Buying part of a plot in Italy: how the frazionamento works and what to check before the deed

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In both cases you are buying a piece of land that does not yet exist as a separate unit in the Italian land register. Before the notary can transfer it, a surveyor has to create it, by a cadastral split called a frazionamento. The split itself is the easy part, and usually costs a few hundred to a couple of thousand euros. The checks around it are what decide whether the piece you buy is worth what you pay: the council’s minimum plot size, the criminal rule against illegal subdivision in art. 30 of Presidential Decree 380/2001 (the Italian building code), the zoning certificate without which the deed is void, and the building volume that the seller’s house may already have used up on the whole property.

This guide walks through each of them using one example: a 24,000 m² olive grove in the comune of Livorno, Tuscany, where the council has banned splitting land into lots of less than one hectare in the areas the rule covers.

Glossary

Why the split is needed

An Italian deed identifies land by comune, sheet and parcel. If you buy the whole of parcel 112 on sheet 18, the deed says so and nothing more is needed. If you buy only part of it, that part has no number, and the notary cannot describe it, register it in the property register or put it in your name. A surveyor surveys the land, draws the dividing line and files a tipo di frazionamento with the Revenue Agency, which replaces parcel 112 with, say, 112 (kept by the seller) and 340 (yours). The new parcels are still in the seller’s name. Ownership moves only with the deed.

The same applies to smaller pieces than you might expect: a 150 m² strip from a neighbour to widen your drive, the part of a shared courtyard that comes with a flat, a corner of a field for a well.

How the surveyor files it through Pregeo

Pregeo is the Revenue Agency’s program for updating the land cadastre. Since version 10 (Revenue Agency circular 30/E of 29 December 2014), filings are processed automatically: if the file passes the software checks, the approval comes back to the surveyor’s online desk on the Agency’s Sister platform, usually right after it is sent. Corrections to the map itself (atti di rettifica) are still checked by Agency staff, which takes longer.

For a split, the same circular requires the survey to be tied to the cadastral punti fiduciali. The surveyor cannot simply draw a line on the map. They measure the land on site, connect it to the fixed survey points, and the software checks the result against the official map.

In practice:

1. The surveyor gets the seller’s title deed and the parcel’s cadastral extract (visura).
2. They order a digital map extract for updating from the Agency, which carries the relevant map section and survey points. The Agency sets its fee and validity.
3. Site survey with total station or GNSS, which is also where differences between the map and the real boundary come up; our boundaries guide covers what to do about them.
4. The file is prepared in Pregeo, sent online, and the cadastral fees are paid.
5. Approval, usually automatic.
6. Filing with the council. Art. 30(5) of D.P.R. 380/2001 requires every split to be lodged with the comune, precisely so the council can spot illegal subdivisions. Since 1 July 2025, under the new para 5-bis added by Legislative Decree 1/2024 and Agency decision no. 460141 of 30 December 2024, the Agency itself sends the split to the council by certified e-mail. Resolution 40/E of 9 June 2025 lists the cases where the surveyor still has to do it.

You do not need to be in Italy for any of this. The surveyor needs access to the land and the seller’s cooperation, and the seller signs the instruction because it is the seller’s land being split.

What it costs and how long it takes

Cadastral fees. Since 1 January 2025 the fees for approving Pregeo filings (split, building plan, parcel) are in the new table of mortgage-registry and cadastral fees annexed to Legislative Decree 139/2024, charged per filing plus stamp duty where due. Ask the surveyor to include the current amount in the quote.

Surveyor’s fee. There is no fixed tariff. Trade websites quote roughly €350 to €2,700 for a land split, depending on size, access, the number of survey points and how much boundary has to be reconstructed.

CDU. Council fees set by each comune.

For the Livorno example, split into two parcels:

Who pays is negotiated, not fixed by law. The seller often pays, since the parcel is theirs; if you want a particular line, an exact area or a right of way drawn a certain way, expect to share. Write it into the preliminary contract, along with who chooses the surveyor.

Time. One surveying practice quotes three to four weeks of work for the survey and the file. Automatic approval takes hours. The council has 30 days to issue the CDU (art. 30(3) D.P.R. 380/2001). Allow five to eight weeks between instructing the surveyor and signing the deed, and set the completion date in the preliminary contract accordingly. If you are abroad, add the time to get your power of attorney (below) to Italy.

