1167 small budget,is it possible?

I would agree with Will in general, although you might be lucky to find an habitable apartment for around 75.000 to 80.000 euro (they are very rare and tend to go quickly). However, you also need to bear in mind that transaction costs in Italy are higher than they are in the UK so you will probably find that your figure of £50K will be very limiting.

[QUOTE=jane daprano]:) Is it possible to find a property with a budget of approx £50,000.We are not interested in a ruin or being remote.We have kids so need to be near activities,shops,swimming pools,cinemas etc.We will consider any area north of Rome.Any suggestions? How did you (the expats) start choosing your area.Was it places you had been on holiday before.Any help would be appreciated.Thanks
jane[/QUOTE]

If you could drop the "north of Rome" limit you might stand more chance down in the far south......

Agree with DaveJ - if you could cast your net further South then your budget would find something suitable - better be quick though!
Thomsons are selling packages into Calabria for next summer so prices in the South may rise accordingly.
Lesley

:) You may find something small in Puglia, but I think anything in your budget would need quite a lot of work to make it comfortable...and I agree that you need to research actual costs of buying in Italy; Taxes, Estate Agent Fees,Notario fees, Lawyer if used.....it soons eats up the budget...but like the others ..have a really good look round the internet and compare prices...I am sure there will be something out there. Good Luck !

I think you would need to find the area you would be happiest in, then try to put out the word that you were interested in buying a small property with the local people, see what happens then, it will be difficult to realise every part of your checklist, although, I would be more inclined to go for a property which is ready to occupy, as renovation costs can spiral, you really need to look for areas of compromise. Good Luck.

Hi Jane

I bought my appartment in Vejano last year for 35000 euros. It had central heating and was sort of ok, but did need time and money spent to make it nice and of course you will always have the cost of putting in a kitchen because, as was mentioned on the forum earlier, Italians take them with them when they leave, unless you buy something that has been used as a holiday home, then they might leave everything (to be paid for of course!).
I too wanted to be north of Rome, but found that anything within the province of Rome was too expensive for my meagre funds. Vejano is in the next province up, Viterbo and situated between two lakes and I can still be in Rome in next to no time by car or train. You would be very unlikely to find anything for 50k in a town with cinema, shops etc. but would have to plump for a nearby small town or village. If you already know the area north of Rome and know you would be happy there, then I can ask my agent (who has since become a good friend!) if she has anything on her books at about 60/65k euro. If you don't then it would be a good idea to visit some areas first to make sure you like the place. And of course I agree that if you went to the south you would be far more likely to find something for the money.
Good luck
Linda

We said north of Rome because of the airport links to Bristol,at the moment flights from Venice,Pisa and Rome.We will need to "commute" back fairly regularly so quite a major factor.We had considered renting first but checking out costs our money would be eaten into fast,anyway most rental sites are only for holiday rentals, not 6 months-1 year.
Jane

Thanks Linda,does the agent in question have a website,if so can I have the address. I have found the area you are in, is this classed as Lazio region? jane

Jane - she doesn't have a web site, but in the past she's emailed me details of properties when friends have been looking to buy something. I can ask her to email you direct if you like. Yes Lazio north. If you wanted to rent first, there are places to look on the internet for long term rentals as opposed to holiday and they are much cheaper. All in Italian however. Let me know how your Italian is and I'll give you some sites.
Linda

Jane
We live just north of Bristol, one of the reasons we picked Abruzzo was that if ever there was a problem with flights to Pescara we had Bristol/Rome as a backup. You can get to Abruzzo/Molise within 1 1/2 hours of Rome mostly motorway so maybe this could be another place for you to look at.

We live just North of Bristol too, different house obviously, and fly from Standstead to Bari/Brindisi for under £100 return for the two of us. Ok takes a little longer but saves a lot of money in travel plus the property prices!

hello jane.there was an article in the sunday telegraph on 28 august which discussed buying in italy on a budget and some of the properties were within your budget,it also detailed the relevant agents.it was titled-molto for your money.it might be too soon to find it on the web-site.if you cannot find it,send me a private message and i will post it to you.

