What buyers from abroad look at in a Friuli house: ten questions and the data to answer them

1. How far is it from where I live?

• Why they ask: the nearer a second home, the more it gets used. From Klagenfurt the whole region lies within 2 h 55; from Munich, half the municipalities within 5 h 05.
• Where the answer is: driving times from the northern cities and Ljubljana.
• Have ready: the minutes from the house to the motorway and the station, measured rather than guessed.

2. How long to an emergency department?

• Why: for older buyers this comes before the price. In 144 municipalities a 24-hour emergency department is within twenty minutes; in 31 it is over half an hour.
• Where: hospitals and emergency departments, town by town.
• Have ready: the minutes from the house to the emergency department and to the main hospital, with both names.

3. Does the sun reach it in winter?

• Why: in a valley the mountains take hours of light away just when it is scarce. At the winter solstice the median mountain municipality sees the sun for 5 h 12 min, the median one in the hills and plain for 8 h 36 min.
• Where: winter sun, and the house identity card, where an address is all you need.
• Have ready: the hours on 21 December at the house's own spot, and which rooms get the light.

4. What is winter like, and what does heating cost?

• Why: people from the north picture the Mediterranean and meet frost. In the mountains the thermometer falls below freezing on 93 days in a typical year (median), on the coast on 54.
• Where: winters and summers compared with home.
• Have ready: the energy certificate, the boiler logbook with its checks, a full winter's bills.

5. The seismic zone, and the year the house was built

• Why: visitors have heard of 1976. Zone 1 holds 32 of the 215 municipalities, but for a single house the year and the way it was built or rebuilt matter more.
• Where: earthquakes and seismic zones.
• Have ready: the year of construction, the papers for the post-earthquake rebuilding or structural work, the structural sign-off if there is one.

6. Can the water reach it?

• Why: rivers and streams are part of the landscape. In 28 municipalities at least one building in five lies in a medium flood-hazard area; in the mountains, landslides count too.
• Where: floods and landslides, on ISPRA's maps.
• Have ready: the map extract for the house's spot, the ground-floor level, past flooding and any work done since.

7. Is there fibre?

• Why: for remote workers it is a condition, not a detail. Across the region, the median share of households reached by fibre is 77.9%, but in 65 municipalities it stays under half.
• Where: broadband in Friuli's villages.
• Have ready: the current contract and a speed test done inside the house.

8. What is there in the village?

• Why: without a car, or in later life, the walk to the chemist matters. In 9 municipalities no pharmacy is recorded.
• Where: the town profiles in the atlas.
• Have ready: the distances to the shop, pharmacy, doctor's surgery and bus stop.

9. What will I pay each year?

• Why: IMU does not exist in this region; ILIA takes its place, and outsiders have never heard of it. Apart from the home they live in, a person can name one home in the whole region, with a notice filed online through the Region’s service by 30 June the year after: it pays at most 0.70%. Others pay the municipal rate, between 0.76% and 1.06%.
• Where: ILIA and second homes.
• Have ready: a land registry extract with the current cadastral income, on which the tax is worked out, and a year of service charges or running costs.

10. What does buying cost?

• Why: on top of the price come taxes and the notary. A buyer purchasing from a private seller without first-home relief pays 9% registration tax, and can ask the notary to apply it to the cadastral value, usually lower than the price.
• Where: purchase taxes.
• Have ready: cadastral income and category, and whether the seller is a private person or a company.

If the house is yours, we prepare these answers with you: how we sell.