The 12-month property rule — and the towns worth 60%
Sicily's refund requires buying or renovating a home within twelve months of moving. Buy in a comune under 5,000 residents and the refund rises from 50% to 60%.
The property condition is the hard edge of Sicily’s refund scheme. It’s what separates it from Portugal’s old NHR regime, where you could rent indefinitely and still take the tax benefit. Here, no property means no refund — and the clock is short.
The rule
Within twelve months of establishing your fiscal domicile in a Sicilian comune, you must do one of two things:
- Buy a property anywhere in the region — the qualifying evidence is the notarial purchase deed plus the notary’s attestation showing the registration details; or
- Carry out building works on a property you already own in Sicily.
The works route is narrower than it looks. Qualifying interventions are recovery, restoration, conservative rehabilitation and restructuring, as defined by the national building code and Sicily’s own 2016 building law. Ordinary maintenance is explicitly excluded. Repainting and replacing fixtures won’t do; you’ll need building permits and a completion certificate with evidence of the spending.
Note what isn’t required: there’s no minimum purchase price, no obligation to make it your only home, and no rule that the property must be in the same comune where you registered your residence — it just has to be in Sicily.
You then have to keep it
Ownership isn’t a one-off box to tick. You must hold the property — and keep your residence and fiscal domicile in Sicily — until 31 December of the second year following the year you moved. Sell up or move away before then and the Region revokes the refund and recovers what it paid, with statutory interest.
For a 2026 mover, that means holding until at least 31 December 2028.
The 60% bonus, and how the population test works
Buy (or renovate) in a comune with fewer than 5,000 residents and your refund rate rises from 50% to 60%.
The detail that matters: the population is measured using ISTAT data as at 31 December of the year before you transfer your fiscal domicile to Sicily. So if you move in 2027, the relevant figure is the official population at the end of 2026 — not today’s, and not the figure on a town’s website. Comuni hovering around the threshold can cross it between one year and the next, so verify the number for your specific year before you sign anything.
214 of Sicily’s 391 comuni qualify — 55% of the island — concentrated in the Nebrodi and Peloritani mountains of Messina province (88 towns) and the Madonie behind Palermo (50). We publish the complete list with official ISTAT figures. These are the same towns behind the “€1 houses” headlines, which is no coincidence: both schemes exist because inland Sicily is emptying out.
Is ten points worth it?
On an €80,000 salary, the difference between 50% and 60% is about €2,700 a year — roughly €8,100 over the three years. That’s real money, but it’s smaller than the difference in property prices, services and rental potential between an inland village and a coastal town. Choose the place you want to live in; treat the extra ten points as a tiebreaker, not a reason.
One genuine advantage of the small-town route: renovation costs less than purchase, and the works option satisfies the requirement outright. Buying a cheap inland property and restoring it can clear the condition for far less capital than a coastal apartment.
Sequencing the move
The twelve months run from your fiscal domicile, not from your arrival. In practice:
- Register your residence and fiscal domicile in a Sicilian comune — this starts the clock.
- Find the property and complete the purchase before the twelve months are up. Sicilian conveyancing is not fast; six months from offer to deed is normal, longer for inherited properties with unclear title.
- Keep every document. The application requires the deed and the notary’s attestation, and the Region can request more at any point.
If you’re renovating instead, remember that you need completed works with certification within the twelve months — not just a started project. That’s a genuinely tight schedule for anything structural, so start the permits early.
See what the refund is worth in your case →
This guide is information, not advice. Property transactions and building permits in Sicily have their own pitfalls — use a notary and a surveyor you trust.