What a lake house earns: the sums before the promises

For every zone of every municipality the Property Market Observatory estimates, besides sale values, a range of rents in euro per square metre per month¹. Here we take the central zone (B1) and the most common type, a standard flat in normal condition, for a 80 m² home: the rent at the centre of the range, the value at the centre of the sale range, and the ratio between the two, that is the gross yield before taxes and costs.

The centre of Orta has the highest rent, but also the highest values: the highest gross yield is in Omegna, the lowest in San Maurizio d'Opaglio. These are estimates per zone, not contracts: a house on the water, with a garden or a buoy, sits outside these averages, for better and for worse. Quotations for all zones are in the guide Lake Orta property prices.

What these figures leave out. Gross yield does not count taxes, IMU, condominium charges, repairs or the months the house stands empty between tenants. The calculation further down includes some of them.

Tourist nights («presenze») are the nights spent by tourists in registered accommodation. In 2025, according to the Piedmont Region's Tourism Observatory, the twenty municipalities with most nights in the lakes district included Orta San Giulio with 175,190, Pettenasco with 129,455 and Omegna with 48,397; no other lake municipality is in that ranking, whose twentieth place has 41,703².

For houses let to tourists the closest figure comes from the Province of Novara, which counts them separately: in 2025 there were 1,697 short and holiday lets with 7,797 beds, which recorded 73,827 arrivals and 272,419 nights, 16.6% of all nights in the province, with an average stay of 3.7 nights³. In the Lake Orta area, Novara side, holiday lets offer 1,737 of 6,526 beds³.

Doing the sum, each bed in the province's holiday lets had 35 overnight stays in the year, and each property, with 4.6 beds on average, about 161 guest nights. How many calendar nights that means depends on how many people come each time: with the house always full it would be 35, with fewer guests than beds, more. It is the average of a province that also includes Novara and Lake Maggiore: a well-kept house on the lake may do better, another worse.

Foreign tourists account for 53% of arrivals and 62% of nights in the province, and come mostly from June to September; Italians are present more evenly, in winter too³. For an owner that means a strong summer and a winter not to count on.

Long let. Whoever lets a home can choose the flat tax («cedolare secca»): 21% of the annual rent, replacing income tax, local surtaxes, registration and stamp duty⁴. For agreed-rent contracts («canone concordato») it falls to 10%, but only in Bari, Bologna, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Rome, Turin and Venice and the municipalities bordering them, in the other provincial capitals and in the high-housing-pressure municipalities chosen by CIPE⁴⁵. The CIPE list for Piedmont, 36 municipalities, includes Novara, Verbania and Domodossola, but no lake municipality⁶. The law also extends the 10% to municipalities hit by disasters with a state of emergency declared in the five years before 28 May 2014⁴: we found no such declaration covering the lake's municipalities. So, apart from that case, on the lake agreed rents also pay 21%.

The 2027 budget bill. The Council of Ministers' press release of 28 October 2026 announces a 5% flat tax instead of 10% on agreed-rent contracts, 1% where the tenant is under 36⁷. What falls, in other words, is the reduced rate that, as far as we could check, does not apply on the lake today: if the text stays like this, nothing changes for a house in Orta or Pettenasco. We have not yet read the official text.

Is an agreed rent still worth it? On the lake the advantage is on IMU: as the guide IMU property tax on the lake explains, for agreed-rent homes the tax is cut to 75%, and Orta San Giulio's rate sheet applies the cut to its 0.96% rate, which in effect becomes 0.72%⁸. Agreed rents, however, are capped by local agreements: compare with the open-market rent.

Short let, up to 30 days. The same flat tax applies: 21% on the rents of one house, chosen by you in your tax return, 26% on the others⁹. From tax year 2026 the short-let regime applies only to those letting no more than 2 flats this way; beyond that the law presumes a business¹⁰. If a platform or agent collects the rent, it withholds 21% as a payment on account⁹. From 2027 the same rules sit in articles 203, 205 and 207 of the new consolidated tax code (Legislative Decree 117/2026)⁴¹⁰.

The registrations to make before the first guest (notice to the municipality and regional code, national code, guests reported to the police) are in the guide Renting out your lake home. For those living abroad, how these taxes combine with their own country's is settled by the double taxation treaty: ask an accountant.

Orta San Giulio has had a tourist tax since 2012, and it also applies to homes let for up to 30 days¹¹. The latest rates published by the municipality, set by the council executive for 2023 at the 2022 level, are €1 per person per night for short lets, from €1 to €3.50 in hotels depending on stars¹¹. Children under 10 and people working in the municipality are exempt; beyond 7 consecutive nights in the same month the tax is halved, for groups of at least 25 it falls by 30%¹¹.

The guest pays the tax, but whoever collects the rent is liable for it: the owner, or the platform or agent if they collect⁹¹¹. Orta's regulation requires a report for every month, even with no guests, and payment by the 15th of the following month, plus an annual return by 30 June; failure to pay costs 30% extra, failure to file the return 200% of the tax¹¹.

In the other lake municipalities: in 2020 the Interior Ministry reimbursed the fall in tourist-tax revenue to Ameno, Miasino, Orta San Giulio, Pettenasco and Quarna Sopra, a sign that the tax existed there¹². We have not read today's rates in Ameno, Miasino, Pettenasco and Quarna Sopra, and we do not know whether other municipalities introduced it later: ask the tax office before the first guest.

The assumptions, all ours: a 80 m² standard flat in the central zone of Orta San Giulio, valued by OMI at €162,000 at the centre of the range; cadastral income of €600; IMU at the 2026 rate of 0.96%; for the holiday let, cleaning, linen, commissions and small costs equal to 25% of gross, and €1,200 a year of electricity, gas, water and internet that a long-term tenant would pay. Condominium, insurance and maintenance are left out in all three cases.

1. Long let, open-market rent. The OMI rent at the centre, 6.8 €/m², makes €544 a month, €6,528 a year. Less €1,371 of flat tax and €968 of IMU, €4,189 remain, 2.6% of the value, before any months between tenants.

2. Holiday let. At €150 a night, an assumed rate:

The nights needed for a holiday let to earn as much as a long let, with the same assumptions, change a lot with the rate:

With an average stay of 3.7 nights, 79 nights are more than twenty stays, each with a cleaning, a change of linen and an arrival to manage. The provincial average of 35 overnight stays per bed says it is not a given.

3. Empty house. It costs the IMU, €968 with these assumptions, plus the minimum heating to keep it from freezing in winter, which the guide Winter on the lake estimates, plus the other fixed costs. Leaving it empty is not free; letting it is not pure profit. Every house has its own break-even point, and it has to be recalculated with the real figures.

If the sums tell you that letting is not worth the effort, or that it is a good moment to sell, the tool From price to net shows what a sale leaves you and the guide Selling your lake house the papers to prepare.

If instead you want to know what your house can do, with its view, its beds and its road in winter, you can tell us about it: we look at it and tell you what we think, with the numbers.