All things you need to know about living in Val Masino
Val Masino, in the province of Sondrio, is home to 1 Spaniards: 0.12% of its 820 residents.
ISTAT counts 14 residents with a foreign citizenship in Val Masino, 1.71% of the population. Among the nationalities we follow most closely, the only group is Spaniards (1).
That puts Val Masino in the bottom ten percent of Italian comuni for foreign residents. Anyone moving here should expect to be unusual.
These are small numbers, so we would not read much into the percentage or any change in it.
On ISTAT's well-being measures, the province of Sondrio scores in the top quarter of Italian provinces for electricity from renewable sources and urban green.
It scores in the bottom quarter for density and importance of museums' heritage and medical specialists.
These figures describe the province, not the town. A comune can sit some way from its province's average.
Summers average a high of 17.5°C (64°F) and winters a low of -11.0°C (12°F), measured over 2015 to 2024.
Val Masino sees about 0 days a year above 30°C (86°F).
It gets about 1,401mm of rain a year, spread across roughly 176 days.
These come from ERA5-Land reanalysis at the comune itself, not from the nearest weather station.
OMI puts residential purchase prices in Val Masino at about €1,025 per square meter in the second half of 2025.
At those figures, buying costs about 20.8 years of renting the same property.
Val Masino population over time
By nationality
| Nationality | Citizens | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | 2 | 0.24% |
| Spain | 1 | 0.12% |
| Lithuania | 1 | 0.12% |
| Poland | 1 | 0.12% |
| Albania | 0 | 0.00% |
| Argentina | 0 | 0.00% |
| Austria | 0 | 0.00% |
| Australia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Belgium | 0 | 0.00% |
| Bulgaria | 0 | 0.00% |
| Brazil | 0 | 0.00% |
| Canada | 0 | 0.00% |
| Switzerland | 0 | 0.00% |
| Cyprus | 0 | 0.00% |
| Czechia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Germany | 0 | 0.00% |
| Denmark | 0 | 0.00% |
| Estonia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Finland | 0 | 0.00% |
| France | 0 | 0.00% |
| United Kingdom | 0 | 0.00% |
| Greece | 0 | 0.00% |
| Croatia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Hungary | 0 | 0.00% |
| Ireland | 0 | 0.00% |
| Japan | 0 | 0.00% |
| South Korea | 0 | 0.00% |
| Luxembourg | 0 | 0.00% |
| Latvia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Malta | 0 | 0.00% |
| Mexico | 0 | 0.00% |
| Netherlands | 0 | 0.00% |
| Norway | 0 | 0.00% |
| Portugal | 0 | 0.00% |
| Russia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Sweden | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovenia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovakia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Ukraine | 0 | 0.00% |
| United States | 0 | 0.00% |
| Venezuela | 0 | 0.00% |
Country of birth
| Group | Residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Born in Italy | 787 | 95.98% |
| Born elsewhere in the EU | 5 | 0.61% |
| Born outside the EU | 28 | 3.41% |
Spaniards over time
Quality of life in Sondrio
Full BES profile for Sondrio →Sondrio on cost vs quality of life (province-level) →
Property prices
Buying in Val Masino is well below the Sondrio average of €1,483/m². Averaged across 2 OMI micro-zones, which can differ substantially within the same town.
20.8 years of rent here equal the purchase price, close to the national median of 22.2 years.
A ratio between two OMI prices, not a return on investment. It leaves out purchase taxes, IMU, maintenance, financing and the months a place sits empty — all of which push the real figure up. Useful for the question it does answer: whether this town looks expensive to buy relative to what renting in it costs.
Housing here in excellent condition costs 24% more than ordinary condition — €1,275/m² against €1,025.
That gap is what the market charges for a place you don’t have to work on. It is not what the work would cost you — OMI prices property, not builders.
A detached house here averages €1,075/m², against €1,025 for an apartment.
Compared street for street — houses and flats priced in the same neighborhood — a house costs 5% more per square meter.
OMI prices “Ville e Villini” separately from the apartments every other figure on this page describes. Nationally a house costs about 14% more per square meter, but in 450 comuni it costs less — worth checking rather than assuming.
Seismic zone
Val Masino is in seismic zone 3. Of the four zones, zone 1 is the highest hazard and zone 4 the lowest. The Department of Civil Protection describes zone 3 as a zone where strong earthquakes are less likely than in zones 1 and 2.
This is the legal classification the Region gave the comune, used for planning and for control of building works. It is not a forecast, and it says nothing about the building you are looking at: since the 2018 building code the design load of a new building comes from site-specific hazard, not from the zone. Have any specific property checked by a qualified engineer.
Not to be confused with the “seismic” routes of the 7% pensioner regime. Those turn on whether the comune was in the 2009 L’Aquila or 2016–17 central-Italy earthquake areas, not on its zone, and being in zone 1 does not make anyone eligible for that regime, or for any tax treatment.
See every comune on the map →Hospital, airport and daily-needs distance
Nearest hospital: Ospedale Sondrio, about 35.8 km / 40 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest emergency department: Ospedale Sondrio (DEA level I), about 35.8 km / 40 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest airport: Milano Linate Airport (LIN), about 132.3 km / 103 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest supermarket (OpenStreetMap): Crai, about 5.4 km / 8 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest pharmacy: Farmacia Val Masino, about 5.6 km / 8 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Nearest railway station (OpenStreetMap): Ardenno-Masino, about 15.5 km / 20 minutes by road from the geographic center of the comune.
Measured by road from the main town of the comune (its OpenStreetMap place point; the geographic center for the few comuni with none), at free-flow speeds with no traffic. It is approximate. For Val Masino, a trip from your own address can take longer or shorter. Drive the route before you rely on it, and ask the local health authority which hospital serves the town. Shops, pharmacies and stations are the nearest to the main town, not to your address.
Nearby comuni
← See Val Masino on the interactive map
This page, as data
Every figure above sits behind the page as a value with its source, its date and its coverage attached. Your assistant reads the same record, gaps included.