Looking for a house in Italy

Why not? if there is the possibility to extend your stay at least for some months!
In order to find a house or an apartment on rental or on sale you can act individually or through a real estate agency. When all is over, it is necessary to draw up a lease (more commonly called rental) or a purchase contract.

Individual research
The first advice is the one to take a walk with the nose upward, and to look for the coloured road signs that the owners post up at a window or at the main door of the house to sell (VENDESI) or to rent (AFFITTASI), or also at the road corners and in the borough shops.
Then have a look at business announcements on newspapers on sale in the newspaper stands (both on the daily paper, and on the bans specialized in business announcements) or on those distributed free of charge. The real estate agencies often publish the advertisements, and for their intermediation the payment of a commission is required.
When you find an interesting offer, you must call the owner in order to obtain other information, those that generally are not specified in the announcements, and to fix an appointment so as to visit the house. If you wish to share the cost of the apartment, you can find interesting offers among the announcements posted up in the places attended by young people and students, such as the showcases of the university faculties and of the Youth centres.

Useful references:

• http://www.cercalloggio.it
  Site of the University Students Association of Padua, created in order to defend young people who are looking for a house from possible swindles. Free database of house offers/research in all Italy. Useful information on legal consulence and lease
• http://www.affittistudenti.it
  Realized by students for students far from home and not only. Database for house research and offer. Free of charge.
• http://www.ecasa.it
  RRealized by Data House for the research of houses on rental and on sale. You can insert announcements and consult the advertisements after registering yourself. The research can be made on the basis of the place, the price and other characteristics. It has a useful glossary of terms.
• http://www.casa.it
  Real estate database that covers all the national territory. Advertisements subdivided into residential and trade buildings on rental for holidays. In Italian, English, French, German.
• http://www.piucase.it
  Magazine on which it is possible to publish just your announcement of house rental, sale or research in Turin, Milan and Rome.
• http://www.secondamano.it
  On-line version of the magazine of business announcements "Seconda mano"("Second hand"). Research of buildings on rental and sale on all the national territory.
• http://www.vendesi.it
  Magazine on which it is possible to publish just your announcement of houses rental, sale or research in all Italy.
• http://www.coinquilini.it
  Site dedicated to the cohabitation: announcements, the Paper of the fellow tenant, a Handbook of survival guide in the search of a lodging.
• http://www.studiando.it
  Free Portal that offers useful services for university students. It aims at encouraging the exchanges of material, information, acquaintances among students.
  Among the various sections there is the one for the search/offer of lodging in many Italian and foreign localities.
  

Research through agency
The first thing to do is to contact a real estate agency. It is better to go there personally, but also to call or contact it through Internet. On the basis of the client's requirements and the customer's expenses possibilities, the agent suggests having a look at the apartments more suitable to everybody's needs.
The real estate agent plays the role of intermediary between the owner and the possible renter or purchaser, therefore he asks for the payment of a commission, that generally for rentals corresponds to a monthly salary.

Purchase of a piece of real estate
If you decide to extend your stay in Italy so as to be willing to buy an apartment or a house, it is necessary to inquire yourself into the market prices (very variable according to the localities, the zones and the type of building) consulting various real estate agencies. It is necessary to consider that the eventual commission of the agency and the cost of the bureaucratic and notarial acts lead to an approximately 10% price increase.
In order to formalize legally the purchase you have to address to a notary public.

Useful references:

• http://www.fiaip.it
  FIAIP Database - Italian Professional Real Estate Agents Federation - dedicated to the research of pieces of real estate on rental and sale. Research for region, province, city, type of building and cost per meter square. In Italian and English.
• http://www.domusclick.it
  Advertisements of 2400 companies of the Italian real estate industry. You can see immediately the photographies of the houses you are interested in, consult the planimetry, have all the useful information.
• http://www.italiacase.it
  In order to set the research it is enough to indicate the city selected, the length in metres and the number of premises. In the list of the results are indicated the real estate agencies that deal with each house.
• http://www.immobilionline.it
  I buy, I sell, I rent, bargains: four areas in order to find sale, purchase and rental announcements. Interactive map of Italy for the research by geographic area.

Lease contract: "derogation pacts "
The type of contract more commonly stipulated between lessee (the owner of the house) and conductor (the one who rents the apartment) is called "lease of city building for accomodation use on derogation pacts". This contract states an agreement enacted by the civil code and allows to establish freely the duration and the cost of the lease, binding the owner for all the duration of the contract and the renter to six months' notice in case of recession. The sum fixed remains unchanged up to the contract expiry .
The norms of this contract can be found at the Youth Centres (link to info tourist) or in the local centres of the Renters Trade-unions.

