I have a "life estate" property in Le Marche, Italy. The owner wants to sign his portion of the property deed over to me so that I may take a loan against the property which is paid for already and pay him off so that I may be sole owner of the property. Does the bank appraise the value of the property? Does it have to be a bank in Marche? I heard that Italian banks will only give you a loan for half of what the property is worth. Is this true?

If you go on this website ( non affiliated or related with our )
www.lifeinitaly.it Ugo is a mortgage broker specializing in loan to foreigner. He can answer all the question.
In any case different rules are applied to foreigners since it is more difficult for banks to recover the money / check income etc ...
An Italian can get a house with 10% down - more or less like in the US.
Paolo

Hello Tommy ,

here Ugo from Italy , yes you can borrow money necessary to buy the half of your home in Le Marche , if you have owner
on the other half - Amount of mortgage can to be till the 80% of the half property commercial value - more info on my website http://www.lifeinitaly.it, click on Italian Mortgage guideline .
have a good day , Ugo

Ugo, look at the date of the post it was back in 2007.He probably got his mortgage by now.

Yes !, but have possibility that other have the same problem....