Is a building in Trieste worth more whole or divided?

A whole building, from foundations to roof, held by a single owner or a single co-ownership – several heirs in shares, for example. Roof, staircases, façades and services become "common parts" once there are several owners of individual units (art. 1117 Civil Code) ⁴: in practice the building becomes a condominio – a building in multiple ownership – when the first unit is sold to a third party. From then on the owners' meeting decides; with more than eight owners, if the meeting does not appoint a building manager, the court does so on application, and with more than ten, building rules are compulsory (arts 1129 and 1138 Civil Code) ⁴. Whoever buys an entire building is above all buying the freedom to decide alone on façade, roof, lift, layout and uses, within the limits of the local plan and any listing. That freedom is what you pay for.

In the cadastre an entire building almost always consists of several units. In the land register it may be a single land register unit or already divided by floor: the land register act allows floors and rooms "suitable for separate use" to be registered with their own sheets and separate mortgages (arts 10 and 13 of the general land register act) ³. Which of the two you find changes the due diligence and the work needed to resell unit by unit.

With three methods, used together. The gap between their results is information, not an error to hide.

The Italian Banking Association's guidelines on valuing property held as loan security, in the 2018 text we read, define conversion value as the discounted difference between the value of the converted property and the cost of conversion, net of the developer's profit, and treat it as equal to the market value of property "under development" ¹⁹. They also define highest and best use: physically possible, legally permissible and financially feasible, producing the highest value ¹⁹. For a building this is the real question – residential, hotel, offices or mixed – and the answer comes from the local plan, listing and tenants, which the next sections cover.

Why the whole is worth less than the sum of the finished units. In between lie works, professional fees, time, risk, taxes and the margin of whoever takes the risk. A textbook example, with stated assumptions rather than market data: 1.000 m²Esempio gross; 80%Esempio saleable after the works; professional fees at 10%Esempio of works; selling costs 3%Esempio and developer's margin 15%Esempio of revenue; purchase taxes 9%Esempio; no discounting and no finance costs, which would lower the figures further.

Maximum price payable for the building, excluding purchase taxes. Our own calculation.

Every extra 500 €BIZ of works per square metre takes roughly half a million off the price that can be paid. That is why valuing a building for conversion starts from a bill of quantities, not from a neighbourhood average.

The figures for the centre, with their caveats. In the second half of 2025 OMI quotes ordinary dwellings in Trieste's zone B2, "historic centre", at between 2.250 e 3.100 €/m²AdE gross, and shops in prime positions at between 2.000 e 3.000 €/m²AdE, with rents between 10,8 e 20 €/m²AdE a month ²⁰. The zone of an address is read on the OMI zone map ²⁰. These are quotations for units, not whole buildings: for a building to be converted they indicate a possible exit price, not the value of the whole.

The Cultural Heritage Code distinguishes two situations ¹.

• Public bodies and non-profit legal persons, church bodies included. Their buildings by an author no longer living, built more than seventy years ago, are protected until the check of cultural interest is done (art. 12). If the outcome is negative, they can be freely sold as far as the Code is concerned; if positive, protection is final. Their sale also needs the Ministry's authorisation (arts 55 and 56).
• Private individuals and companies. The building is cultural heritage only with the declaration under art. 13 (art. 10, para. 3), which is notified and registered with effect against every later owner (art. 15) ¹. In the land-register territories, references to registration of the deed apply to the corresponding land register entries (art. 12, Royal Decree 499/1929) ³.

Listing also bears on the works: every intervention needs the heritage superintendent's approval, a change of use must be notified to the superintendent, and uses incompatible with the building's character are prohibited (arts 20 and 21) ¹.

Two kinds of protection not to confuse. Trieste's local plan identifies "villas and buildings of historic and architectural merit", mostly built between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries: no moving, opening or closing of windows on street façades (on the ground floor openings may change size but not number), and the number of residential units may change only if the staircases and layout of merit are preserved (art. 19 of the plan's technical rules) ¹⁸. That is a planning protection: it limits works but does not trigger pre-emption, which depends on cultural listing. A building may have one, the other, both or neither.

On a sale for value of listed property, or its contribution to a company, the Ministry – or the Region or local authorities – may buy at the same price as in the deed (art. 60, para. 1) ¹.

