Buying on the Amalfi Coast, with your eyes open.
Positano, Ravello, Amalfi: among the most beautiful and most expensive coastlines in the world. It is also one of the hardest places to buy well, vertical access, tiny footprints, a long history of abusi and some of the strictest landscape planning in Italy.
The Amalfi-specific risks
- Vertical access: hundreds of steps, no car access and porterage are normal. It changes daily life and resale.
- Abusi edilizi: unpermitted building is widespread on the coast, and unwinding it is the buyer's problem.
- Protected-landscape planning: heavy vincoli that restrict what you can build or change.
- Tiny footprints at huge prices, where every square metre and terrace claim must be verified.
- Overtourism in summer, near-shutdown in winter: very different lives across the year.
Amalfi, or Campania value?
If the famous coast is out of reach or too compromised, the Cilento, the Sorrentine peninsula and inland Campania offer a fraction of the price. We help you weigh prestige against what you'd actually use.
Living on the Amalfi Coast, not just visiting
Before it is a property decision, a move is a decision about daily life. These are the questions we help you answer about the Amalfi Coast honestly and year-round, not just how it looks in summer:
- Off-season: much of the coast shuts from November to Easter, with hotels, restaurants and services closed and the SS163 road quiet.
- Access: Naples is the nearest airport, then a slow, scenic drive or a ferry along the coast.
- Driving: driving and parking here are notoriously hard; ferries, buses and your own two feet are often easier, and the centres are ZTL-restricted.
- Services: everyday services and hospitals are limited on the coast itself, with the larger facilities in Salerno and Naples.
- Full-time vs second home: Salerno and Sorrento are more practical for year-round life; Positano and Ravello lean firmly second-home.
Still deciding where to live? A free Scalini assessment takes you by the hand: a step-by-step, custom Italy Move Plan and a shortlist of the places that truly fit, so you settle in the right spot before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
Can foreigners buy on the Amalfi Coast?
Yes, with no general restriction for US or UK buyers. The constraints here are physical and regulatory rather than about eligibility.
Why is it so hard to build or extend on the Amalfi Coast?
The entire coast sits under strict landscape protection (vincolo paesaggistico) and steep, fragile terrain. New building is largely impossible and even modest changes can require authorisation. Assume any work, and any past work, needs careful checking against the constraint.
How important is access and parking here?
Very. Many properties are reached only by long flights of steps, with parking scarce or remote. How you physically reach the door, and whether any part of that route crosses land you will not own, materially affects both daily life and resale.
Is unpermitted work common on the coast?
Yes. Terraces, rooms and structures built over the decades may not all be permitted, and on a protected coast regularisation is not guaranteed. The built reality should be matched against the filed plans before you sign.
Found a property? Let's check it before you commit.
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