Check one: minimum plot size

Pregeo does not read local plans. It will approve a 600 m² parcel in farmland exactly as it approves a 60,000 m² one. Limits on plot size come from the council’s planning rules (the technical rules of the PRG, PUC or Piano operativo, or the building regulations) and in some regions from regional law on rural land.

Livorno is the clearest case found. Executive decision no. 4748 of 7 August 2020 deals with "limits to the ban on splitting into lots smaller than one hectare" and the exceptions to it; the ban itself was brought in by a change to the council’s Regolamento Urbanistico for the planning areas concerned. It applies to the planning areas of the "environmental and foothill system" (sistema ambientale e pedecollinare) of the plan in force; the preamble says the note is an interim measure until the full revision of the building regulations.

What that means in the example:

Other councils do not ban the split as such but tie building rights to a minimum holding, often 10,000 or 20,000 m² in farmland. Split below that and neither of you can build. In Lazio, regional opinions show a route around it: a farm improvement plan (PUA) can combine non-adjacent land if the total reaches the minimum.

Ask for the answer in writing. The council’s planning office (ufficio urbanistica) will reply to a written question giving the parcel numbers and the areas you want to create. If you do not read Italian, have your surveyor or lawyer send it.

Check two: illegal subdivision

Art. 30(1) of D.P.R. 380/2001 defines two kinds of illegal subdivision. One is physical: works that turn land into building land against the plan. The other, which matters here, is done on paper: splitting and selling land, or signing equivalent contracts, in lots whose size relative to the land and its zoning, number, location, planned roads or services, and the type of buyers "unequivocally reveal" a building purpose.

For a foreign buyer of one piece, three points matter.

• Nothing has to be built. The offence can be complete with the split and the sales. Courts have held that the split need not even be a formal cadastral one, and that preliminary contracts count.
• One split is not an offence by itself. Courts look for a pattern. Two one-hectare lots sold to a neighbouring farmer do not suggest anything; ten 1,500 m² lots in farmland with a new internal track, sold to city buyers, do.
• The buyer is exposed. Art. 44(1)(c) punishes illegal subdivision with up to two years' arrest and a fine of €15,493–51,645, and art. 44(2) provides for confiscation of the subdivided land. The Constitutional Court has limited confiscation against innocent third-party buyers (judgments 49/2015 and 146/2021), but an innocent buyer still has to defend that position in criminal proceedings.

A real case: in judgment no. 18527 of 11 May 2022, the third criminal section of the Court of Cassation dealt with land at Sant’Arpino, near Caserta (locality Ferrumma), split into ten lots through successive sales and then built on. Owners and buyers had been convicted by the Naples Court of Appeal. The Cassation held that buildings on an illegally subdivided plot cannot be regularised and that confiscation of the land was lawful.

Before you sign, ask the seller in writing whether other parts of the same land have been sold or promised, and look at the map extract. A parent parcel recently broken into regular strips with different owners is the warning sign.

Check three: the zoning certificate

Under art. 30(2) D.P.R. 380/2001, a deed transferring rights in land is void, and cannot be signed or registered, unless the CDU is attached. You will often read online that "the CDU is needed above 5,000 m²". That reverses the rule. The only exemption is for land that is the appurtenance of a building registered in the urban cadastre, provided that appurtenance is under 5,000 m². Land that is not attached to a building needs a CDU at any size.

For the farmhouse-plus-olive-grove purchase:

• the house with its 2,800 m² garden registered as the house’s courtyard: no CDU needed for the garden;
• the 3,000 m² piece of the neighbouring olive grove: CDU needed, because it is not the house’s appurtenance;
• a house whose courtyard and park together exceed 5,000 m²: CDU needed.

Para 10 exempts, among others, inheritance divisions, gifts between spouses and between parents and children, wills, and deeds on mortgages and easements. The council must issue the CDU within 30 days of the request, and it is valid for one year if the seller declares in the deed that the plan has not changed. A deed signed without it can be confirmed later, even by one party, by a further deed with the certificate attached.

Ask for the CDU after the split is approved, on the new parcel numbers. A certificate on the parent parcel describes a different piece of land.

Check four: building volume already used

When the seller’s house was built, the council calculated its volume on a certain area of land. That area stays tied to the house (asservita), whether or not anyone signed a separate deed: the building permit is enough. A cadastral split does not undo it.

