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The high heel of the Italian boot looks and feels like nowhere else in Italy. You might be on a Greek island here – washed in dazzling light, surrounded by low white-washed buildings, and gazing onto an omnipresent blue sea which hugs the region from two sides. Colourful, exotic Puglia is a beguiling and stimulating place, with its own distinctive food, architecture and atmosphere. |
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Its landscapes have an appealingly elemental quality – stark rocks meeting clean beaches lapped by crystal-clear water; gigantic olive trees spiralling up from dark red soil fringed by vivid wildflowers; fragrant pine forests opening onto chalk-white sands. Nature’s colours are bold in Puglia, and manmade shapes are simple – with chunky, cubic houses and conical-roofed cottages dotting the countryside. You quickly get hooked on the region’s unique, striking flavour.
Puglia is southern Italy’s big success story of recent years. A prosperous and orderly region, it has the south’s lowest unemployment rate and a rock-bottom incidence of crime. Puglia offers the long, hot summers and often bright, balmy winters of Italy’s far south, but with fewer of the socio-economic problems sometimes associated with il mezzogiorno. There’s little evidence of poverty or corruption here. Puglia has Italy’s lowest average rainfall, and, as a wonderful bonus, its southern half has almost no earthquake activity – unlike the rest of central and southern Italy.
| Of course, all the best of southern Italy is down here too – super-healthy food, open spaces, low population, a strong sense of family and community, and an easygoing lifestyle. Puglia remains the most popular southern region among foreign buyers. It’s easy to see what draws them down here, and it’s not just the low property prices. |
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Puglia was little heard-of in Britain until 2004, when budget airlines first began serving the region. A flurry of interest followed immediately, and since then Puglia’s reputation has grown steadily – both in the UK and in other European countries, where budget flights to Puglia were soon introduced. The recent recession hasn’t affected Puglia’s property market too badly. Today, foreign buyers are still interested in the region, and it’s expected that the recent introduction of two new Ryanair routes into Puglia (from Paris and Stockholm) will bring yet more interest over the coming months and years. Some agents report that property prices in Puglia right now are down by as much as 15% compared to what they were three years ago. But this decrease isn’t consistent across the region. In particular, property on the coast has held its value very well. Prices of seaside homes are very little changed, and the coast is still tipped as a particularly good place to put your money. [Time of writing this report is 2011.]
As for actual prices you might expect to pay across Puglia these days, here are some general pointers. Modern two-bedroom apartments within easy walking distance of a beach start at about €100,000, while nice three-bedroom villas on the seaside start at about €250,000 – or if you buy off-plan they might start at €160,000. Inland, a small rural property or a conical-roofed trullo needing restoration might ask as little as €30,000. A simple modern villa with two bedrooms might ask €70,000, or with three bedrooms €100,000. Very fine rural villas in lovely locations can ask €250,000 or more. Meanwhile, sumptuous mansion-farmhouses (masserie) range from €500,000 to several million. Puglia really does have a very wide range of prices and property types, and it’s worth having a good look round to see what you can get for your money.
Puglia also has a particularly rich range of property types that are each worth considering. Like everywhere else in Italy, there are new-builds, off-plan properties, modern homes needing redecorating, old homes needing restoration, apartments, villas and townhouses. But Puglia also has a special lexicon of indigenous building-types distinctive to the region: namely, the trullo, the masseria, and the lamia. Trulli are the little conical-roofed cottages that look like something from fairyland. They were very big with foreign buyers when Puglia first came to international attention several years ago. Then they fell from favour, but currently seem to be growing in popularity again. Masserie are grand, fortified farmhouse-estates, holding great appeal to luxury-buyers. Lamie are flat-roofed, foursquare cottages – invariably whitewashed – that sit dotted like little sugarcubes on the undulating Puglian landscape.
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According to Francesco Distante of Casa Puglia, modern-built villas in the countryside or on the fringes of charming old towns represent some of the best value-for-money in Puglia these days. “Simple modern villas built in the Eighties or Nineties, which just need some redecoration, are great value,” he says. In nice areas such as San Vito dei Normanni, Francavilla Fontana, Fasano or Locorotondo you might get a two-bed modern villa for €70,000, a three-bed for €100,000, and a four-or-five-bed for €250,000. These are great prices for buyers seeking a rural retreat in the Italian sunshine.
