Homesearch
The hardest part of moving to Italy, handled.
Your visa needs a signed lease before you apply. We find and secure it for you, remotely or on the ground, with someone in your corner at every step.
The housing catch-22
You need a lease to get your visa. Landlords want you there first.
To get an Elective Residency or Digital Nomad visa, your consulate needs a signed lease in your name, registered with the Italian tax office, or title to a property you own. Every consulate looks at it closely. Without one, there is no application. So you’re bound to a lease before you’ve even walked into the consulate, with no guarantee of the visa and no certainty you’ll make the move.
To get that lease, an Italian landlord has to take on a tenant with no visa yet, no Italian payslip, no rental history here and nobody local to vouch for them. A landlord also has more legal recourse against a local tenant than against you, so you’re behind from the get-go. And you’re asking from abroad, in a market that works nothing like your own.
It’s the step that stops most people cold, and one of our favourite problems to solve.
For our visa clients
$250
USD credit towards Homesearch
For the time being, every Elective Residency, Digital Nomad and Investor engagement includes a $250 USD credit towards a dedicated Homesearch, plus our review of your lease before you sign.*
Find your home in Italy with support from the team already guiding you through your visa application.
*Homesearch packages are quoted on a case-by-case basis and start at approximately $1,500 USD. One credit per family. The credit is applied against that fee, is not redeemable for cash and has no value outside a Homesearch engagement.
Enquiries from abroad go unanswered
Emails sit unanswered and calls go unreturned. Agents and landlords rarely engage with an enquiry from overseas, however good the tenant behind it.
Landlords hold the cards
A landlord has more legal recourse against an Italian tenant than against you, so a foreigner starts behind from the get-go. Extra effort is needed just to be considered, and someone in your corner is close to a necessity.
Gone in a day, or never listed
In the larger markets homes go in a day or less, sometimes before you see them uploaded. A significant share are leased without ever being listed, through the waitlists agents keep and a local network you can’t reach from abroad.
Bound before you reach the consulate
You need the lease before the visa. That ties you to a contract before you’ve even walked into your appointment, with no guarantee of the visa and no certainty you’ll make the move.
The start date is everything
Leases start when the landlord says, usually straight away. Start too early and you pay for months you can’t spend there while you wait for your visa. Start too late and there’s no lease to show.
The wrong lease costs twice
People who sign on their own often pay too much and end up with a term that doesn’t match their visa date, while deposits, agency fees, advance rent and registration land in quick succession.
How Homesearch helps
This is the gap Homesearch closes.
We build your brief to your specifications, obtain a quotation from the right consultant for your city, and you have them there in real time working for you, on the ground or remotely. Problem solved.
Someone in your corner
The single most important thing your consultant does is advocate for you. With less recourse against a foreigner, a landlord needs convincing that they have a reliable tenant. Your consultant makes that case in Italy, in Italian, so a door that stays shut to an email from overseas opens for a viewing.
Into the unlisted market
Through a local network your consultant hears about homes as tenants give notice, and gets you onto the waitlists agents fill before a property is ever uploaded. It’s how our clients get into homes the portals never show.
Timed to your consulate
We know every consulate’s requirements intricately, when it needs the lease and how long one takes to get. Your search runs to that clock, so you sign as late as the paperwork allows and never pay for empty months while you wait on a visa.
The right lease, on the right terms
A contract type your consulate accepts, a term that matches your visa and not a day longer, and, wherever a landlord will agree to it, a later start or an exit clause in case the visa is delayed or your plans change. You’re told what to pay, to whom and when.
Backed by our Italian lawyers
We review your lease before you sign, drawing on our knowledge of Italian tenancy law and the requirements of your consulate, Questura and Comune. Our Italian lawyers are on hand to provide specialist advice where needed.
No travel required
Shortlist, walk-through video viewings, negotiation, signature and registration can all run without you leaving home. You save the flights, the hotel, the weeks off and a great deal of stress. No travel required.
Who does the searching
Not just agents from a directory.
Consultants we know, have worked with across many client files, and have built a shared system with. We stand firmly behind the quality of their work, and we stay accountable to you for it.
Remote or in person. The whole engagement can run fully remotely, which saves you the flights, the hotel, the weeks off and a great deal of stress. You stay put, keep working and delegate the legwork to someone who does it for a living. Where a consultant does need to travel to your destination, it’s quoted up front.
