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PROPERTY

Step by step: How to get Italy’s new ‘identification code’ for holiday rentals

New rules requiring owners of holiday rentals in Italy to hold a national identification code, or CIN, came into force on September 1st – but exactly how can you get one?

Published: 9 September 2024 13:31 CEST
A view of Burano, in the Venetian lagoon, in September 2023
A view of Burano, in the Venetian lagoon, in September 2023. Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP

As of September 1st 2024, owners renting out their Italian properties for periods of 30 days or less (these are known as affitti brevi turistici, or short-term tourist lets) are required to hold a national identification code (Codice Identificativo Nazionale, or CIN).

The new requirement was approved by parliament last December under national plans to tackle tax evasion and curb tourist rentals amid a shortage of affordable housing in major Italian cities.

READ ALSO: How new rules will affect holiday rentals in Italy from September 2024

The national code must be displayed on the property’s front door or doorbell so as to be clearly visible from outside, and must figure on the accommodation’s website, as well as on any online or social media listing, including on platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.

According to Italy’s Tourism Ministry, owners flouting the new rules will face fines of up to €8,000.

However, sanctions are only scheduled to kick in two months after the introduction of the requirement (i.e. from November 1st), thus giving owners plenty of time to request the code.

But how can you actually do so?

Italy’s Tourism Ministry has released official guidelines for homeowners (these are only available in Italian), which we’ve summarised below.  

Log in to the Tourism Ministry’s online database

The first step to submit a national identification code request is to log in to the Tourism Ministry’s new reception structures database (Banca Dati delle Strutture Ricettive, or BDSR) by clicking on Ottieni CIN (‘get CIN’).

Screen grab from the Italian Tourism Ministry's website

Screen grab from the Italian Tourism Ministry’s website. Source: Tourism Ministry

You’ll need SPID or Italy’s electronic ID card credentials to access the platform. 

Should you not have a SPID account or an electronic ID card, you’ll have to set up an online profile via the following link and access the platform using the credentials provided by the ministry. 

Please note: you’ll need to include your Italian tax code in the profile registration form.

Select the relevant property 

After logging in, any property associated with your Italian tax code should be automatically displayed on the homepage, including details such as the property’s region, province, municipality (comune) and street address. 

A view of a typical personal profile homepage on Italy's Tourism Ministry portal.

A view of a typical personal profile homepage on Italy’s Tourism Ministry portal. Source: Tourism Ministry

Should your property not appear on your homepage, you can run a search using its regional identification code (CIR). 

If the property’s not listed in the database altogether, you’ll have to complete and submit a missing structure report (segnalazione di struttura mancante).

You’ll be required to provide a number of details regarding your property, including cadastral data (dati catastali), as well as information about yourself.

Once completed, the report will be sent to regional authorities, which will then proceed to verify the information and, if all details are correct, add the property to the database.

Complete your property’s information sheet

Once your property is available on the Tourism Ministry’s platform, you’ll have to click on dettaglio scheda (‘detail sheet’) in the right bottom corner and make sure that all the information about you and your property is correct.

If any of the details displayed in this section is incorrect, you’ll have to submit a report under segnala data errati (‘report wrong data’). 

All of the boxes marked by an asterisk are mandatory. 

If some mandatory boxes are empty, you’ll have to manually insert the relevant information yourself. 

Remember: you can retrieve all of your property’s cadastral details on Italy’s tax office’s website under the Visura Catastale (Cadastral Review) section. 

Complete the self-certification form on safety measures 

After filling in all of the above details, the last step is to complete a self-certification (autocertificazione) stating that the property abides by the health and safety measures outlined in decree 145/2023.

A screen grab of the self-certification page on Italy's Tourism Ministry porta

A screen grab of the self-certification page on Italy’s Tourism Ministry portal. Source: Tourism Ministry

These include the presence of carbon monoxide detectors and portable fire extinguishers. 

Submit your request

After consenting to the treatment of your personal data under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you’ll be able to submit the code request.

You should receive an email confirming that your property’s national identification code has been created within minutes from submitting the request. 

READ ALSO: What insurance is available for owners of holiday lets in Italy?

After receiving the email, you’ll find your national code in the ‘detail sheet’ of your property on the Tourism Ministry’s online platform. 

You’ll also be able to download the entire sheet as a PDF document for future reference.

Additional info and support

Should you have any issues during the application process, you can get in touch with the Tourism Ministry’s support desk by filling out and submitting this online form.

Alternatively, you can call 061 70179245 from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Have you successfully applied for a national identification code for your property? Share your advice in the comments section below.

