Is buying a house complicated? Here are the major difficulties for buyers

Buying a house often does not live up to one's expectations, facing the difficulties in recovering the documentation and information on the property and excessive bureaucracy, evaluating costs that are not always transparent and dealing with real estate agents sometimes not reliable. This is what emerges from an analysis by Kaaja, the Italian proptech that created the first online platform that digitizes the entire real estate buying and selling process through innovative technologies, in collaboration with Italian Proptech Network, an innovation and knowledge hub dedicated to the Real Estate world. born within the REC, the Real Estate Center of the Politecnico di Milano. The research, conducted on a representative sample of the Italian population, identified the main difficulties encountered by Italians when buying a house.

The main aspects that emerged from the responses of the survey participants are:

MATCHING EXPECTATIONS WITH REALITY: the first difficulty is certainly to find the property with the desired characteristics: for 54% of the interviewees it was a long and complex process, often overcome with some renunciation of the desired. After the pandemic, for example, terraces and gardens have become increasingly popular, but often the supply on the market is unable to meet the high demand.

BUROCRACY: 70% had problems retrieving all the information and documentation on the property, thus complaining of excessive bureaucracy. 54% found it difficult to carry out the deed with the notary and complete the purchase quickly and without surprises. In fact, there are many documents necessary to finalize the purchase of a property. Getting well informed is the basis from which to start if you do not want to run into unpleasant unforeseen events.

LACK OF INFORMATION: 56% had problems in obtaining all the information necessary for the purchase process, 60% even struggled to have all the necessary information on the property, so much so that 61% found it difficult to understand if the its offer was in line with that of the market. From this point of view, it is essential to rely on a valid real estate consultant, able to provide all the information necessary to complete the purchase process.

TRANSPARENCY ON COSTS: even the costs to be incurred are sometimes unknown. 62% of buyers had difficulty in knowing all the costs associated with the purchase (notary, commissions, taxes, ...) and 63% in knowing the recurring ones (condominium fees, IMU, TASI, ....). About half (53%) encountered problems in accessing mortgage proposals with one or more credit institutions.

THE ROLE OF THE REAL ESTATE AGENT: 61% consider it difficult to understand the reliability and skills of the real estate agent they have entrusted, 56% also complained of difficulties in being able to have an appointment and 68% failed to visit the property at the time and in the manner desired.

“The purpose of the research - comments Dario Cardile CEO and Founder Kaaja - is to identify the flaws in the process of buying a property, in order to improve or eliminate them completely. The digitization of the real estate supply chain will bring numerous benefits in this sense. Let's think, for example, of the use of blockchain technology in real estate, which allows, among other things, to publish all documents of a property online, when it is put up for sale, in order to be immediately visible by the potential buyer, in simplicity. more total, without creating problems of bureaucracy and transparency. A trend that is establishing itself, even if in Italy the phenomenon is recent. With the introduction of this technology, users who buy homes online can verify the authenticity and traceability of information online, consult offers and buy properties in complete safety ".