Commentaries on recent Council of State judgments report this line consistently: no. 2215/2019 (density of a split lot calculated on the volume built on the whole original lot), no. 8038/2025, no. 2352/2026 (a later cadastral split is irrelevant to the volume available) and no. 4151 of 22 May 2026 (volume already used does not come back with a split and a sale, even where the house was regularised under an amnesty).

The arithmetic, with a rural residential index of 0.03 m³/m² (common in local rules; yours is in the council’s technical rules):

• whole 24,000 m² grove: 24,000 × 0.03 = 720 m³;
• seller’s house, permitted in 1998 on the whole grove: 450 m³;
• left on the original plot: 270 m³.

You buy 10,000 m² and expect 10,000 × 0.03 = 300 m³. At best the council looks at the 270 m³ left on the original plot, which the seller can also claim. At worst the 1998 permit tied all 24,000 m² to the house and your piece has nothing. In farmland, new homes are also often reserved to professional farmers.

Where to look: the council’s building archive (a request for access to the file of the seller’s house will show the permit and the area used for the calculation) and the property register held by the Revenue Agency’s land registry service, where recorded agreements on building rights can show up in a search against past owners. Your surveyor can check the remaining volume as a separate task from the split.

What a foreign buyer needs on top

Codice fiscale. You need an Italian tax code to sign the preliminary contract, to pay the deposit through an Italian notary or bank, and to appear on the deed. Consulates and local Revenue Agency offices issue it; our codice fiscale guide covers the steps.

Power of attorney (procura). If you cannot be in Italy for the deed, you can appoint someone by a power of attorney signed before a notary in your country; ask the Italian notary in advance which form, legalisation and translation they will accept. A split adds one reason to plan this early: the deed date depends on the surveyor and the CDU, not on your flights.

The notary’s role. The Italian notary (notaio) is a public official who checks title, the CDU and the cadastral data, collects taxes and registers the deed. The notary acts for the transaction, not for you: our notary guide explains what they check and what they leave to you. If you do not understand Italian, tell the notary well before the deed so they can arrange it.

Non-EU citizens. Citizens of some non-EU countries can buy Italian property only if Italians can buy in their country (reciprocity under art. 16 of the preliminary provisions to the Civil Code); EU, EEA citizens and legally resident foreigners are not affected. Check your country on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reciprocity page.

Farmland pre-emption. If the piece is farmland, a neighbouring farmer or a tenant may have a right of first refusal (prelazione agraria), and the split can change who counts as a neighbour. See our pre-emption guide.

Access. If your new parcel does not reach the road, have the right of way drawn by the surveyor and created in the same deed.

If the answer is bad

The minimum lot rule blocks the area agreed. Renegotiate the size and price (option B in the table), check whether an exception applies, or consider a lease or surface right on the piece instead of buying it, which needs no split but does not make you owner.

The CDU shows a different zone from the listing. Do not sign the preliminary contract, or sign it only with a clause that lets you withdraw and recover the deposit if the CDU does not confirm the zoning described.

The land has already been sold in many pieces. Ask the notary and a local lawyer to assess the illegal-subdivision risk, and ask the planning office whether any proceedings are open on the land. If there is a suspension order or a criminal case, walk away.

The volume is used up. Price the piece as land with no building rights. If the seller says otherwise, have the preliminary contract carry a written statement of remaining volume backed by a surveyor’s report.

Pregeo rejects the filing. Usually a mismatch with the map or the survey points. The surveyor corrects and resends; if the map itself is wrong, a correction filing goes to Agency staff and adds a few weeks.

What the TerrenoCheck report shows

The TerrenoCheck report starts from the parcel you pin on the map: cadastral identifiers, map area, zoning where the plan is available online, overlapping constraints (landscape, hydrogeological, Natura 2000, buffer zones), flood and landslide hazard, access and local prices, each map with its source and date, in English or Italian. It tells you before you pay a surveyor whether the parent parcel is farmland or building land and whether the seller’s proposed line crosses a zone or a constraint.

Check the zoning and constraints on the parcel you want to split, in a TerrenoCheck report from €29 → · See a sample report

The report does not perform the split, replace the surveyor’s survey or the CDU, value the land or give legal advice. It is a first screen, useful before you instruct anyone.

Order the TerrenoCheck report on the parent parcel, from €29 → · See a sample report