Mar

27

Le Marche For Your New Home?

March 27, 2008 |

Tuscany and Umbria used to be the usual destination for second home buyers when choosing to live in Italy.Tuscany has long been a popular holiday destination and many British and northern Europeans have in the past decided to retire or buy a holiday home in that part of Italy.

But as prices have increased over the past 20 years and also as all the older and run down properties have been bought and restored, prices have in most cases got to a level where only the well off can now afford to buy in Tuscany.

Umbria to the east of Tuscany and in the green heart of Italy then became very popular as the prices there were lower than neighbouring Tuscany, but in the past 10 years prices have also increased and so new buyers started to look to the east and the undiscovered Le Marche region.

Le Marche as a holiday and also home buying destination really took off when the low cost airline Ryanair started flying into its main airport at Ancona about 9 years ago. At roughly the same time Ryanair also started flying into Pescara airport to the south in Abruzzo, but still only 20 minutes by car to southern Le Marche.

Le Marche has a long and unspoilt coastline to the east, boarding the Adriatic sea and to the west there are the Sibillini Mountains.The rolling countryside is dotted by numerous small mediaeval hilltop towns and villages and the region has many small olive groves and vineyards producing increasingly popular and well known olive oils and wines. The beautiful resort towns of Senigallia, Portonovo, Civitanova, Porto san Giorgio, Grottamare and San Benedetto offer miles of sandy beaches, and also some of the best restaurants in Italy.

Farmhouses which were abandoned after the second world war are seen all over the landscape in Le Marche. Buying a derelict farmhouse with a few acres has been the way most British buyers have proceeded in the past few years. But now an increasing number of house hunters are concentrating on buying and restoring exquisite mediaeval village houses in sleepy hilltop villages.

These buyers have realised that they can own a small village property in Italy for holiday or rental use without the expense of having to buy and restore a farmhouse with several acres of land.

Buying property in a foreign country with all the problems associated with a different culture and language is never a simple process. Buyers should always take time to choose well established le Marche real estate agents and also should always have a survey carried out on a property, no matter how run down and unnecessary it may seem. Apart from structural problems with the house or apartment, a local surveyor or structural engineer will know of any geological problems in the immediate area. Frequently as buyers are for the first time buying a property with cash rather than a mortgage, they try and save just a few hundred euros by not having a survey and sometimes this can be a very expensive mistake.

But if you are sensible and take your time over your purchase and get good advice, then buying and owning a new home in Italy is a wonderful investment.

Dermott Sales is a UK based expert in property sales and renovation in the Le Marche region of Italy. He runs two websites; http://www.livinginlemarche.com for property sales and http://www.montelparo.com for property rebuilding and renovation. Please contact him on +44 (0)7885 773 433 (UK), 0039 3343256597 (Italy)

Tags: , , , ,

Share This

Related Posts


Comments

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

Close
E-mail It