Sixty pages of court report. One line that costs you a hundred thousand euro.
Judicial auctions run 30–40% below market. The discount is real. So is the risk: building work that can never be regularised, occupants to remove, structural repairs never signed off, litigation still open. We read the court report end to end, and when it says walk away we write it. If you want someone to tell you yes, we are the wrong address.
Answer within 24 hours. If you then order the full dossier, the € 30 comes off the price.
The first two figures are today's count from the Italian Ministry of Justice public auction portal: they update themselves. The third is a rule, not a statistic — every figure we publish carries the line of the document it comes from.
A property management firm that buys the way it invests.
For over ten years we have run short-let homes between Rome, Perugia and the Amalfi Coast. The investment side grew out of that: we know what a property on a given street actually earns, and that changes how you value it before you bid.
The judicial auction is the deepest discount in Italian real estate. It is also the one with the most technical traps: planning breaches, occupants to be removed, works never signed off, litigation still pending. Our job is to bring them out before you make an offer.
The four things we bring to the table
- Technical and legal analysis of court valuation reports
- Due diligence on planning and land registry compliance
- Planning and running refurbishment works
- Exit strategy and asset repositioning
You can hand us the whole process or only the stage you need — many clients arrive with a lot already in mind and ask us simply to read its court report.
From the start of the auction to the end, step by step.
Nine stages, three moments. First you study, during the sale you bid with discipline, afterwards you turn the property into an asset worth more than it cost.
BeforeSourcing and analysis
1Sourcing and shortlisting lotsWe filter the Ministry portal and bring you only the lots where the numbers work.
We monitor the Ministry of Justice's Public Sales Portal and the main aggregators, filtering by area, property type and yield potential. We only bring you lots that clear a first threshold: the ones where the numbers make sense.
2Reading the court reportSixty pages of court report, read line by line — the document almost nobody finishes.
Every case has a sworn valuation report under art. 568 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure, written by a court-appointed expert. It is the key document and almost nobody reads it to the end. We take it apart line by line: actual floor area, restrictions, condition of the services, costs falling on the buyer.
3Planning and land registry due diligenceEvery discrepancy classified: fixable, fixable at a price, or to be demolished.
We check that the filed floor plan matches what is actually there, and sort every discrepancy into three categories: regularisable at modest cost, regularisable at significant cost, or not regularisable at all — meaning demolition and reinstatement at your expense. We check the habitability certificate, heritage restrictions and pending civil claims.
4Site visitWe go and look, with the court custodian: the costly surprises are not on paper.
We book the viewing through the court-appointed custodian and go and look. Photographs room by room, damp readings wherever we suspect water ingress, and a check on what the report only describes in words. The most expensive surprises are found here, not on paper.
5ValuationMarket value, capex and exit value — stated as estimates, never as promises.
We estimate market value using the Market Comparison Approach, cross-checking local comparables, official OMI valuations from the Italian Revenue Agency and real listings. Then we quantify refurbishment capex and the exit value, in an expected and an optimistic scenario. The result is a potential margin, stated as an estimate and not as a promise.
DuringBidding and the sale
6Bidding strategyTwo numbers agreed up front: what to bid, and where you walk away.
We agree two numbers before we start: the opening bid and — above all — the price at which you walk away. The law allows bids down to 75% of the base price, but being awarded the lot at that level is the exception, not the rule. We prepare the deposit, the paperwork and the electronic filing.
7Taking part in the auctionWe file the bid and run the auction: the ceiling set beforehand does not move.
We file the bid and follow the sale. If more than one bidder appears the lot goes to competitive bidding, and that is where discipline matters more than analysis: the ceiling set at step 6 does not move because the room has warmed up. Over 45% of auctions are now asynchronous and online — the mechanics change, the principle does not.
AfterAward and value creation
8Award, balance and vacant possessionBalance, transfer decree and vacant possession — budgeted from day one.
Once the lot is awarded you pay the balance within the deadline set by the judge and wait for the transfer decree, which is your title. If the property is occupied — by the former owner or by third parties — vacant possession goes through the court custodian: time and cost must be budgeted from the start, because the report almost never quantifies them.
9Refurbishment and exitBuilding works, then the choice that sets the return: sell on, or let it earn.
Design, planning applications, any regularisation, and running the site. Then the choice that decides your return: sell the refurbished property, or keep it and let it. In the second case it passes to our management company, which has been doing this for over ten years.
How we build the numbers
Every figure we put in front of you has a stated source. Where it is our own estimate, we say so.
Where the data comes from
Sworn court valuation reports under art. 568 CPC filed with the court, written by independent experts appointed by the judge, combined with data from the official auction portal.
How we value
Market Comparison Approach: comparison with comparable properties, cross-checked against official OMI valuations from the Italian Revenue Agency and against current listings in the same area.
Capex and exit values
Refurbishment costs and post-works exit values are our own workings on the report data, aimed at realistic but favourable scenarios: they are indicative, not guaranteed.
We also tell you why not.