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MOVING TO ITALY

‘€150 rent a month’: Why you don’t always need to buy when you move to Italy

Buying a house is often the most common route for foreigners choosing to retire in Italy, but renting can be a far better fit for some. Here's how one British retiree left a hefty mortgage behind to rent a rural cottage for €150 a month.

Published: 19 September 2024 13:39 CEST
'€150 rent a month': Why you don't always need to buy when you move to Italy

Retiring and moving to Italy at a certain age isn’t an easy job, particularly if one has to first get rid of a burdensome mortgage. 

But Tim Wood, a 72-year-old British retiree who used to work as an interior designer, in 2016 managed to sell his house in Brighton, pay off the remaining part of his mortgage and move to southern Italy. 

But instead of buying a cheap dwelling as most expats do, he settled for an extremely low rent. 

“I was just so scared of buying another home, even if it might have been mortgage-free and extremely cheap. I wanted to live without any financial weight on my shoulders. I now pay just €150 per month to rent a 4-bedroom rural cottage in Abruzzo”, Wood tells The Local. 

‘Abruzzo popped up after I researched cost of living throughout Italy’

Renting was also a much easier option than buying, because he wanted to avoid the paper work, the bureaucracy and procedures involved in purchasing and eventually having to restyle a house. 

After selling his UK house, Wood moved to the countryside near the coastal town of Vasto, on the Adriatic sea. 

“I did some online search on which were the cheapest regions to live in Italy, reading articles about national statistics on cost of living and life quality, and Abruzzo popped up”, says Wood. 

READ ALSO: What you need to know about navigating Italian rental contracts

Wood, who after losing his wife in 2015 decided to change life, said relying on advice from distant relatives of his who had already moved to the region a few years earlier proved crucial.

“They suggested I picked a place near the sea, for great summer dips, but at the same time far from the touristy areas and relatively quiet. That’s why I chose Vasto’s pristine rural surroundings,” he says.

‘Get a feel for the place before you move’

Being close to trains that cross Italy and even connect to Europe is vital if one has forsaken driving a car like he has, he says.

Wood advises anyone eager to follow on his steps to never rent or buy property if they haven’t seen it first hand, not just online.

Get advice from friends or other people who have made similar moves, he adds.

The old fishermens huts at Vasto marina. Photo: Tim Wood

“Prior to making the big leap I decided to take a two-week holiday in Vasto and tour the surrounding areas of Abruzzo. It’s important to get a feel of the place not as a tourist but as a local, meeting people, hanging out at the bar till nightfall, getting a haircut at the barber’s and listening to the gossip at the butcher’s shop, even if you hardly speak Italian,” he says.

The warm weather year-round in Vasto was also a major perk, as in some mountain spots in Abruzzo it can be as cold as in England in winter, he says. 

Wood lives off a small pension, plus the remaining revenues from the sale of his UK home. He says he spends around €150 a month for food and locally-sourced fresh produce. 

He’s so glad to be finally living the idyll after what he called a “nightmare” in the UK.

‘Make sure you’re not a victim of a scam’

Almost 24 years ago Wood purchased a two-bedroom apartment in Brighton for £400,000, with a downpayment of £250,000, and had been paying a £500 monthly mortgage since then.

“It was a nightmare. When I retired I realised I no longer wanted to live to pay a mortgage so I decided to move to Italy before post-Brexit new travel rules kicked in.”

Wood put his home on sale and managed to get £550,000. He now lives on a UK yearly pension of £8,000, which he says is more than he will ever need in Vasto. 

He was granted Italian residency in 2017, when the UK was still part of the European Union and Brits did not face the hurdles of today in traveling and relocating to Europe. 

One key tip he shares is to do a lot of prep research. Prior to relocating, he surfed the web to get an idea of what rentals were like in the area and also wanted to make sure he was not going to be a scam victim. 

So during his vacation there, he selected 10 properties, and booked a one-day tour with four local agencies to see them all before he picked the cottage. 

“Online photos don’t work, one needs to see the building and when I stepped into that farmhouse, I felt a special vibe”, says Wood. 

He also recommends meeting the local owners if possible, and starting with them a friendly relationship from the beginning in case there are bumps along the road, like the sewage system breaks down or a tree collapses on the front porch. 

READ ALSO: Italian rental scams: ‘As soon as we handed over the money, we kissed it goodbye’

The cottage was fully furbished, distant only two kilometres from Vasto’s historic quarter. And the icing on the cake was that it came with a 2-acre patch of land, olive trees and vineyard. 

“Locals have been making a premium extra-virgin olive oil here for centuries and I just found these trees in my garden. I now have farmers teaching me how to collect the olives and take them to the press.”

Cost of living and high quality of life are plus points. 

Family-run taverns in the countryside are very cheap and he can afford to eat out almost every night being alone. A meal is just €15, including a glass of wine. 

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