Is a survey usually necessary when buying a property in Italy?
A survey is rarely carried out when real estate is bought and sold in Italy. In English-speaking countries, buyers often use (or try to use) a survey as a means to negotiate a lower price with the vendor. Such a strategy is completely foreign to Italians, who will be genuinely puzzled and not a little frustrated if you try to use it. That said, anyone buying a property in need of renovation will probably want to get a quote from a geometra for the work before committing to the purchase. A geometra does not have an exact equivalent in English: he (usually a he) is a sort of hybrid between an architect, a surveyor and a works manager – in effect he takes on all three roles. Which means that when you have a quote from a geometra for repairs and/or renovation, you can be confident that the defects in the property (which in English-speaking countries would be identified by the surveyor) are covered by the quote.
