'Can't find a cheap house habitable worth living in!'

I'm afraid in this market you will be very lucky indeed to achieve anything close to the price you are asking. I spent yesterday looking at dozens of Marche agents. Large price reductions and special offers are becoming widespread.  For obvious reasons, many of them are British owned. It's an extremely competitive selling environment. The most prevalent purchasers in S Marche are the Dutch at the moment, who are very attentive to the bottom line!  

On paper from the information you have given, a 350m2 house at €190,000 looks very good value to me. Just over €540 m2. The last time I was in Ancona, maybe 12 years ago, apartments were generally selling at the equivalent of €750 m2.

  Thanks for the comments but we are forever hopeful, its a great house and for the price its a bargain! We had this house on the market a few years ago and every one who came liked it and we had a few offers but decided we couldn't find anything as good for the price, so we stayed. But now we are moving, and know there is some one out there who would love to live here!

 things are slow...well very slow... but you are right time will eventually lead to a buyer..  its basically how Italians set their property prices..    we recently had a couple of phone calls re the Dolce Vita show in London...  its at a new venue this year .. despite being offered a pretty good deal we have turned it down... because it doesn't seem to us at least as if there will be a serious recovered market by then...  and it really doesn't seem like it will be worth the hassle ... its hard work for all setting up a stand ... and transporting the stuff up there.. you however might well be able to do a bit of private marketing in such a place.. handouts and local knowledge of your property for sale... not suggesting you do it inside the building... anyway its in Islington next year... and if  you have not sold by then and are looking to kick start your sale and do a bit of innovative marketing could be well worth a trip

What pianopiano says is true, however. UK buyers are very thin on the ground these days because of sterling's fall. Transactions generally are down around 20% from 2007 levels and the buying pattern has very much changed to the eurozone.

  We are not moving back to the UK. YOu may say things have and will slump more but where i come from in the Uk  it hasn't slumped very much at all, I still can not afford to live there. This house is big but we  heat it with our own wood and doesn't cost as much as most of a lot smaller houses I know. And as we are comfortable here we are willing to wait. This property has 570sqm so is well worth the money. As for the cute house with loads of unmanagebable acres of land that I  have found so many english people struggle with It a lot smaller with no business potential. Anyway who says we wnat UK buyers. Thanks for your comments.Plus we are open to Offers!!!

Just seen your second post pianopiano. Not as bearish as you are but clearly in the last few years many people have overpaid for property particularly in the "cheaper" regions. With the global downturn its not surprising that these are the ones that fall out of bed at least in euro terms. All I was saying that despite everything, a price of €540 m2 for a habitable house in Le Marche looks good value to me. I genuinely wish the family well.

Good luck, Amanda and Dave, glad to hear you are not leaving us, or Italy?Angie

There are obviously many factors that determine a property's value. On the continent the starting point is always price per m2. This is then compared to the price in that area, region etc. Adjusted for condition, closeness to amenities etc. But price per m2 is always the dominant consideration. In the UK this never seems to figure despite all the major UK building companies using cost per metre2 (or at least cost per foot2) as their main construction guideline. (building costs for example are currently around  £950 m2  for a "good" build in outer London but land costs will add 5-10 times to this amount).  In Europe it is normal to quote an inclusive figure (ie including the land value). For example, in Berlin, it is still possible to buy at around €650m2. In Bulgaria, at the speculative peak,  apartments were being sold for upwards of €1,500 m2. Now €550-€650 is often the quoted value if you can find a buyer. Italy is no different. Price per m2 is the main driver.  Property prices are probably something like 8% -12% off their peak. Value will always come through but I really believe that the value (and hence buyers), unless sterling recovers significantly, will not be found from the UK. Anyway, here it is, my opinion.

I recommend a website called www.subito.it We have just sold a property there. Mostly Italian buyers but ours were actually Belgian.

At 570m2.....(I initially took your number of 350m2), its difficult to make your price stack up. I would think agencies would be biting your hand off. Or is this really where as pianopiano says, prices are?

I spoke to my estate agent friends this week (in Comunanza, Marche) and they have been pretty busy since the end of August. Properties under about 200,000 are going well. She quoted this figure because generally the buyers don't need finance for these "cheaper" properties. I don't think it is correct to say that the price for all properties are falling and the number of sales are low. Amba's price IMHO is good. It's just a case of patience.The properties that are not selling are the big, restored "villas with pools" that previously appealed to British buyers. You just need to trawl the agents sites to see how many are for sale - lots.Italians make up the highest propportion of purchasers so it would be mad to ignore that market. We had lots of Italian viewers (mostly from out of the area, looking for a holiday home) and very few foreigners. My husband's ex has also just sold her house, as have some friends who have had their house for sale for over 2 years, so the markets is definitely picking up.We were very pro-active in marketing the house (well, ruin really). I created a website, we posted links to it everywhere we could find, we put up posters with tear off strips in our shop and of course we used an agent. We're doing the same with the house we live in: houses.sibillinicycling.com I'll happily do the same for anyone else struggling to sell - just PM me.So, if you are sitting in a villa with pool you are trying to sell for three quarters of  a million euro (or more) and are aiming firmly at foreign buyers you will probably have a long wait. If you have a reasonably priced property that represents good value to the Italian market too then hang on in there.Just my two penneth worth.