From my experience, property prices are very flexible indeed. The general rule from the agents (not all of course) was that an offer of 75-80% of the asking price would be acceptable. A lot depends of course on the way that they "size you up" i.e. whether they reckon you've got some of the national obsession - cash. I bought a property last month (in one of the towns mentioned in the Telegraph article at the weekend - don't I feel smug) that's a 3 bedroom habitable appartment, and what would be a two bed uninhabitable appartment for a shade under £50k including fees -so yes it can be done. Mind you, the asking price was Eur 110,000 - if you've got the time and patience it can be done. My advice is research research and then research a bit more.

Hi Jane,

It is possible to but a property for that money, we did last year. But I'm not sure about the location part of your requirements. We had to go off the beaten track to find our house which didn't need anything but a lick of paint.
Good luck with your house hunting.

There are plenty of propertys around for that money, even right up north in tuscany...just got to look HARD on the internet.

hi

We have bought an old house in Abruzzo for £36.000 with £20,000 for restoration work done mainly by us.

Our buying fees are going to be at least £5.000 which is coming from a separate budget.Plus I have travel costs of over £800 for making viewing trips.This olnly includes hiring a car once in 4 trips so allow at least anothe £300 if you need to hire one.

Perhaps a small older house needing some work can be found as we saw some around £25,000 but your buying fees would still be as high as ours even for a cheaper house!

Good Luck

Thanks for your help. Have scoured the internet extensively and it does seem there is properties available for that budget.Did you use an agent and if so which one?I also find that some agents dont even bother to reply to my qu
eries which is not only rude but also frustrating .
jane

Jane,

have you had a look at our web site? certainly some of the properties are in your price range. Also, I will be delighted to answer your queries should you have any, even if they are not related to the properties, I am glad to help out!!

Paola

Jane, my budget was also around £50000 (but i like to think of it as 70000 euros : )

I've just got back today from a weekend of house veiwing in the lunigiana area, having signed a proposto d'aquisto (preliminary agreement) for a beautiful stone house 1K from Bagnone (gorgeous little tuscan village with plenty of things to do and a bequtiful river cascading through it). 40 mins from lerici beach and about 20 from zeri ski resort.

The house has a kitchen/living room, bathroom, master bedroom and a generous basement in need of alot of work, plus one comunal and one private garden and a parking space. The asking price was e35000 but we managed to get it down to 34 (obviously plus the agents/notaio fees etc). It's not yet beautiful, but it is habitable and with a little work (budgeted at around e25000) i think it will be absolutely stunning.

After months of searching, I found the most helpful agents (and the ones with houses on a small budget) to be:
Lunigiana2000 [url]http://www.lunigiana2000.it/[/url]
Lunidomus [url]http://www.lunidomus.it/[/url]
both of whom responded to emails quickly and helpfully, and
Studioarea (bagnone branch) [url]www.studioarea.com[/url]
who really are better dealt with over the phone as emails tended to be few and far between.

I think it's well worth talking over the phone with the agents as I found they all had houses that they'd not yet got up on their sites... also if you get a rapport going it might be easier to negotiate agent fees. Make sure they know to contact you straight away should they get a new suitable house.

All I can say really is go for it! 6 months ago this was a seemingly unrealistic pipe dream for me and today its well on its way to becoming a reality.

good luck with it all, Will

p.s. i'll try and get round to posting some more info/agents soon.

Hi Jane,
I live in the Peligna valley in central Abruzzo. Inclusive of taxes, estate agency and legal fees there are still houses to be bought in this area for under £50k.

We are a couple of hours from Ciampino airport at Rome and 45 minutes from Pescara airport which has regular flights to Stanstead.

Just a thought. Happy hunting! :)

There is only one flight a day to Pescara in Summer and 3 flights a week in Winter NOT 2 a day.

there are 3 airports (Genoa, Pisa and milan) with low cost flights all within 2 hours drive of lunigiana (where bagnone is). They all have flights daily all year round.

Will,

Many thanks for the links. I'll keep an eye on them!

We're planning to look at the Lunigiana area in March '06 to see how we like it, as I've heard many positive things about it. But as we're also keeping the northern lakes in mind, we might get distracted.... :eek:

Still, Luni's firmly on my itinery and I can't wait to go.

Good luck with the renovation.

