It's one of the first questions people ask me, usually with a little anxiety behind it: can I even get a mortgage here, or do I need to arrive with all the cash?
The honest answer is: sometimes. Foreign buyers do finance homes in Italy. But here's the part most people are never told, and it matters more than any interest rate: in a lot of areas, most local banks simply won't lend to a foreign buyer at all — and for Americans especially, many won't even begin, because they can't make sense of foreign income and foreign paperwork. In our own area, the great majority of banks will turn an American buyer away for that reason alone.
So the real question isn't "can foreigners get a mortgage in Italy." It's "will a bank near this house lend to someone with my profile" — and that is local, specific, and genuinely hard to know from the outside. It's one of the very first things worth finding out, before you fall for a house you can only buy with financing.
Watch the nugget — Can a foreigner get a mortgage in Italy? →
Expect to put down more — and don't panic about the deposit
Where a bank will lend to a non-resident, you can usually expect to borrow a smaller share of the price than a local would. In our area, for example, the banks that do lend tend to cover around 70%, with the other 30% coming from you — but please treat that as a local example, not a national rule, because it varies a great deal from place to place and bank to bank.
Here's where a lot of foreign buyers tie themselves in knots, though. Hearing "the bank only covers 70%," people assume they have to hand over 30% straight away. That's not how it works. What you need up front is the earnest-money deposit — the caparra confirmatoria, around 10% of the price, paid when your offer is accepted. The rest of your own share is paid at closing, after the mortgage is done. So the cash you need early is far less than the panic suggests.
Watch the nugget — The 30% deposit myth →
Protect yourself: put the mortgage condition in writing
This is the one piece of practical advice I'll always repeat, because getting it wrong is expensive.
A written, accepted offer in Italy is legally binding, and the deposit you leave is genuinely at risk if you walk away without a valid reason. The valid reason you want in place is your financing: make sure a mortgage condition — a clausola sospensiva tied to actually obtaining the loan — is written into your offer. With it, if the mortgage genuinely falls through, your deposit comes back. Without it, a failed mortgage can cost you that money. So before you sign anything, ask: "Is my offer conditional on getting the mortgage, in writing?"
Where this gets personal — and why a local hand matters
Beyond those basics, a mortgage as a foreign buyer in Italy comes down to specifics that are different for almost everyone: which banks in your area will even consider you, how your particular income and paperwork need to be presented so a cautious Italian bank will say yes, whether financing is realistic for your situation at all, and how to keep the whole thing moving while you're abroad. None of that is one-size-fits-all, and getting it wrong can cost you the house you wanted.
That's the honest reason this is one of the parts of buying in Italy where real, local guidance pays for itself — knowing before you make an offer whether a mortgage is even on the table for you, and with which bank.
A free place to start
If you'd like the shortest possible version of the traps that catch foreign buyers in Italy — the financing one among them — I put the eight most common, and the exact question that catches each one, into a short free guide. Get "The 8 Surprises That Catch Foreign Buyers Off Guard in Italy" here →
And if you'd like the whole journey in detail, with the tools I use myself — the cost calculator, the glossary, the checklists — that's my map, Living the Italian Dream. You can meet Federica and me there and see how the whole thing works — and when you'd rather simply have someone carry the weight for you, that's what my partner Federica does.
Sabine De Vito · Infinicity Real Estate
This guide is general information drawn from years of real transactions, not legal, tax or financial advice for your specific purchase. Mortgage terms, bank policies and procedures change and vary by lender and situation — always confirm the details of your own case with a qualified professional.