One of the first questions international buyers ask when they find the right home in Italy is: how much should I offer below the asking price?

The short answer is that property prices in Italy are often negotiable, but there is no standard discount.

Offering 10% less simply because you are buying in Italy is not a negotiation strategy. On one property, a 10% reduction may be perfectly reasonable. On another, even 5% may be unrealistic. And for a correctly priced property in a competitive location, the asking price itself may be the right price.

The key is understanding the difference between the asking price and the actual market value of that particular property.

Is it normal to negotiate property prices in Italy?

Yes. Negotiation is a normal part of many Italian property transactions.

However, this does not mean that every seller deliberately adds a large negotiating margin to the asking price.

A professionally valued property may already be positioned very close to its expected selling price. Another property may have been placed on the market at an optimistic price and therefore leave considerably more room for negotiation.

This is why applying the same percentage to every property rarely works.

The better question is not:

“How much can I get off the asking price?”

It is:

“What is this property realistically worth in today’s market?”

Is offering 10% below the asking price reasonable?

Sometimes. But 10% should never be treated as an automatic starting point.

Consider a property offered at €600.000.

An offer of €570.000 might be taken seriously if the property is correctly priced and has recently come onto the market. An offer of €540.000 might make sense if there is evidence that the asking price is too high, the property requires substantial work or it has been available for a long period.

On the other hand, if the €600.000 property is unusual, well priced and attracting several interested buyers, offering €540.000 simply because “buyers negotiate in Italy” could mean losing the property altogether.

The percentage tells you very little without the context behind it.

Recent data from the Bank of Italy supports this more cautious approach: in the second quarter of 2026, average discounts on asking prices remained broadly stable at their lowest levels since the survey began. This is another reason why applying a standard discount percentage to every property can be misleading.