Compravendita (Purchase and Sale Contract)

The contract by which ownership of a property is transferred from seller to buyer in exchange for a price. In Italian law, a real estate sale is consensual – it transfers ownership as soon as the contract is agreed in the required form. A contratto di compravendita for real estate must be in writing (usually a notarial deed) . The Civil Code (Art. 1470) defines it as a contract where the seller transfers a thing (immovable) and the buyer pays a price . A compravendita is typically executed in two stages: first a preliminare (preliminary contract) and later the rogito (final deed of sale) in front of a notary. The final contract includes all essential terms (parties, property description, price) and once signed and notarized, ownership passes to the buyer and the deed is recorded.