the monthly instalment to stay within about a third of your disposable income. That is the rule of thumb in the Bank of Italy’s guide, and banks set their own thresholds around it. Here is what it means for a €600,000 farmhouse bought with a 60% mortgage of €360,000 over 20 years.

Our calculation, fixed rate with monthly repayments. The first row is close to the August 2026 average, the other two show what a higher offer does to the numbers.

Two practical points. Run the numbers without the holiday rent you hope the house will earn: it is not income yet, and the bank assesses your ability to repay on the income you can document. And your existing debts count against you, including the mortgage on the house you live in: banks ask for the repayment schedules of your other loans.

On age, the sheets we read set the limit at the end of the loan, not at the start: no older than 78 at BPER and no older than 80 at Intesa Sanpaolo. A buyer aged 60 can therefore borrow for about 18 to 20 years at most, and individual banks may be stricter with non-residents.

Can you get an Italian mortgage with income in dollars or pounds?

Yes, but under Italian law your euro mortgage then becomes a foreign currency loan, and that has consequences. The TUB defines a foreign currency as one other than the currency in which the borrower earns the income, or holds the assets, used to repay the loan, or other than the currency of the EU country where the borrower lives (article 120-quinquies). An American paid in dollars or a Briton paid in pounds who borrows in euros is, legally, borrowing in a foreign currency. So is a Swede or a Dane living at home. The Bank of Italy’s guide spells it out: a euro mortgage can be a foreign currency mortgage.

It matters in three ways.

• Which banks will lend. This is where the eligibility lines above bite: BPER caps foreign currency loans at 70% of the value, and Intesa Sanpaolo keeps them out of its plans above 80%. Banco BPM’s fixed-rate offer of September 2026, for instance, accepted only borrowers whose own currency was the euro, the US dollar, the Swiss franc or sterling, and asked non-EU applicants for an Italian residence permit.
• A right to convert. Once the exchange rate has moved by 20% or more since you signed, you may convert the remaining loan into the currency of most of your income or assets, as stated when the bank last assessed you, or, if you live in the EU, into the currency of your country of residence (article 120-quaterdecies TUB and its implementing decree of 29 September 2016). Unless the contract says otherwise, the conversion uses the European Central Bank rate of the day you ask, so it protects you from further moves but does not give back what the exchange rate has already cost you, and the contract may charge an all-inclusive fee for it.
• The exchange rate risk itself. Your instalment is fixed in euros, your income is not.

Here is what that risk looks like with real numbers. At the European Central Bank’s reference rates, an instalment of €2,000 cost an American borrower $1,913 on 28 September 2022, the euro’s lowest point in ten years, and $2,276 on 28 September 2026: 19% more for exactly the same mortgage. Over the last ten years the ECB reference rate has ranged between $0.9565 and $1.2493 to the euro, a swing of about 31% on the same instalment. Sterling has moved less, between £0.82388 and £0.92985 to the euro, a range of about 13%. The swing can go either way, and over a 20 year loan you should assume you will see both.

If your income is in dollars or pounds, that is a reason to borrow less than the maximum, to keep a cushion in euros, and to ask any bank you approach how it treats your currency before you pay for a valuation.

How long does an Italian mortgage take?

Longer than a cash purchase. The banks’ own information sheets give 30 days (BPER) to 45 days (Banco BPM) for their review once the file is complete, but for a non-resident the file itself takes time, because documents from abroad have to be gathered, translated and checked. In our experience a purchase with an Italian mortgage takes four months or more from accepted offer to deed, against about two months for a cash buyer.

It helps to see the process as two separate approvals.

1. You. The bank assesses your income, your assets, your existing debts and your credit history. A broker can obtain a preliminary assessment of this part before you have chosen a house, and it is worth having before you make an offer. We work with Euroansa for this, see below.
2. The house. Once there is an accepted offer, the bank sends a valuer. The law requires the valuer to be professionally competent and independent of the people selling the loan (article 120-duodecies TUB), and the Italian banks’ valuation guidelines ask the valuer to check that the building matches its permits and to report any irregularity. Only then does the bank make its final decision.

When the bank then makes you a binding offer, you have at least seven days to consider it, and during that time the offer binds the bank (article 120-novies TUB). It is a reflection period before you sign, not a cooling-off period after, and you may accept straight away. Build all of this into the dates of your preliminary contract.

What happens to your deposit if the bank says no?

