3940 Buying in Marina di Caulonia

Hello all this is my first foray into the forum so please be kind!

We are interested in buying a small 2 bed property in Italy for ourselves and also to rent out and wondered if anyone out there had an opinion on property in Marina di Caulonia or indeed anywhere in Calabria which has good potential. There are more in Zambrone and also in Trebisacce so we are getting a bit confused. We did visit Caulonia but couldn't make it to the other places to have a look due to limited time.

There are off plan apartments available from a company called Medsea in Caulonia which we are assured will increase in value over the next few years but I can see that the general consensus on the site is that property is not a good investment in Italy as a general rule.

Before we make a big mistake I wonder if someone could advise us on the likely rental potential in this area and also if any the properties will increase in value at all.

Carol

Category
Property Sales/Rental Advice

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 06/12/2006 - 15:45

Hello Carol and welcome to the forum.

I'm sure you will find lots of very valuable information here.

I guess you have to take many things into consideration when buying a house to rent out in this area.

Who are your target market? If you are hoping to rent to Brits.. how easy is it for them to get to the area? Calabria is not so well served with airports and I dont think any of the budget airlines fly there, so probably Naples airport is the best one to use.

How long does it take to get to your property after arriving in Italy? How would people get there? Would they have to hire a car or are there reliable public transport links? What does the local area offer in terms of touristy things to do and see? What is your investment likely to be after all taxes and furnishing costs? How much can you sensibly hope to acheive as a rental income? What are similar properties priced at in the area? How long are properties on the market for?

Basically, the less amenities a place has in terms of transport and attractions for holidaymakers - the less likely you are to be able to rent it out or charge the heady prices some dream of.

The only company I know called "Medsea" is 'Medsea plc' who specialise in land and building development all over the Med - not just Italy. Is this the same company? They have lots of these holiday villages under construction and have chosen 'out of the way' places to develop as the land is not expensive and they are able to get more units onto each plot. Sorry if this all sounds a bit negative, but think carefully about your reasons for wanting to sign up to la dolce vita.

Here are a few threads for you to have a look at. :)

[url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=840&referrerid=2092[/url]
[url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3494&referrerid=2092[/url]
[url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=2331&referrerid=2092[/url]
[url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3321&referrerid=2092[/url]
[url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=2644&referrerid=2092[/url]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 06/12/2006 - 15:53

Welcome Carol, Anast has given you a good number of threads to go through; take time to read them as there's loads of detail in them.... if you're stuck thoug, don't be afraid to post 'silly' questions.

........if you read the forum regularly, you'll find there's no such thing as a silly question(!)

Welcome!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 06/13/2006 - 03:40

Thank you very much for all the very useful links and the information.

Currently there is a flight direct from Stansted to Lamezia once a day with Ryanair so lets hope it stays that way as we come down from Scotland and we need to take 2 flights to get to Calabria. Dont really mind the journey its a bit of an adventure which may in time get boring but right now its fine.

Marina Di Caulonia is 1hr 15 mins from Lamezia by car and there is a train service but its quite slow 2hrs 15 mins to Caulonia from Lamezia I believe. Car hire seems to be the best option but I agree its not for everyone. No idea about buses I suspect they got to Regio but maybe not to Lamezia or perhaps you need to take more than one.

I have tried to research rental options locally on the web but I can only find a couple of rather dingy looking apartments for rent on a site so there seems to be little that I can see so far. I think we were rather hoping to rent to brits if possible but we understand that there is a large italian contingent who come down there in the summer I have no idea how they find their rentals or do they own property? There is a large jazz festival in the summer in Roccella which is just up the coast a bit.

The prom is being done up right now and there is a lot building taking place there but it take a bit of imagination to see how it might look in the future.

You are right about Medsea they do build across the med and mainly in spain and I expect that your comment about out of the way places and cheap land is one well made.

Didn't really have time to research the touristy things we intend to go back before we make a final committment as I am wavering a bit about the area and the property right now and we need to get a better feel for what is on offer locally.

Any further suggestions or pointers would be very welcome we are likely to hang onto something for a fair few years and if it washes its face keep it on so that we can use it as we head to retirement on a more regular basis. Finding someone reliable to be a keyholder might be difficult as we don't speak italian however we are hoping that if we do buy then by the time we get the property 2008 there will be some enterprising people in place.

Thanks again

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 06/13/2006 - 05:16

Welcome..

This is how Medsea operate.. a commission is generated from each sale, receivable from the developer. The majority of the clients are introduced via a network of UK and Irish property agents and commissions are payable to group agents, dealing in key-in-hand properties and the agent receives a % of commission on properties sold. They have an agreement with Bella Calabria, a local Italian company and now have exclusive rights to an initial range of 110 beach-front properties in Calabria, Southern Italy.

You may care to check out the company accounts.. paying particular attention to turnover, profit and loss figures, Directors salaries and share price movement recently. ;)