From Veneto to Friuli Venezia Giulia: what has changed for owners of a home in Sappada, and for those who take up residence there

The law that moved Sappada has a single article. It detaches the municipality from Veneto and joins it to Friuli Venezia Giulia “within the Province of Udine”, and provides that in laws concerning Sappada, references to Veneto and to Belluno are to be read as replaced. It has been in force since 16 December 2017, almost ten years after the 2008 referendum, in which the yes votes were 860 out of 1,199 eligible voters.¹²⁰

The Region then had to bring an entire municipality under its rules. It did so with a law of February 2018, which allowed twenty-four months to bring local rules into line and decided, subject by subject, from when the law of Friuli Venezia Giulia would apply.²

Since then the arrangement has changed twice more. Since 1 July 2020 the functions of the old province have been carried out by the Regional Decentralisation Body of Udine (Ente di decentramento regionale), and Sappada belongs to the Mountain Community of Carnia (Comunità di montagna della Carnia). And a regional law of July 2026 re-establishes the Provinces: the Province of Udine, with Sappada on its list of municipalities, takes over from the Decentralisation Body from 1 January 2027. It is responsible for roads and for upper secondary school buildings and, until its governing bodies are elected, it is run by a commissioner of the Region.³⁴

The longer history, from 1852 to the referendum, is in the guide to Plodn.

Since 1 January 2023 there has been no IMU in Friuli Venezia Giulia. In its place there is ILIA, the imposta locale immobiliare autonoma: the regional property tax that replaced IMU. It is paid by whoever owns the property, resident or not. Until 2022, owners in Sappada paid the State's IMU.⁵⁶

The regional law sets the limits, and the municipality chooses within them. For 2026 Sappada decided as follows:⁵⁶

Each person has only one “first building” in the whole region, and the reduced rate is not automatic: the building must be designated by an online notification to the Region by 30 June of the following year. Without it, the municipality applies the higher rate. The detail, with the calculations, is in the guide to costs and taxes.⁵

Here the transfer is only half done, and it is the thing almost nobody knows.

The reason for the court is set out by Italy's Ministry of Justice: the territorial jurisdiction of the judicial offices was last fixed by a decree of 2014, and the Ministry's map, updated to 23 October 2026, still shows Belluno for Sappada.⁹

In practice: cadastral records (visure) and cadastral floor plans are requested from Udine, or online; searches of the land registers concern the Belluno office; and a court auction of a home in Sappada goes through the court in Belluno (Tribunale di Belluno). For those who buy through a notary nothing changes: it is the notary who knows where to look.⁷⁸⁹

Since 2018 Sappada has been part of the Friuli Venezia Giulia health service, and since 1 January 2020 it has come under the Azienda sanitaria universitaria Friuli Centrale, the local health authority.²¹⁰

• Out-of-hours doctor service (guardia medica). For Sappada it is based in Ovaro, which also covers Forni Avoltri, Prato Carnico, Rigolato and other municipalities in the valley. The number is 116117, from 8 pm to 8 am every day, and in the daytime on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.¹¹
• Those not resident in the region pay for the visit at the regional rate, unless they have their healthcare domicile and a chosen doctor in the district.¹²
• A family doctor for longer stays. Non-residents can choose one on a temporary basis, for three months to a year, renewable.¹³
• Hospitals. In the region the nearest is in Tolmezzo; in Veneto there is Pieve di Cadore.¹¹¹⁴

One thing to know for the high season: the health authority's list shows only one tourist out-of-hours service, in Lignano, in summer. It lists none for Sappada.¹¹

For anyone renovating, the regional building code of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Codice regionale dell'edilizia) applies to applications started after 15 February 2018; seismic applications follow the regional law, and the municipality has had to bring its plans into line with the Region's rules. Anyone who finds a Veneto application in an old file should not be surprised: it is the date.²

The state and provincial roads in the area passed to the Region, which manages them through Friuli Venezia Giulia Strade. With the new Province, from 1 January 2027, the regional roads “of local interest” pass to it.²⁴

Many of the advantages of Friuli Venezia Giulia are real, but they require registered residence. With a second home you do not get them; with residence in Sappada, on their conditions, you do.

Three details matter more than the figures. The fuel discount applies to vehicles entered in the Region's public motor vehicle registers. The first-home grant requires five years of residence in the region out of the last eight: those arriving from elsewhere do not qualify straight away, while those who lived in Sappada before 2017 count those years too. And applications for the grant join a queue: in October 2026 the Region had funded those submitted up to 30 June 2026.¹⁷¹⁸²

Residence, moreover, is a fact and not a signature: whoever applies for it must really live in the home. Purchase taxes with the “first home” benefits are explained in the guide to costs and taxes.

• How ownership is recorded. Cadastre and recording in the land registers, as in the rest of Italy: Sappada has never been in the land-book (tavolare) system, which in the region remains in Trieste, Gorizia and some municipalities of the province of Udine.
• Plodarisch. The German-speaking community is protected by the regional law on German-speaking minorities, which since 2018 has applied to Sappada too.²
• Old documents. Deeds and floor plans from before 2018 say “province of Belluno”: it is not a mistake, it is the date.

Today the postcode is 33012 and the telephone area code 0435.⁶

In the listings of the homes we handle we state the ILIA rate that applies and whether the property can count as the first building; before the preliminary contract we collect an up-to-date cadastral record and floor plan. If you are thinking of moving to Sappada, say so from the start: it changes the calculation of the purchase taxes, and we work it out with you and the notary.

If you own a home in Sappada and are thinking of selling or letting it, our written valuation also sets out the ILIA the house pays today and what a buyer who takes up residence would pay: nothing, if it becomes their main home and is not in a luxury category.