There is no property at auction without drawbacks. On every lot we analyse we produce two columns — and no single recommendation: the decision stays yours, taken knowing everything.
Why yes — what we look for
- A real gap between the auction price per square metre and actual local valuations
- Main discrepancies regularisable through ordinary process at predictable cost
- No heritage restriction and no established structural problem
- An area with solid demand, served by public transport
- Rare features the market pays for: courtyard, terrace, dual aspect
Why no — what we flag
- A building site, not a home: no warranty against hidden defects, costs only estimated
- Structural works never signed off
- Civil claims still pending on the property
- Works that cannot be regularised, to be demolished and reinstated at the buyer's expense
- Occupied property: time and cost of vacant possession not quantified in the report
- Permits and works in a historic centre or restricted traffic zone: typically 18–24 months
We assign every lot an explicit risk level. A high margin on a high-risk property is not a better deal than a modest margin on a clean one: it is a different investment, and it should be chosen knowingly.
What you get: the dossier
At the end of the analysis we hand over a complete file on each property under consideration. It is the document you decide on — and the one you take to a lender if you need to.
Download a sample Dossier (PDF)
See it before you buy it
The Deal of the Month is a real dossier on a real property. We will send you the PDF: the same layout as the one we deliver.
01Comparative executive summaryEvery lot side by side, in a single table.
Every lot side by side in one table: floor area, condition, base price, minimum bid, market value, capex, total investment, potential margin and risk level.
02Lot fact sheetThe numbers: floor area, storey, rooms, OMI zone, occupancy.
Gross and usable floor area, floor level, number of rooms, reference OMI zone, period of construction, occupancy status, habitability certificate.
03Location and contextMap and real distances — what moves both resale price and occupancy.
A map with landmarks and real distances: metro, amenities, points of attraction. What determines both the resale price and the occupancy rate if you let it.
04Condition of the propertyThe site-visit photographs, room by room.
Photographic record room by room from the site visit, showing what has to be redone and what can be saved.
05Planning and building issuesWhere the paperwork and the building disagree, and what that costs.
Filed floor plan against what we found on site, a timeline of applications and breaches, and the route to regularisation with its costs.
06Financial analysisFrom purchase to exit, in an expected and an optimistic scenario.
From purchase to exit: base price, minimum bid, capex, total investment and exit value in an expected and an optimistic scenario, with the potential margin on each.
07Why yes, why noThe two columns, with nothing softened, and the risk stated.
The two columns, with nothing softened, and the risk level assigned to the lot.
08Methodology noteWhere every figure comes from, and how far it goes.
Sources, valuation criteria and stated limits: what comes from the court report, what is an official valuation and what is our own working.
The court report is read by a lawyer.
Not a consultant with a weekend course behind them. At auction the risk is not financial: it is legal. Structural work never signed off, a title that cannot be enforced, litigation invisible from the opening price. Those are lines you learn to read in court, not in a classroom.
Most people worry about an occupied property and rule it out on sight. In my experience it pays to establish one thing first: who is occupying it? Because it may well turn out to be no problem at all.Gennaro Cicatiello, solicitor — external legal counsel
The three questions I always ask
- Will the transfer decree actually vacate the property?
- Which contracts survive the sale?
- Where did the property come from?
We have been buying at auction with our own capital since 2022. We have run short-let homes for ten years, between Rome, Perugia and the Amalfi coast. The analysis we sell comes from where those two things meet.
The problem is not hidden. It is further down.
It takes no information the others lack. It takes having read, thousands of times, the part everyone else skips. That is why we can describe the whole method without losing anything.
- 4,596open lots we track today, refreshed hourly
- 91that clear every public filter: price in the lowest quartile for their region, floor area, photographs, opening bid above 30,000
- 15where the full text declares something the public listing does not say: a running lease, unauthorised building work, an access road that is not yours
One in six. And note: these are not fifteen refusals. In one of them — 870 m² at 68,000 euro, occupied — the lease that looked like the problem turned out to be the return. A match in the text is not a verdict: it is a well-posed question. Between the two there is always a fact to recover elsewhere, and that is the work we sell you.
The day the lot is awarded you have not yet made a single euro.
A property bought well but left idle is capital doing nothing. After refurbishment there are two routes, and we take both of them with you.
Selling the refurbished property
You realise the margin in one go. We handle the design, the works, any regularisation and the commercial positioning of the finished property, placing it at the top end of its area.
Letting it out
You keep the property and make it earn. Our first purchase cost us 48,000 euro in Grottaferrata, in December 2022. Nine months later someone offered 98,000. We said no and let it instead: 850 euro a month, uninterrupted since. Fifty thousand once, or ten thousand two hundred a year keeping the house — we did that sum on our own money before we did it on yours. This is where our management company takes over: furnishing, paperwork, listings, bookings, check-in, cleaning and maintenance.takes over: furnishing, paperwork, listings, bookings, check-in, cleaning and maintenance. You collect the income, we handle the rest.
Ten years, nine properties: how we run them →Let's talk about your next property.
Whether you have already found a lot or are still working out if auctions are for you, the first conversation costs nothing.