That depends entirely on what you signed. In Italy the written offer, the proposta irrevocabile d’acquisto, is normally irrevocable for the period it states, so you cannot withdraw it while that period runs (article 1329 of the civil code), and once the seller’s acceptance reaches you, it binds you both. The deposit paid at the preliminary contract, and often already the one that goes with the offer, is usually a caparra confirmatoria, a deposit with a legal function. Under the civil code, if the party who paid the caparra fails to perform, the other party may withdraw from the contract and keep it, or may instead go to court to enforce the contract, or to terminate it and claim damages under the general rules (article 1385).

A bank’s refusal does not release you by itself. If your accepted offer or your preliminary contract says nothing about a mortgage and you cannot complete, you are the party in breach: the seller can keep the deposit, and can even claim more in court.

The protection is a condizione sospensiva, a condition precedent: a clause stating that the purchase takes effect only if you obtain the mortgage. Italian law allows it, and the Supreme Court has held such a clause valid, because the loan depends on the bank as well as on you (Cassazione, judgment 22046 of 11 September 2018). To be useful it should state the amount you need, the date by which the bank must have approved it, and what counts as a refusal. While it is pending you must act in good faith (article 1358 of the civil code), so apply promptly, supply what the bank asks for, and have the clause set a deadline for applying.

Sellers in Tuscany do not always welcome a long mortgage condition, because it keeps their house off the market while your bank decides. A preliminary assessment of your income, obtained before you offer, makes a shorter deadline realistic and your offer more credible. Our guide to the Italian purchase process and the notary explains where the offer and the preliminary contract fit.

Which Tuscan properties are hard to finance?

The ones where the valuer finds a problem, and in the Tuscan countryside the problems are predictable. A bank lends against a house it could sell if you stopped paying, so anything that makes the house harder to sell makes it harder to finance.

• Work without permits. A pool, an annex or a converted barn that does not match the building permits or the cadastral plans. The valuer has to report it, and the bank may reduce the loan or refuse it until the problem is regularised.
• Land and farm buildings. A home mortgage is a loan against the home. If much of the price is in land, olive groves or outbuildings, ask early how the bank will value them, because the loan is a percentage of the valuation, not of your price.
• Ruins. A roofless farmhouse registered as an unità collabente, cadastral category F/2, has no cadastral income and cannot be lived in, which makes it the hardest case for a purchase mortgage.
• Houses to be renovated. Some banks finance works in stages as they progress, a SAL mortgage, from stato avanzamento lavori. BPER, for example, lends up to 80% of the renovation costs set out by the bank’s valuer, within 80% of the value of the finished property, and pays it out as the works advance.

The documents the bank will want on the property, according to the Bank of Italy’s guide, include the preliminary contract, the floor plan, the certificate of habitability and the previous deed of sale or inheritance. They are the same papers that protect you as a buyer, so it pays to see them before you offer. For renovation budgets, see our guide to what it costs to renovate a Tuscan farmhouse.

What does an Italian mortgage really cost?

More than the interest. The APRC captures most of it, but it is worth seeing the pieces, because some are paid up front and one depends on whether the house will be your main home.

First home relief has conditions that most holiday home buyers do not meet: our guide to taxes and fees on buying a house in Italy sets them out.

Three pieces of good news. There is no penalty for repaying early, in full or in part, on a mortgage taken by an individual to buy or renovate a home, and the rule makes no exception for second homes (article 120-ter TUB). If a better rate appears later, another bank can take over your mortgage at no cost to you, provided it is willing to lend to a non-resident (article 120-quater). And when you have repaid, the mortgage registration is cancelled automatically and free of charge (article 40-bis).

One piece of bad news: Italy’s income tax relief on mortgage interest applies only to a main home, so it does nothing for a holiday house.

Should you borrow in Italy or at home?

It depends on what you own at home and on how you earn. There are three routes, and each puts the risk in a different place.

• An Italian mortgage. The loan is in euros, like the house, and secured on the house itself. The costs are the ones above, the deposit is larger than at home, and if you earn in another currency you carry the exchange risk on every instalment.
• Borrowing at home against your home. In the United States this is typically a home equity line of credit, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describes as an open-end line of credit that lets you borrow repeatedly against your home equity. In Britain it would be a remortgage. Your lender lends against the house at home, not against the Italian one, so it is your main home that is at risk. The advantage in Italy is real: you buy as a cash buyer, with no mortgage condition to negotiate and no Italian bank timetable to wait for.
• Borrowing against investments. Private banks lend against a portfolio of securities, a Lombard loan. It is quick, but if markets fall the bank can ask you to add collateral or to repay.

Whichever route you choose, take advice in your own country on the tax and currency side. What we can tell you is how each plays out in a Tuscan negotiation: a buyer who can complete without an Italian mortgage condition is a stronger buyer.

What documents will an Italian bank ask for?