Homesearch sets you up for visa success and for what comes after, with someone watchful looking over your shoulder. A separate, scoped engagement alongside your visa package, with a fixed quote before you commit.
- 01
Book your initial consultation
Tell us where you’re going, which visa you’re applying for and when your consulate needs the lease.
- 02
Brief and fixed quote
We build your brief to your specifications and obtain a quotation from the right consultant for your city. You decide before anything starts.
- 03
Search, sign, register
A shortlist, viewings in person or by walk-through video, terms negotiated, and the lease reviewed by our team, signed and registered, with its start date lined up to your consulate.
When you sign the lease, we’ll make sure it’s the right one, on the right terms, at the right time, so you avoid the expensive mistakes people make on their own, now and in the future.
Ready when you are. Book your initial consultation and your Homesearch brief starts there.
Get StartedFrequently asked questions
A few things you might be wondering.
Want the long version? Read our complete guide to the Italian rental market for visa applicants.
The $250 USD credit, our review of your lease before you sign, and access to our network come with every Elective Residency, Digital Nomad and Investor package. The dedicated search itself is a separate, scoped engagement: we build your brief, obtain a fixed quote from the right consultant for your city, and you decide before anything starts. Quotes typically start at around $1,500 USD, and the credit comes off that fee.
No. Homesearch runs alongside a Why Wait Italy visa package and is not sold separately. That is what lets us stand behind it: every client we introduce arrives with a prepared file, a known timetable and a consultancy behind them, which is exactly what an Italian landlord wants to see.
Consulates want a registered residential lease in your name, valid for at least twelve months, presented in original with the Agenzia delle Entrate registration receipt. In practice that means a 4+4 (canone libero) or 3+2 (canone concordato) contract, or a transitory contract whose term clearly covers the visa period. Tourist contracts, holiday lets and hotel bookings are not accepted. We confirm the right type for your visa and consulate before you sign.
We work backwards from the date. Your consulate needs the registered lease in your file before the appointment, and a lease in Italy starts when the landlord says, usually straight away. Your consultant times the search so you sign as late as the paperwork allows and the lease starts as close to your move as the landlord will accept, so you are not paying for months you cannot spend there while you wait for the visa.
It is the reason we time the signature as late as your paperwork allows and line the start date up with your consulate rather than the landlord’s preference. Wherever a landlord will agree to it, we negotiate a later start date or an exit clause into the contract, so a delay or a change of plans doesn’t leave you paying for a home you can’t yet live in. Not every landlord will agree, and we tell you honestly where you stand before you sign.
Yes. The search, the viewings by walk-through video, the negotiation, the signature and the registration can all run with you at home, which saves the flights, the hotel, the weeks off and a great deal of stress. Where a consultant needs to travel to your destination, it is quoted up front.
In practice, yes. Almost every landlord and agent will insist on a codice fiscale before they sign, and turning up without one is one of the biggest sticking points a foreign tenant runs into. Technically the law is on your side: since the Revenue Agency’s Resolution 5/E of 2023 a foreign tenant can be registered on a lease using name, date and place of birth and a foreign address. Few landlords know that, and fewer trust it. That is why codice fiscale application assistance is included in your visa package and is one of the first things we do, so you have it in hand well before anyone asks and the signature goes through without a hitch. You will need it anyway for utilities and a bank account.
The credit is applied against your Homesearch consultant’s fee. One credit per family; it is not redeemable for cash and has no value outside a Homesearch engagement. Agency commission on the property, typically one month’s rent plus VAT, the deposit, capped by law at three months’ rent, and the registration tax are paid by you as they would be for any tenant. Your consultant tells you exactly what falls due, to whom and when, and makes sure you are not asked for more than a local would be.
Our consultants cover the cities and regions our clients most often move to, including Milan, Rome, Florence, Bologna, Turin, Puglia and the 7% flat-tax towns of the south. For anywhere else we will tell you honestly whether we have someone we trust there before we quote.
Our focus is leases, because a registered lease is what gets our clients their visa. We even recommend renting first and looking to buy once you are already living in Italy: by then you know the neighbourhoods, the market and the paperwork, and you are not buying from abroad against a consulate deadline. If you are set on purchasing first, we can still assist. We have buyers’ agents we refer to and work with seamlessly, so you get your visa and the right home for you.
