How much you really save by buying at auction
The short answer is: about 23% compared with the expert’s valuation.
The useful answer is that this 23% is an average that lumps together things that cannot be compared, and that the real discount depends on three variables: how much the asset costs, where it is, and how many times it has already gone unsold.
These are the figures as at 10 September 2026, calculated on active auctions in Italy.
The aggregate figure, and why on its own it is no use
On auctions with an available appraised value, the average discount compared with the appraisal is 23.1%.
Taking that number and applying it to the asset you are looking at is the quickest way to get your sums wrong. Not because it is false, but because the spread around the average is very wide: there are lots at −5% and lots at −90%, and they end up in the same average.
It needs breaking down.
The cheaper the asset, the bigger the discount
This is the strongest relationship in the data, and it is counter-intuitive for anyone who imagines auctions as the shortcut to a villa at half price.
| Price band | Average discount |
|---|---|
| Up to €25,000 | −29.3% |
| €25,000–50,000 | −28.6% |
| €50,000–100,000 | −20.1% |
| €100,000–200,000 | −16.1% |
| €200,000–500,000 | −17.5% |
| €500,000 – €1m | −19.3% |
| Over €1 million | −15.2% |
The low end is discounted almost twice as much as the high end.
The reason is not that cheap lots are better deals. It is that they are the ones nobody wants: studio flats in depopulating villages, garages separate from the home, undivided shares, land with no designated use. The discount is high because demand is low, and demand is low for reasons that become yours after the award.
Above €1 million the opposite happens. Those assets have few buyers, but qualified ones, often professionals who know how to value them, and the award price stays close to the appraisal.
And they are not villas: two properties in three are under €100,000
The make-up of the market explains the rest. Of the 17,861 active properties:
| Band | Properties | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Up to €25,000 | 4,575 | 26% |
| €25,000–50,000 | 3,305 | 19% |
| €50,000–100,000 | 4,117 | 23% |
| €100,000–200,000 | 3,129 | 18% |
| €200,000–500,000 | 1,884 | 11% |
| Over €500,000 | 985 | 6% |
Two properties in three cost less than a hundred thousand euros. One in sixteen exceeds half a million.
The housing stock that ends up at auction in Italy is small, peripheral and cheap, and the discount rewards precisely the part nobody wants. If you are looking for a city-centre flat at half price, the numbers say that is not where you will find it.
(The bands add up to slightly more than the total, and the shares to slightly more than a hundred, because the filters are inclusive on both sides: lots at exactly €25,000 or €50,000 fall into two bands. The difference is 0.7%.)
Where the market is stagnant, the discount doubles
The average discount by region, calculated on lots with an available appraised value:
| Region | Average discount | Lots |
|---|---|---|
| Sardinia | −32.5% | 300 |
| Abruzzo | −30.7% | 167 |
| Sicily | −30.2% | 509 |
| Umbria | −28.7% | 248 |
| … | ||
| Campania | −15.3% | 350 |
| Emilia-Romagna | −13.3% | 98 |
| Liguria | −12.8% | 92 |
Between Sardinia and Liguria there is a gap of twenty points.
The explanation is liquidity: where the ordinary property market is slow, an auction property finds few buyers and the price falls a long way before it finds one. Where the market is moving, the auction competes with the open market and the discount narrows.
Beware of small samples. Calabria comes out at −35.4%, the highest figure in Italy, but on just twenty-five lots: it is not a figure to build a strategy on.
The price per square metre, province by province
The most concrete figure for anyone looking for a home is how much a square metre costs at auction where they live. Median by province, 92 provinces with sufficient data:
The cheapest: Crotone €236/m², Reggio Calabria 246, Biella 248, Isernia 250, Catanzaro 256, South Sardinia 266.
The most expensive: Milan €1,463/m², Monza and Brianza 1,420, Forlì-Cesena 1,356, Siena 1,339, Florence 1,335, Verona 1,198.
Between the first and the last there is a sixfold difference.
These are auction starting prices, not award prices: the final value may rise if there are several bidders. And they are provincial medians, so they lump together the provincial capital and the smaller municipalities, which in large provinces is a big simplification.
The comparison that matters is one only you can make: take the price per square metre in your area on the open market and put it next to these. The ratio between the two is your real discount, and it almost never resembles the 23% national average.
What the discount does not include
The number you are looking at is always the starting price against the expert’s valuation. It is not what you spend.
After the award come registration tax or VAT, mortgage and cadastral taxes, the delegate’s fee, procedural costs, vacating the property if it is occupied, and the works. On an €80,000 property the fixed items can add up to several thousand euros, and vacating, when needed, involves timescales and costs that no table can estimate in advance.
A 30% discount on the appraisal can shrink to much less by the time you reach completion. The honest comparison is not between starting price and appraisal: it is between the all-in cost and what you would spend buying the same property on the market.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average discount at a court auction? 23.1% compared with the expert’s valuation, on active auctions with an available appraisal as at 10 September 2026. But it ranges from 15% to 32% depending on price band and region.
Is it better value to buy a cheap property? It is discounted more, which is not the same thing. Below €25,000 the average discount is 29%, but that band contains the assets with the least demand and the most problems. The discount is the price of risk, not a gift.
Is the discount calculated on the appraisal or on the market price? On the appraisal, which is an estimate of market value made by a technical expert appointed by the court. It may be years old and may be wrong in either direction.
Can I redo these figures myself? Yes. The aggregate data by province and region are public and can be downloaded as CSV from the observatory, and the catalogue can be searched without registering.
Data as at 10 September 2026, calculated on the active auctions published on the Ministry of Justice’s Portale delle Vendite Pubbliche. Discounts by region and by band are calculated only on lots with an available appraised value. The official notice of sale always prevails.