Others lease contracts
There are other types of lease contract, called "for transitory use", less binding as regards the contract's rescission. It is possible to inquire at renters syndicates or at Youth Centres (link to touristic information).

Here the main syndicates of the renters:

• ASSOCOND Multiservices
  via Montevideo 19 - 20124 Milan - tel. +3902/693013.1
  http://www.assocond.it/ (in order to write to them, you should fill in a form with your own data) Other regional centres: Naples, Bologna, Udine, Florence, Rome, Genoa, Palermo, Turin.
• SICET House and Territory Tenants Syndacate
  via Carlo Cattaneo 23 - 00185 Rome - tel. +3906/4958701
  http://www.sicet.it - E-mail: info@sicet.it
  It is available in nearly all the regions.
• UNIAT UTenants, Environment and Territory National Union.
  It is available in nearly all the regions. Contact the local centres of UIL syndacate.
  http://www.uniat.it - E-mail: info@uniat.it

Useful references:

• http://www.assocond.it/
  The site of the Joint Owners Association, one of the main syndacates of the renters, for all the useful information on contracts. You can find information on the activities and cosult a database of the sentences on joint ownership matter free of charge.
• http://www.sicet.it
  Union organization adherent to CISL, present in all the national territory. In the web site a collection of information on lease matter is constantly kept updated . Among these you find the ISTAT index for the calculation of the fee updating, together with the text of the most recent laws that regulate the rents.
• http://www.cercalloggio.it
  Site of the University Students Association of Padoa, created in order to defend the young people who are looking for a house from possible swindles, tricks, embezzlements. Useful information on lease contracts and legal consulence service.
• http://www.tripod.it/affittistudenti/
  If you have problems to find accomodation, give a glance to this site. For all the students who are looking for a house and for those who want to rent their house to students.

University hall of residences and pensions

If you have to live far from home for university courses, an economic and functional solution is the one of university hall of residences. Unfortunately in Italy they are not a lot and to have access to them is rather difficult.
Most of the halls of residence are managed by religious institutions. The admission takes place through competition or on the basis of a selection which takes into account the family's income and the student's merit. The ban can be found at each university centres or at the regional agencies for the right to the study.
The stay in such structures is generally of a year. In Italy there are state university halls of residence, link university hall of residences legally recognized, link and university Pensions.

Useful References:

• State University halls of residence
  Normal Advanced school of Pisa:
  University hall of residence Timpano - lungarno Pacinotti 51 - 56100 Pisa - tel. +3950/509500
  University hall of residence Carducci - via Turati 35 - 56100 Pisa - tel. +39050/48047
  University hall of residence D'Ancona - via Consoli del Mare - 56100 Pisa - tel. +39050/509210
  University hall of residence Fermi - via Santa Apollonia - 56100 Pisa - tel. +39050/509800
  
  Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant'Anna di Pisa: (Secondary school for university studies and specialization Sant'Anna of Pisa)
  Collegio Sant'Anna - via Carducci, 40 - 56100 Pisa - tel. +39050/883229-883294
  
  University of Calabria:
  Residential center - 87036 Arcavacata di Rende (CS) - tel. +390984/839376
  
  The University of Bologna’s online service to seek accommodation: www.sportellounicocasa.arstud.it
  The site of the Azienda Regionale per il Diritto allo Studio Universitario di Bologna (Regional Agency of Bologna for the Right to University Study) is dedicated to university students and all those associated with the university or the institutions of professional, artistic and musical training who need to stay in Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna or Rimini, even for brief periods. It is a databank with offers of accommodation where quality is guaranteed. It also brings together the offers and requests for accommodation from other services.
• University halls of residence legally recognized
  http://www.collegiuniversitari.it or http://universo.murst.it/collegi/torino.html
  All the halls of residence legally recognized by the Ministero dell'Istruzione (MIUR). Origins, ordering, directory of the numerous halls of residence and link.
• University pensions http://www.fondazionerui.it
  The Rui Foundation manages the Italian university halls of residence and promotes through them cultural and training activities for the students (guidance for studies and profession, tutoring, conventions, seminaries and also voluntary service projects). On the site is available the list of university pensions.