8807 House Prices

i think you will find house prices will not rise anywhere much in Italy at the moemnt! In Abruzzo where I have family, their apartment which is modern and well designed, as well as being 2 mins from the beach, has actually gone down in value the past year

I was talking to an agent this week (in Sardinia) she said the market is slow but prices are holding up.

We bought a villia in Puglia in June 2005. We only spent £2000 on windows and doors and are over next weekend to sign over to new owners and the value has increased approx 58% on the original purchase cost, so some area's are still seeing value's increasing.

Good for you Scatterbrain.

Scatterbrain, your investment was an excellent one from the moment you bought it and you obviously spent your money wisely as far as renovations are concerned. The most important thing in this type of investments is the purchase price. If you paid too much at the start it is difficult to get your money back.... not to talk about making any profits.
I am glad that it all worked out for you.

Going back to the original subject of the thread, I tend to agree with what Fanine and others have said, property prices are not going up at all or only making small rises. There is a worldwide crisis at the moment in the property market. Only those who bought originally at a very low price and in very special locations would be making any profits. If you are thinking of selling... it may be better to hold on to the property and wait for better times.

[quote=T&A;82788]Hi. My wife and I recently purchased an apartment in a place called Giglio di Veroli, near Veroli, in the provence of Frosinone. Does anyone know how much house prices are rising by in this part of the world? Many thanks.[/quote]

According to our experience around 20% per year. In some cases people who's put an offer for an apartments for 26-30K are managed to sell his "rights to buy" before Noatry visit and doubled the price! Also, we've had some clients who bought villa that he's first seen for 69K, but thought too long about buying it and ended up buying it for just under 120K just 8 months later!!

Whilst it is interesting to see that property may have risen in price, I feel I am back in England listening to people chatting about how much their house is worth. We have no intention of selling . I guess if you have bought to invest this is of interest. But if you have bought to live here it seems just so much like a dinner party converation.

I realise this is just my point of view so do not mean to upset investors, or actually any other posters, and money is of course so important. I know we have just filled up our gas tank.
A

I do cringe when i hear the words investment and property,no more so than on this topic of buying in Italy,and no doubt loads will disagree but then i have no time for the fast buck brigade anyway.

A property is somewhere to live,either fulltime or holidays,or even for renting as an income.

Back in England we have a so called house shortage! which only helps to push prices up even further than they should already be at,and yet i do not see any less pages of house adverts in local papers!

The youth of today are already in the position where they will need to sell their souls to own their own property! Its just plain madness,and greed.

You will not be surprised to hear my two neighbours to the left of me are not talking to me,and the reason? one of them has a developer as a buddy who would like to buy our 3 properties. note. not like i bothered to talk to them anyway, so no loss there.

The offers have been for my garden, then rights to the road, then for my whole plot!
I consider my neighbours to be just plain greedy, no thought for the area we live in and no thought for their children or grandchildren,all they see is green bucks! Its not like they are poor or anything.

I see gardens dissapearing everywhere, replaced by more new so called needed houses.
At the top of my road leaving the village what was once an attractive set back 30s detached house has been knocked down! to be replaced by 5, 4/5 bedroom detached houses! another stylish period property gone!

Italy is still a fare few years from getting into the same type of situation we have in England, but i feel these remarkable price hikes in such a short time will leave locals not too far into the furture struggling to buy their own places.

Home prices are [I][B][U][SIZE="6"]local[/SIZE][/U][/B][/I].

Even if you sell it today that only tells you what that one person would pay for it. The best you can do is see what similar homes in your close area sell for but who knows what your home is really worth. It's not like you can sell 10% and get a feel for value. Well in Italy you likely could sell just one room :laughs:

Some banks are having problems. Others are reporting record or near record profits. One persons problem is somebody's chance.

Hi Tennaval, I have no idea what situation T&A are in property wise, that is just your assumption, mine was a personal observation on the thread, which I can understand is of interest to some of the forum members, and I never find it very helpful to be told which threads to view!, can probably make my own decision on that question.

Phew and its still only 8am.
A

[quote=T&A;82788]Hi. My wife and I recently purchased an apartment in a place called Giglio di Veroli, near Veroli, in the provence of Frosinone. Does anyone know how much house prices are rising by in this part of the world? Many thanks.[/quote]

Don't know about the house prices where you are but in Marche prices seem to have only moved up a few percent in as many years and we are in a position where restorations of farmhouses are likely to regularly be a more expensive option than buying something habitable.

