Buying a historic house in Italy is not just a real estate choice: it means living in buildings that tell centuries of history, in villages where time seems to have stopped. If you are thinking about moving to Italy or buying a second home, and you are attracted by the idea of living in a place that has endured through the centuries, in this article we look at the important information: what it really means to buy a historic house, the costs, restrictions.

If you are American, Canadian, or Australian, the idea of living in a house 300, 400, or even 600 years old may seem unthinkable. The average age of a residential home is about 42 years in the USA (source: National Association of Home Builders, 2023), while only 1.4% of American homes date before 1919. In Italy, on the other hand, more than 2.1 million residential buildings were constructed before that date, and tens of thousands even earlier (source: ISTAT).