Almost everyone who writes to us asks the same thing, and they are right to ask it: how do you decide how much to offer me? There are two figures, the estimate you see on screen and the offer that comes later, and they are built differently. The lines below explain how, because it is the only way to tell whether a figure means anything or has simply been plucked out of thin air.
The on-screen estimate: how it is calculated
The number the valuation tool shows you is the result of one multiplication: the floor area multiplied by the minimum value per square metre for your zone, with the result rounded to the nearest thousand euros. The values come from the official valuations published by the Property Market Observatory of the Italian Revenue Agency, for the residential apartment category (abitazioni civili), second half of 2025.
Which minimum we use depends on the state of repair you tell us. Declare the house new or refurbished and you get the minimum of the top condition band; declare it in good condition and you get the minimum of the middle one. The gap is not small: in almost every zone of Milan the minimum for the top condition band is more than twenty per cent above the minimum for the middle one, and in some zones it is more than double. Worth knowing, because a house described as better than it is produces a higher estimate that will not survive the visit.
Something you will not read elsewhere: the official valuations do not cover every condition band in every zone. Where the lowest condition band has not been recorded, the tool falls back to the nearest one available, and that happens in almost every zone of Milan. In practice, declaring a house “to be renovated” often returns the same figure as “in good condition”, not because the calculation ignores it but because for that zone the public figure does not exist.
So three pieces of information go into the sum: the floor area, the zone and the condition you declare. Rooms, floor level, bathrooms, lift and garage are things we ask about to prepare the visit, not to produce the number. The zone comes from your address, matched against the real perimeters of the official zones; on a few borderline addresses we apply a manual correction, because the administrative boundary and the reality of a neighbourhood do not always agree, and if the address is not enough to identify the zone you pick it yourself from a list. For non-residential property, and for zones with no official valuation, no figure appears at all: we come back to you with an individual valuation instead.
Why we start from the minimum
The official valuations do not give a price: they give a range, a minimum and a maximum for every combination of zone, category and state of repair. We start from the minimum, which is why the figure on screen is shown as a “from” figure.
We could have used the average, and it would have produced a higher, more agreeable number. The average of a zone containing renovated homes and homes needing everything describes neither of them, and showing you an inflated figure only to correct it after the visit wastes everybody’s time. We would rather give you a solid floor than a flattering number.
What the zone figure cannot know
A value per square metre describes an area, not a house. On the same street, on the same floor, two flats can be worth very different sums. The estimate does not know what condition the systems are in, whether the cadastral plan matches the house as it stands today, whether there is water getting in. It does not know because nobody has told it, and no algorithm can guess.
That is what the visit is for: it is the moment a generic figure becomes a figure about your house.
The six things we look at
At the visit we check six things. They are not surprise inspections: knowing them in advance means you arrive prepared.
- The systems. Electrical, plumbing, heating: what condition they are in and whether they meet current standards. Redoing a system in an occupied house costs money and takes time, so it is one of the items that weighs on the offer.
- Habitability certificate. Whether the certificate, or the certified declaration that replaced it, exists, whether it covers this particular property and whether it is consistent with the work carried out. On older buildings it may legitimately not exist: in that case we record that in writing and look at the case on its own merits.
- Cadastral and planning compliance. Whether the cadastral plan on file matches the house as it stands today, and whether the work carried out over the years had the building permit it required. Over thirty years of ownership someone may well have moved a partition wall without updating the plan: the plan has to be brought into line before the deed of sale, and that costs money and time. If the work was also done without permission, it has to be regularised with the local authority, and that is where the timescales stretch.
- The condition of the property. Not how attractive it is, how sound it is: water ingress, window frames, surfaces, bathrooms.
- The ownership documents. Whose name is on the title, in what shares, and whether the chain of title can be reconstructed. On an inherited house this is the item that most often drives the timing.
- Certifications, where they exist. Energy performance certificate, declarations of conformity for the systems, permits for the work carried out.
In one line: we check that everything is in order. Not that it is perfect, which is a different thing: we buy houses that need renovating, houses empty for years, houses with old systems. What we need is for the situation to be clear and capable of being put right.
What lowers the figure, and what does not
If the visit confirms the condition you described and nothing turns up that needs sorting out, the on-screen estimate is the starting point we work from when we prepare the offer: it is calculated on the zone’s minimum value, so it already sits at the bottom of the range. It remains an estimate, not an offer and not a commitment. The figure that counts is the one in the written offer, and if the house turns out to be in a different condition from the one described, the starting point changes with it.
When something does turn up, the figure moves, and we tell you what moved it. An installation that has to be replaced, or a discrepancy that has to be regularised, is a cost and a delay that whoever buys takes on, so it enters the calculation: it is the same amount any informed buyer would knock off on discovering those things before the deed. An open succession works differently: before selling, the heirs have to be on record as the owners, so that has to be dealt with in any event, with us or with anyone else. It moves the timing, not the price.
What does not lower the figure is the house being badly furnished, dirty or full of belongings. We do not ask you to empty it, repaint it or make it presentable: clearing it is at our expense, and on a house that was inherited or left shut up for years that is often the difference that matters.
When no offer comes
It needs saying, because a page explaining how an offer is built should also say when it is not. If these checks turn up a situation that cannot be put right in reasonable time, we do not make an offer. That happens with serious discrepancies, with paperwork that cannot be recovered, with jointly owned properties where the co-owners have not reached an agreement.
In those cases we say so straight away, and we tell you what would need sorting out to make the property saleable, to us or to anyone else. We would rather tell you right after the visit than after three months of negotiation.
Why an immediate offer is not the top of the market
An offer that arrives within 48 hours of the visit, when it arrives, is normally below the best price you would get by putting the house on the market with an agent and waiting for the right buyer. That is how the model works: whoever buys straight away takes on the wait, the risk and the cost of putting the property back on the market, and that risk has a price.
So the sensible comparison is not between two figures but between two scenarios: on one side an answer in a known timeframe and, if the offer comes, a figure you can decide on immediately; on the other a potentially higher figure, less the cost of holding the property through the months of waiting, less the commission, and with the chance that the first accepted offer falls through because the buyer’s mortgage is refused. We have written about it at length in the comparison between the three roads.
How to arrive prepared
One piece of advice that holds with us and with any buyer: have cadastral and planning compliance checked before you look for a buyer, not after you have accepted an offer. It is the surprise that derails more sales than any other, and finding out with a negotiation already running costs you time and bargaining position.
If you have the energy performance certificate, the declarations of conformity for the systems and the permits for the work done, keep them to hand for the visit. If you do not have them, they can be obtained, and the visit goes ahead in the meantime.
In short
The online valuation gives you a figure based on the official data for your zone, straight away and free, with no account to create: we ask for your name, your email and your consent to our processing of your data, and the estimate appears on screen. We then arrange a free visit, look at the six things above, and if the property fits our buying criteria you receive a written purchase offer within 48 hours of that visit. You are free to turn it down, at no cost and with no strings.
We buy directly, so there is no commission to pay: we are not intermediaries, we are the ones purchasing the house. We operate in Milan and in the provinces of Monza and Brianza, Como, Varese, Pavia and Lodi. If the visit shows that a traditional sale would serve you better, we tell you so.