Whilst prices for building materials have increased at just above cost of inflation, many local builders are getting greedy- the firm we used to rebuild our house (who were the best value 2 years ago for the quality we wanted) have increased their price for roof rebuilds by 30%- when questioned they blame it on fuel- I enquired whether they are filling their cars up with crude oil rather than benzina.

The bottom line is that it's now more cost effective in some cases to buy a house that is already renovated (particularly if that renovation was done pre Euro and B4 the current increases in labour costs), also there is a lot less grief involved.

The problem is the builders insisiting on charging by the m2 or linear metre, in many cases these charges equate to them earning €250-€300 per day. There are exceptions to these labour costs particularly amongst the stranieri but even they are cashing in. Once house buyers realise this either they will continue to pay more for their finished houses, or, if as is more likely, the market won't bear any further increases, the builders will need to lower their demands if they want to continue to benefit from this renovation work.

At the moment the best value for money is undoubtedly in village houses and apartments- history, solidity and great views for half the price.

Giovanni,

I think you're being a bit inconsistent in talking about 'so called needed houses' and the difficulties of getting on the property ladder.

It is a shame when nice old houses with big gardens are built on: there's one behind my rented out small terrace house in the UK. Speculative build with tiny rooms to a far lower standard than my ex-council house. But when land is expensive and build densities are low that's what happens. Many of us here in the middle of Italian towns are living at far higher population densities.

Housing for young people here largely seems to be the one inherited from Nonna, but it's still a problem!

I've only ever had the one house, have never regarded property as an investment and am not even sure how much mine is worth, but it would be foolish of anyone looking at housing not to be concerned about house prices and trends.

good post from damiano... i find that if you are thinking of buying a property and ok maybe not planning on selling but maybe in the future either having to or wanting to then considering the potential value in the future is pretty sensible...

the other point is that restoring a property or even doing it up in low value areas will basically not get you anywhere... ie ... its simple arithmetic... in certain areas of Abruzzo you can buy house at around the e100 per sq m other areas about the 2000 per sq m .... now if you buy a bargain in any of those areas ...say at half the normal price...because of condition... and then start work ... the work will cost the same in whichever area you buy between 800 -1500 euro per sq m ... you add in yearly house price rises... and basically its easy to work out where you are going to loose or gain...

the point is there are situations where you can be ahead of the game... by buying in a place where there is high potential... but if you buy in an area of historic depression with no visible assets...and i am not just talking mountain scenes... it has to have access , facilities and good weather... you can gain

as for frosinone... its a popular area as it is close to rome... with prices in rome being so high...areas within commuting distance are always popular so basically you will find that apartments will have a good value providing that they are close to the station and the shops in a secure type area... people here around the cities are getting more worried about localities as street crime follows the same sort of trend as the UK... not really much chance of it happening but widely reported

again seaside apartments in abruzzo... really depends on where you buy ... i can bet that apartments on pescara sea front have not gone down much in value... however if you owned a property in tortoretto and it happened to be flooded last year...then yes... basically they are running out of spots to build in the most popular resorts... so they are moving builds to less popular locations... asking the same sort of money so these are riskier buys... and it depends a lot on how those areas are developed... generally one should be looking long term i would say...as they tend to be slow with facilities and roads... and sort of build these islands of apartments and just stop... there is a problem all around italy with coastal developments not having proper infrastructure... ie why they have to update the tororetto water works is because they built too many properties without the comune or province upgrading the system...

all these points i think are what you would generally look at if buying at home... i always buy a house with two views one we all have to like it and its position and the second is generally only me... can i move into it for a price that if i had to sell it tomorrow i would cover the building costs legal fees...etc etc at today's prices of an equivalent house down the road... i think its a sensible way of doing things... for me at least

Unfortunately prices here in southern Marche have not risen and are not expected to in the near future. There is also the possibility that they will fall a little.

It is a problem for people who have bought (typically farmhouses) and restored them at great expense and now want to sell as they are unlikely to recoup their investment unless they have bought at a very low price and restored for a reasonable cost. If you search at the moment you will see many houses for sale at very high (over €850,000) prices. It is a difficult market at the moment.

[quote=avio.fioravanti;83177]Unfortunately prices here in southern Marche have not risen and are not expected to in the near future. There is also the possibility that they will fall a little.

It is a problem for people who have bought (typically farmhouses) and restored them at great expense and now want to sell as they are unlikely to recoup their investment unless they have bought at a very low price and restored for a reasonable cost. If you search at the moment you will see many houses for sale at very high (over €850,000) prices. It is a difficult market at the moment.[/quote]

I would be interested to know if agents are still getting as many enquiries and viewings as they have been over the last year. Does anyone know? And if so, in what price range are the buyers still looking?