Each bank sets its own list, but a non-resident should expect to provide:

• a passport and an Italian tax code, the codice fiscale, which in practice you cannot do without;
• proof of income: recent payslips and tax returns if you are employed, your latest tax returns and company documents if you are self-employed;
• recent bank statements, and the repayment schedules of any other loans you have;
• translations into Italian of the documents from your own country, and sometimes a credit report;
• for the property, the preliminary contract, the floor plan, the certificate of habitability and the previous deed.

Under Italy’s anti-money laundering rules, both the bank and the notary must also verify who you are and, depending on the risk, where your money comes from, so keep a clear record of the funds you will use for the deposit.

Much of the application can be handled at a distance through a broker, but the mortgage deed is signed before an Italian notary, in person or by someone holding your power of attorney. A power of attorney made abroad is normally signed before a local notary, apostilled or legalised, and translated into Italian, although some countries, Germany and France among them, are exempt from the apostille by treaty. If you do not speak Italian, the law provides for an interpreter at the signing, or for a deed in a language the notary knows, with an Italian translation. Ask the Italian notary for the exact form before you sign anything abroad.

How we can help

We are a boutique agency based in Tuscany, and for mortgages we work with Euroansa, an Italian credit broker registered with the OAM, which handles applications from non-residents. If you are interested, contact us through our contact form and we will put you in touch, ideally before you start viewing, so that you know what you can borrow before you make an offer. Ask us for the cadastral record of any house you are considering before you offer: it is one of the first things a bank’s valuer will check. If you are buying with a mortgage, these are examples of what we have for sale now: an elegant restored townhouse in Lucca at €395,000, the Leonardo da Vinci Villa in Vinci at €780,000, and a freshly renovated farmhouse in Semproniano at €950,000. You can browse everything we have for sale, ask our property finding service to search the whole market for you, or Gespräch buchen, in English, Italian or German.

Häufige Fragen

Can you get a mortgage in Italy as a non-resident?

Yes. No Italian law prevents it, and the Bank of Italy states that anyone can qualify who can show they are able to repay. Each bank sets its own eligibility, and in our experience non-residents should expect to borrow 50 to 60% of the value.

Is it difficult for an American to get a mortgage in Italy?

It is harder than for an EU citizen, for two reasons. Some banks’ standard products are written for EU citizens and for non-EU citizens already resident in Italy, and a euro loan to someone paid in dollars counts under Italian law as a foreign currency loan, which some banks limit or exclude. It is possible, but it usually takes a broker who knows which lenders will consider Americans, and a deposit of 40 to 50%.

Can I get a mortgage in Italy as a UK resident?

Yes, with the same constraints as other non-EU buyers since Brexit. A British citizen living in the UK and paid in pounds has a foreign currency loan under Italian law, and falls outside products reserved to EU citizens or to non-EU citizens resident in Italy. Of the sheets we read in September 2026, Intesa Sanpaolo’s asked foreign citizens for Italian residence only when lending more than 80% of the value. A broker will know which banks currently accept sterling income.

What is the current interest rate on mortgages in Italy?

The average rate on new loans for house purchase was an estimated 3.56% in August 2026, according to the ABI, and the APRC including fees was 3.81% in July 2026, according to the Bank of Italy. The European Central Bank raised its rates in June and September 2026, so new offers may be higher. There is no official figure for non-residents.

How much deposit do I need to buy in Italy with a mortgage?

As a non-resident, plan on 40 to 50% of the value, less only for the strongest applicants, plus the purchase taxes, the notary and the agency fee, which are paid on top in cash. The bank lends a percentage of its own valuation, and some banks use the lower of the valuation and the price.

Is there an age limit for a mortgage in Italy?

Yes, and each bank sets it at the end of the loan. In the sheets we read in September 2026 it was 78 at BPER and 80 at Intesa Sanpaolo, so a buyer aged 60 can borrow for about 18 to 20 years at most. Banks may be stricter with non-residents.

Can I get a mortgage from a US or UK bank for a house in Italy?

Not usually against the Italian house itself. What banks at home offer is borrowing against the home you already own there, such as a home equity line of credit or a remortgage. That lets you buy in Italy as a cash buyer, but it puts your main home up as security.

Can I deduct Italian mortgage interest on a holiday home?

No. Italy’s income tax relief on mortgage interest applies only to a main home, the one where you or your family habitually live.

This article explains how Italian mortgages work for foreign buyers. It is not financial, legal or tax advice. Bank conditions change often, and the figures and rules quoted here come from the documents and statistics cited, as published in September 2026. Confirm your own case with your lender or broker, your notary and a tax advisor before you commit.

Last updated September 2026. Written by Alessandro Ciacci, Co-founder, Easy Living Tuscany.