Penny, with the best will in the world, it looks like your price is €2,500 m2. which is closer to what I'd expect. Or am I really missing something here.......

Hi Cap Boi,The calculations work like this: 70sqm x €1300 per sqm = €91,000 for the main house110 sqm (of annexe) x €650 per sqm (50% of price per sqm as it is officially resgistered as cantina space to finish) = €71,500Plus €12,500 for the fact it has a garden plus a terrace and is detached (almost impossible to find detached townhouses with gardens in Amandola). And of course it's beautiful - but that's just our opinion and you'd have to see for yourself So that's how we get to a €175,000 asking price. You can check the per sqm prices for any place here: http://www.agenziaterritorio.it/site.php?id=2158  It makes a lot more sense to me to value places on the square meterage. Obviously if you get in the lucky position of having a couple of people both wanting the property then they can always outbid each other but I can't really imagine that happening here so much. We're not leaving Marche either BTW, just moving.  

Perfect explanation Penny. Very professional. I wish you all the best.

Thanks CapoBoi. I agree Amanda - it seems very good value!Hi PianoPiano,No, parking is always hard to come by here in the "centro storico" and we are very much in the centre. There are parking bays at the bottom of our road and you can at least drive down our street (which is a dead end) in a Panda or small vehicle unlike many streets. That's about as good as it gets unless you are very fortunate. To be honest we are always forgetting where we have parked the car, we use it so little! One of the advantages of being in a town that has all the required facilities.Where are you living?The figures on the Agenzia delle Entrate site are from the first 6 months of this year and as there is no incentive to underdeclare any more, you have to assume they are fairly accurate nowadays - unlike when we bought 6 or 7 years ago when underdeclaration was rife.Avio's business has always been the domestic market with foreign buyers very much an added bonus so maybe they are not feeling the pinch quite as much as someone like Monica for example who has always marketed to the foreign market very successfully. I bought my first house from her (this is my second and just waiting to sell, to buy my third!) but it must be tough for agents in that position at the moment.There is not a lot of unrestored property/abandoned property in Amandola town centre but I do know what you mean. We've been to lots of places only poplulated by some pensioners and lots of cats (!) that have tons of property "to restore" that look like they never will be. It was one of my criteria to live in a town that had a thriving population and wasn't depopulating.Your comment about Italians wanting modern apartments is certainly true but what was very interesting was the number of Italian viewers we got for my husband's old convent (which is totally to restore). They were much more keen to restore themselves because they could ensure that the renovation was done to comply with earthquake regulations unlike buying an already renovated property where they just did not know. Must be a result of the l'Aquila earthquake. We would have sold it last year to an Italian family who wanted to open a martial arts centre (it has tons of volume registered that can be recovered) but they couldn't get the finance. All of the viewers were from outside of the area (the majority from Rome).We've had some enquiries for the house in Amandola from Italians with children who want some outside space for them to play in. They are all from Amandola. You need to also want the extra cantina/annex space otherwise 175k is a lot for 70sqm of house!  

Amanda,don't forget Corriere Annunci. You can advertise online at: http://www.corriereannunci.it/index.php We got a good response from this and always sell our stuff using them rather than eBay. I always put a link to our website with all the photos of the house on.We tried eBay for the house we just sold but got no response at all so I don't really rate it and you have to pay.Good Luck!

That's a good point. I wonder how they do work it out if there have been no/few sales. Probably just as you say!Yes, the palazzo above the cantinas is pretty big but luckily it  is renovated and has been inhabited by the same families for a long time. They keep it in tip top condition and it has had a new roof in the last 10 years. Our liability is worked out by square meterage - i.e. if the palazzo had to have a new roof for example, each owner pays in proportion to the square meterage they own. Pretty fair I suppose. It's one reason why the practically the first question out of an Italian buyers mouth is usually "when was the roof replaced"!!We've both restored several houses (in the UK & here) too and we keep saying we've got one more left in us. Then we're definitely not selling!I must admit I will miss the fact that our house is always toasty warm and has small bills. We rarely have the central heating on and if we do I leave it on 15 degrees to take the chill off downstairs (the bedroom and bathroom are downstairs). The stufa is plenty and we like having a real fire.Two houses were being done up in our street so we couldn't get any shots of the outside without scaffolding or building materials in them. If it's sunny tommorow I might take some. I've only got an old one from when I bought it and it's not too attractive but it does demonstrate you can drive a car to the door!

I have decided to sell my house too because our circumstances in the UK have changed the house is fully habitable,  & its very cheap only asking 70k for it & also has all the furniture included with it. Here's the link Italian Country House