What is a real estate introducer, and how is it different from an agent?
An introducer (procacciatore d’affari) refers business opportunities to a company acting for one party, without stability of engagement and without impartiality. This differs from an agent (mediatore), who brings two parties together while remaining independent of both and who, in Italian real estate, must be registered with the chamber of commerce under law 39 of 3 February 1989. The distinction turns on conduct rather than on the label: anyone who negotiates price, takes offers or runs the transaction is acting as an agent, and if unregistered has no right to a commission.
Agent or introducer
The agent
Brings two or more parties together for a transaction without being tied to either by employment or collaboration. That is the figure of article 1754 of the Italian civil code, with the right to commission arising under article 1755: it is due from each party when the deal closes through their intervention. In real estate the activity is reserved to those registered with the chamber of commerce.
The introducer
Acts for one party, on their instructions, and owes no duty of impartiality. It is an atypical figure with no statute of its own, to which some rules of agency contracts are applied by analogy. There is no stability: they refer when the occasion arises, with no obligation to seek business out.
The practical consequence
Anyone in fact carrying out real estate agency work without registration is not only exposed to a penalty: they cannot enforce payment, even where the transaction completes. It is why many referrals go unpaid, and why conduct matters more than the wording of the agreement.
Occasional or habitual
The distinction changes the tax and social security position, and it is the most frequent question.
Occasional means unorganised and not continuing: a few referrals a year, unplanned. The fee falls under miscellaneous income and is documented with a receipt for occasional services, subject to a twenty per cent withholding. No VAT registration is required.
Habitual means the activity is regular, organised and repeated. VAT registration is then required, with the corresponding classification and contributions.
The threshold is not an amount: frequency, organisation and regularity are what count. Two referrals a year and two a month are not the same thing even at equal value.
What the contract must contain
No prescribed form exists, but a written agreement is the only thing that makes the fee enforceable.
Who is referred, and when
Name and date: the element that decides any later dispute about who brought whom.
What the fee is calculated on
The commission received by the company, never the property price. This is the commonest misunderstanding and produces figures out of all proportion.
When it falls due
On completion of the transaction and receipt of the commission.
How long the referral remains valid
Twenty-four months is usual, but it must be written.
That there is no exclusivity and no duty to seek business
, where that is what the parties intend: an agreement setting territories, targets and stability may be recharacterised as an agency contract, with very different consequences.
How Realux works
Realux has a dedicated agreement for professionals who refer: accountants, lawyers, notaries, wealth managers. The referral stays a referral — you do not enter the negotiation, so you are not carrying out agency work — and the client relationship stays with whoever brought it.
The referral is recorded with its date, the fee is agreed beforehand and the term is written. The client is assigned to a selected network agent covering the relevant area.
See the adviser agreementFrequently asked questions
- How much does a real estate introducer earn?
- In Italian practice between 10% and 25% of the commission received by the agency, not of the property price. The percentage rises with the quality of the referral. Nothing is fixed by law: what applies is what was agreed in writing.
- Is VAT registration needed to act as an introducer?
- Not for genuinely occasional activity, documented with a receipt for occasional services subject to withholding. It is required once the activity becomes habitual and organised. The assessment turns on frequency and regularity rather than on a single amount.
- What is the difference between an introducer and a commercial agent?
- A commercial agent has a stable engagement, an assigned territory and a duty to promote business continuously, together with the related statutory protections including termination indemnity. An introducer has neither stability nor any duty to act. A contract setting territories and targets risks being recharacterised as agency.
- Is someone who introduces a buyer entitled to a commission?
- They are entitled to the agreed fee where an agreement exists and the activity genuinely was a referral. Where the person negotiated or took offers without being a registered agent, Italian case law denies any entitlement even after completion.