Deeds that breach these prohibitions are void, and the State's pre-emption within the long deadline is preserved (art. 164) ¹. It is also a criminal offence – punishable by six months to two years' imprisonment and a fine from 2.000 a 80.000 €Normattiva – not to notify within 30 giorniNormattiva or to hand over the property before the 60 giorniNormattiva have run (art. 518-novies Criminal Code) ².

In practice: preliminary contract, deed, notification, wait; only after the deadline is the property handed over. The law does not fix when the balance is paid: the contract does, and it is usually tied to the same deadline. Trieste saw this in 2025 with a neoclassical building owned by the municipality and sold at auction: after the deed was signed, the press reported the wait of 60 giornien.ilsole24ore.com, then a deed recording that pre-emption had not been exercised, and only then registration in the land register ²⁴. The buyer must know this timetable before the preliminary contract.

Two cases that surprise people:

• Heirs must notify a succession to listed property, within 30 giorniNormattiva of acceptance or of the succession return (art. 59, para. 2(c)). There is no pre-emption, though: the law provides it for transfers for value and contributions to companies (art. 60) ¹.
• A co-heir who sells their share makes a transfer "in part", which must be notified (art. 59, para. 1) ¹. If they sell to an outsider, the other co-heirs have a two-month right of first refusal and, if not notified, the right to buy the share back for as long as the co-ownership of the estate lasts (art. 732 Civil Code) ⁴. To be checked with the notary: how the two pre-emption rights fit together.

In Trieste, for a transfer between living persons, ownership is acquired only on entry in the land register (art. 2, Royal Decree 499/1929) ³; our guide to the land register explains it in full. For an entire building four points matter more than the rest.

1. Who is selling. An heir can register their right only with the certificate of inheritance; until then, nothing can be registered against them, a sale included (art. 3) ³.
2. How the building is described. If it is a single land register unit, selling by unit means detaching the floors with a plan certified by an authorised surveyor (art. 74 of the general act) ³. Put it in the timetable.
3. The charges. Mortgages, easements, third-party rights, annotations. Our own caution: the absence of an annotation of listing is not enough to rule it out; ask the superintendency to confirm.
4. Cadastre and land register often do not match: the difference is put right before the deed.

Building rules. In Friuli Venezia Giulia, Regional Law 19/2009 governs. Splitting with works counts as extraordinary maintenance if overall volume and use do not change; restoration and conservation includes increasing the number of units without changing the building's outline (art. 4) ¹⁶. Splitting existing units is normally free building activity with a professional's sworn statement, when the works need neither a building permit nor a certified notice and comply with the local plan and sector rules (art. 16-bis, para. 1(a)), and it is exempt from the construction levy if floor areas do not increase and the use does not change (art. 30, para. 1(b-ter)) ¹⁶. Above these sit the local plan and, where it applies, the listing ¹.

Trieste's local plan (rules updated to amendment 21 of 29/09/2026) distinguishes two regimes in the centre ¹⁸: zone A0, historic centre, awaiting a public implementation plan, where in the meantime the 1980 detailed plan for the historic centre applies to the buildings within its boundary (art. 14); and zone B0, the expansion of the Habsburg-era districts outside the A zones, where refurbishment may change the number of units within the existing block line, height and volume (art. 17). A building's zone, and any art. 19 marking, are read on the zoning map: they cannot be inferred from the name of the neighbourhood.

For a buyer seeking income, they are the value; for a buyer converting, they are time. A lease with a certified date before the sale binds the buyer; one over nine years that was not registered binds the buyer for nine years from its start (art. 1599 Civil Code) ⁴. In Trieste, "registered" means entered in the land register (art. 12, Royal Decree 499/1929) ³.

Flats. At first expiry the landlord may refuse renewal, on six months' notice, only on exhaustive grounds stated in the notice, which is otherwise void. They include complete refurbishment of the building, with the building consent as a condition for recovering possession, and a sale by a landlord who owns no other home besides their own, with pre-emption for the tenant. A landlord who recovers a flat on an unlawful notice owes at least thirty-six months of the last rent; if within twelve months the flat is not put to the declared use, the tenant can ask for the lease to be reinstated or for the same damages (art. 3, paras 3 and 5, Law 431/1998) ⁶.