Stephanie

Your welcome :)
another point to consider is that its a good idea to talk to/email the agents to let them know what your looking for, and to make sure they know to call you if something suitable comes on the market. Hope your hunt goes well...
Will

When you say Rome and you wanted North of Rome, I assume you meant Fiumicino. Ryanair fly to Ciampino but either way you are talking about buying property within 30 miles of the Capital of Italy. We have a villa we could rent out over the Winter but realistically could you get somewhere near London ( 45 minutes on the train) for 35,000 pounds? Italy is not cheap, anymore than Britain is

[QUOTE=Will Bialey]Your welcome :)
another point to consider is that its a good idea to talk to/email the agents to let them know what your looking for, and to make sure they know to call you if something suitable comes on the market. Hope your hunt goes well...
Will[/QUOTE]

Thank you! :)

We're only just keeping our eyes on the market and probably won't start looking seriously for another year or so... but it's always worth knowing what's out there...

Cheers,
Stephanie

Hi,
I hope that property is available at your budget as ours is lower than yours!
We are Looking in Abruzzo, a very beautiful area, we don't mind if it needs work but we definitely don't want a ruin! we wouldn't have the money to restore it to it's original form!
Wishing you luck n your search

Its a wonderful area of Tuscany - not typical Tuscany - but stunning none the less - with excellent communications and - known as the land of 100 castles - and I have been told - but dont know if its true - that the EU is funding 90% of the bill to do these castles up.

It is less than an hour from ski resorts, the coast and about an hour from the valley to Pisa - - a growing airport. A train from Pisa to the area - costs just €7

There is also Genova - about an hour and a half - which has an Ikea - not what I would want to kit my house out with - but they sell quilts - its good for getting you up an running - realistically - I want to take time and kit my house with local furniture - but its ok for now as I pick and choose

Just got back from signing the compremesso on our house in bagnone, lunigiana (and we got the keys at this stage!) so I guess we're proof it is possible on a small budget : )
Buying in italy is so easy! Having said that we really appreciated all the advice given here; thanks to everyone on the forum for all the help.

I've just come back from Puglia having looked at properties early in October. I was after a small place in Ostuni (a largish town with lovely historic centre less than 30 mins from Brindisi by car). I have made an offer and am waiting on a date to go back and complete. I looked at studio/1 beds for between £35k and £47k in the old town, and there were a few. I definitely think it's possible but you may have to compromise a little, my place is small but I managed to get a studio with a roof terrace and it was around the 55000 Euro mark - needs a few cosmetic changes but nothing too serious. drop me an email if you'd like any more info.

Magsx

I live in the Tuscia and have been acting as an intermediary for anglophones for many years. You can find property under £50,000 in the Tuscia. Usually in the smaller villages and probably not on a train line, but if you drive that is not a problem as the roads are generally very good. The whole area is within 1 - 1 1/2 hours of Rome. I can think of several properties within that budget at the moment, but don't expect land. Happy Hunting. Phil. Tel. +39 0761 434144, [url]www.rural-retreats-italy.com[/url].

I have bought a detached stone cottage within your budget. Needs some work, but was able to sleep in it from day 1 albeit a bit cold - only a Gas Heater for warmth - and dont like to leave it on overnight. It was -5 when I went and -6 in the UK, but I think it was due to some freaky Arctic winds bashing Europe.

It is 2 km from the nearest train station, in a village with Grocery store, Poste, and Bar.

I probably will spend about 20K Euro to make it right for me.

Its in Lunigiana. Note I was here in February and when the sun shone it was hot - much like spring here - hot in the sun cool in the shade.

We dont have mains gas - so I am going to do what the Italians do and buy a wood pellet stove - something like the Ecologica Idro, heats plus supplies radiators. [url]www.extraflame.com[/url]. They aint cheap about 3000 Euro but you can buy the pellets in any DIY store - we sell these fires in the UK, but the UK is so far behind you have to order the pellets from a specialist!!!

Hi we are working on a sustainable tourism/development project, restoring a gorgeous medieval hamlet and there are properties available starting from 20,000 GBP for the smaller studio units, that are restored and furnished, ready for immediate use. Close to 2 international low cost airlines. Notary costs, property trasnfer taxes etc for the smaller properties don't generally exceed 2,000 euros for the sale, annual property taxes are generally very low, several hundred euros. If you email me on [email]paolayorda@gmail.com[/email] I can send you the list of U.K. brokers that are selling the properties if you are interested.