Good news for all those considering owning a house in Italy but thinking that property taxes are too high.

Now you can buy your Italian dream home without paying taxes for 10 years.

Offida, a beautiful historical destination in the very heart of Le Marche region in central Italy, is now offering exemption from taxes on the ownership of a property in town for 10 years if you become a resident. A measure called “Zero per 10” (literally “Zero for 10) and belonging to the “Offida obiettivo sviluppo” (Offida: development objective) scheme which includes also the "Fewer worries, more houses" measure, a drastic reduction of urbanisation charges when constructing new buildings or carrying out restoration works.

Valerio Lucciarini, mayor of Offida, claims: “The main goal of Offida for the next few years will be new development. That's why we've decided to put various measures in place to encourage a demographic increase.”

Offida is a beautiful ancient village rising on a hill among vineyards and characterized by historical buildings and monuments of extraordinary value. It's an area rich in regional food and famous for its DOCG wines and traditional products: the bobbin lace making (tombolo in Italian) above all. But the town has also a flourishing cultural life thanks to the presence of the Serpente Aureo, a nineteenth-century theatre, and to an intense annual programme of events that peaks in the summer and shows off its traditional folklore to best effect at Carnival time. It's not surprising, then, that Offida is known as the "City of Smiles" of the Piceno area in the southern Le Marche: it's a smile of a town that welcomes visitors with pleasure.

Its traditions and landscapes, which are quintessentially Italy, combined with these tax benefits and an affordable property market really made the perfect combination for overseas house hunters dreaming of moving to Italy and enjoying ‘la dolce vita’.

Simone Rossi, General Manager at Gate-away.com, comments: “For all those looking for a house in the ‘bel paese’, this is the place to be. You can find great property deals while benefitting from an excellent quality of life. For example you can get a beautifully restored panoramic house in the old town centre starting from about € 700/m². But if you prefer renovating an old farmhouse with land to be customized according to your needs and located in the surrounding countryside, it will cost you as little as € 400/500 m². That is why overseas home buyers are still interested in buying in the area – with Americans, Germans and Brits amongst the most interested – and in Le Marche more in general, in spite of the earthquakes that hit the territory in the last few years. As a matter of fact, according to our annual report for 2017, we registered only a 5.36% decrease in the number or requests we received for property for sale in the region on Gate-away.com compared to 2016.”

Local authorities and companies based here, such as Gate-away.com, are doing their best to make the Piceno area rising again, because it has so much to offer and nothing to be afraid of. On the contrary, many international investors still buy here on its gentle rolling hills a few minutes away from the coastline.

-ENDS-

NOTES TO EDITORS

• For further information about Gate-away.com, property for sale and Offida property market or the measures taken by the municipal administration, please contact Samanta Crocetti at samanta.c@gate-away.com
• Gate-away.com is the leading Italian property portal solely devoted to overseas home buyers in Italy gathering over 25,000 property for sale throughout the country.