Shops and offices. Refusal at first expiry is allowed only on exhaustive grounds, including demolition or complete refurbishment, notified 12 mesiNormattiva beforehand, eighteen months for hotels (art. 29, Law 392/1978) ⁷; when the lease ends other than through the tenant's breach, notice or termination, a tenant whose business deals directly with the public is owed eighteen months' rent as compensation for loss of goodwill, twenty-one for hotels (arts 34 and 35) ⁷. On a sale, the tenant of such a business has a right of first refusal, to be served through a court officer, and without notice the right to buy from the purchaser within six months of registration – in Trieste, of entry in the land register (arts 38–39) ⁷³. If the whole building is sold, however, the Court of Cassation distinguishes: in a sale "en bloc" of a single complex, which is something other than the sum of its units, pre-emption does not arise; in a "cumulative" sale of several units it does, on the let shop. Selling everything together to the same buyer does not by itself make a block: an objective structural or functional unity is needed, which the court assesses case by case (Cass. 13253/2023) ⁸. Our own caution: settle the characterisation with the notary before the preliminary contract. Details in the guide to commercial leases.

These rules apply to deeds signed in 2026. From 1 January 2027 the new consolidated acts on registration tax and other indirect taxes (inheritance included), VAT and income tax apply; the current art. 67 of the Income Tax Code is repealed from that date, and art. 7 of the consolidated inheritance tax act is in force until 31/12/2026 ¹³¹⁴¹⁵. Deeds in 2027 must be checked against the new texts.

Transaction taxes, normally paid by the buyer, depend on who sells (an individual or a business), on the nature of each unit (dwelling or commercial) and, if a business sells, on whether it opts for VAT in the deed ⁹¹⁰¹¹. In a mixed entire building each unit follows its own regime: the rates, case by case, are in the guide to the taxes on buying commercial property. An individual buying dwellings outside a business can ask the notary to be taxed on the cadastral value rather than the price (art. 1, para. 497, Law 266/2005) ¹².

Income taxes, paid by the seller:

• Individual. The gain is taxed only if the property was bought or built no more than five years earlier, and never if acquired by inheritance (art. 67, para. 1(b), Income Tax Code) ¹³; where it is taxed, the seller can ask the notary to apply the 26%Normattiva substitute tax (art. 1, para. 496, Law 266/2005) ¹². Exception: with superbonus works completed less than ten years earlier, the gain is taxed even after five years, except on inheritance and for a main residence (letter b-bis) ¹³.
• Business. The gain is taxed in full in the year; spreading it over several years remains only for businesses held for at least three years (art. 86, para. 4, Income Tax Code in its 2026 text). Ordinary corporate income tax rate 24%Normattiva (art. 77) ¹³.
• Heirs. For successions opened from 2025 the tax is 4%Normattiva between spouse and relatives in the direct line above 1.000.000 €Normattiva per heir, 6%Normattiva for brothers and sisters above 100.000 €Normattiva, 6%Normattiva for other relatives to the fourth degree and some in-laws, and 8%Normattiva in other cases (art. 7, Legislative Decree 346/1990) ¹⁴. On real property you also pay mortgage tax at 2%Normattiva and cadastral tax at 1%Normattiva, each with a minimum of 200 €Normattiva, even below the allowance; for a building these are often the heaviest item (Legislative Decree 347/1990, art. 10 and Tariff) ²⁶.

Holding the building idle costs money: since 2023 Friuli Venezia Giulia has charged ILIA, which replaced IMU, the municipal property tax (Regional Law 17/2022, art. 1) ¹⁷.

The Borgo Teresiano is the district laid out under Maria Theresa on former salt pans, with precise building rules: warehouses on the ground floor, offices with natural light, a green inner courtyard ²². That form still explains the economics of many buildings: an income-producing commercial ground floor, upper floors built for offices or homes, courtyards bringing light to the inner units.

On a building in the centre four checks nearly always add up: the local plan zone and any marking as a building of merit ¹⁸; possible listing, with pre-emption ¹; the land register, often with long family histories ³; and the leases on the ground-floor shops ⁷. For public buildings there is a fifth: in a statement of 4 October 2026 the Region announced that its executive had approved the draft agreement with the State Property Agency and the City for the Trieste City Plan, which aims to reuse under-used public property, including through public-private partnerships, and states that moving regional offices to the Old Port will free the buildings they occupy today ²³. If these reach the market, they will often belong to public bodies and be more than seventy years old: presumed protected until checked, and saleable only with authorisation ¹.

In transactions like these our work starts before the price: lining up the land register, listing, leases and tax with the notary and accountant of whoever entrusts the building to us, and only then looking for the right buyer.