Buying a house is becoming easier for young Italians

Last July 23 is became law the so-called decree “Support bis”, With which the Draghi government has increased the facilities expected from the Guarantee Fund for the first home, which until the end of June 2022 will allow young people with an income below a certain threshold to more easily access a mortgage for the purchase of a first home. How reported from Sole 24 Ore, several Italian banks have already adapted their mortgage offers to allow this category of customers to take advantage of the concessions, granting mortgages that even finance 100 percent of the value of the house, while others are in the process of doing so.

The concessions mainly take the form of a guarantee offered by the state to banks in order to encourage them to offer mortgages to people who would not be able to provide the necessary guarantees: in practice, it allows access to a mortgage even to those who normally could not afford it. To offer these guarantees, in 2013 had been established from the state the Guarantee Fund for the first home, refinanced in May 2021 with 540 million from the “Sostegni bis” decree. The fund is not actually aimed only at young people, but the new rules provide greater guarantees for this and other categories that the state wants to encourage to buy a house.

With the new rules, the state undertakes to provide banks with a guarantee on 80 percent of the mortgage required to buy a first home from people who do not have other residential properties and who have a ISEE under 40 thousand euros. With “first home”, for tax purposes, we mean a house located in the municipality of residence of the buyer, which is not considered a luxury property, which is the only one owned by him in that municipality and which is the the only one for which the buyer has benefited from the tax breaks from a first home.

The borrowed sum cannot exceed 250 thousand euros, and all those who have not yet turned 36 years old can benefit from the guarantee, but also couples married or cohabiting for at least two years in which one of the two components is under 36 years old, as well as single-parent families with minor children (i.e. made up of a single parent and at least one minor child), regardless of the age of the parent. Even those who live in housing owned by the autonomous institutions for public housing can make use of it.

The guarantee offered by the state, however, is bound to the fact that the bank grants the borrowers – i.e. those who obtain the loan – an amount exceeding 80 percent of the value of the house, including ancillary charges (i.e. the expenses necessary for the management of the mutual). In other words, the state tells the banks: I guarantee you that you will get back 80 percent of the loan even in the event that borrowers are unable to repay it, but only if you undertake to lend them all or most of the capital necessary to buy the house.

As anyone who has already bought a property knows, so far this was not an option commonly offered by banks, which in almost all cases require those who request a loan to advance part of the value of the house in cash (generally at least 20 percent). For many, and especially for young people without the possibility of help from the family, this often represents too large an outlay, which makes them desist from buying.

The rule introduced with the “Sostegni bis” decree has the objective of breaking down this obstacle, encouraging banks to grant mortgages for the purchase of a first home to people who otherwise do not have sufficient liquidity or guarantees to obtain a mortgage .

The reasons are obvious: to give the possibility to some categories of people with limited economic powers to invest in the purchase of a property instead of having to pay a rent. The law could also generate greater demand for real estate and mortgages, with a positive effect on the country’s economic growth.

As hoped by the government, the guarantee has prompted several banks to add mortgages to their offers that cover up to 100 percent of the cost of the property. The Sole 24 Ore he told how the Intesa SanPaolo, Unicredit and Crédit Agricole banks have already proposed new types of mortgages that finance the entire purchase value of the property under certain conditions, while Monte dei Paschi will present one in September and Banco Bpm is confident of doing so in autumn.

– Read also: Unicredit wants to buy a piece of Monte dei Paschi

In addition to the guarantee, the new rules provide for controlled interest rates and tax exemptions.

As for interest rates, if the applicant has all the requirements seen above, the bank will not be able to apply a global effective rate (the so-called APR, which is not the nominal rate required but a virtual rate that takes into account all the related mandatory expenses to the mortgage) higher than the average published every three months by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

As for tax exemptions, on the other hand, those who have not turned 36 and have an ISEE under 40 thousand euros are exempt from registration tax, from the mortgage and cadastral tax, which are applied when buying a non-new house. and usually amount to several thousand euros in total. In the case of new houses, on the other hand, on which VAT is paid, the law has allowed anyone under 36 to obtain an equivalent tax credit: the VAT paid on the property will be deductible in the tax return. .

It is worth remembering that those who do not meet the requirements to obtain the state guarantee on 80 percent of the loan can still access it at a reduced rate: the Guarantee Fund for the first home provides in fact (even before the decree “Sostegni bis “) A public guarantee of 50 percent of the loan to anyone who wants to buy a first home and does not own another property for residential use, as long as the loan does not exceed 250 thousand euros. To obtain the guarantees, no particular request is required, the bank will request them if the necessary requirements are met.

– Read also: The government approved the Sostegni bis decree

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