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Many agents highlight Puglia’s coast as the best place in the region to buy property right now. Seaside homes have held their value best since the onset of the recession, and as you can readily imagine, they offer the strongest holiday rental prospects if you plan on letting out your home when you’re not there. Luigi Spano of the Puglia-specialist agency SIS Property and Tourism says “If I were to buy a home in Puglia today, I would choose a coastal property. It will keep its value in the worst times, will increase in value by 8-13% each year in normal times, and will give me a rental income of 3-5%.” Luigi particularly recommends buying off-plan as a route to big savings, saying that you are likely to pay 20-25% less than the final price of a property if you buy before building is complete.
Carlos Gentile of Gea Properties is very enthusiastic about new-builds in general. He says that foreign buyers in Puglia have until now tended to buy older homes, since these were the types of properties most likely to be on the books of local estate agents targetting foreign buyers, and that therefore the under-exploited new-build market currently offers great value. New-builds in Puglia haven’t been widely marketed to foreign buyers until recently, and certainly you can find some good prices in this sector. New-build two-bedroom apartments on the seaside might ask as little as €100,000, three-bedroom villas about €250,000.
British buyers in Italy have always been greatly enamored of restoring old properties, and Puglia’s quirky historical buildings large and small proved fairly irresistible to British buyer-restorers when Puglia became easily accessed via direct budget flights. But is restoring an old property still a good route to pursue in Puglia right now? Some agents say no, highlighting the general uncertainty and expense of restoring. But if bringing an old home back from the dead and imprinting your own taste on it sounds wonderful to you, there remain good reasons to do this in Puglia.
| Firstly, as we have already discussed, there are some particularly interesting old properties in this region, and no shortage of them either. Madcap trulli, stately masserie, stout lamie, cavernous thick-stone-walled apartments in ancient towns, old townhouses full of quirky nooks, patios and roof terraces. The list goes on and on. Puglia’s attractive and unusual building styles certainly fire the imagination, and offer scope for some really creative restoration projects. Unlike central Italian regions such as Tuscany, Umbria, Le Marche and so on where building regulations can be extremely strict, Puglia is a touch more flexible on what you can and can’t do to its properties – within reason, of course! Visionary foreign restorers have created some really striking properties down here. |
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But not without the help of Puglian craftsmen, to be sure, who deserve special mention. The standard of building work in Puglia is exemplary. British buyers who have restored a property in Puglia are inevitably bursting with praise for the dedication and skills of the builders who helped to realize their dream. Expect a tremendously high standard of work here. In particular, the region excels in its meticulously-wrought, vaulted stone ceilings. They seem to be everywhere – even in the smallest lamia. So don’t expect a flat roof outside to mean a flat ceiling inside!
One place you’re unlikely to expect a flat ceiling is in a trullo – one of Puglia’s distinctive little cone-topped cottages. (Strictly speaking, the trullo is the cone not the cottage, and one property may include any number of cones.) As stated earlier, these endearing little homes have gone in and out of fashion over the years. John Dillon of RealPoint Italy believes they’re still a good investment today. He says, “A trullo in need of renovation is considered one of the better buys in Puglia. They start at around €30,000 or €40,000. Trulli are in strong demand by investors because they know that the amount spent on renovation will immediately be added to the property’s value, and the property will be easy to let on the tourist market or to resell to those looking for a unique property in the sun.”
Finally, a word on holiday rentals in Puglia. As you might imagine, this sun-drenched and sea-girt region is much loved by holidaymakers, yet it still manages to remain unspoilt and uncrowded. It’s a discerning crowd who come down here –Italians from other regions plus northern European italophiles. You’re likely to get a good amount of client interest on a property in Puglia, especially if it’s on the coast. Note that visitor numbers to southern Puglia were up by 20% last year. New flight routes, more visitors, and continuing buyer interest – it seems like Puglia’s bright star is still ascending.
See Fleur Kinson's travel and food articles on Puglia:
The food of Brindisi:
http://www.where-to-go-in-italy.com/gourmet-brindisi.html
The 'white city' of Ostuni:
http://www.where-to-go-in-italy.com/ostuni.html
The 'new' Brindisi; a city transformed:
http://www.where-to-go-in-italy.com/brindisi.html
www.thepugliapropertycompany.com
www.sispropertyandtourism.co.uk
www.welovesalento.com
www.geaproperties.com
Jutting out from northern Puglia like a sharp anklebone on the high heel of Italy, the beautiful Gargano Promontory is a sun-seeker’s and nature-lover’s paradise. Its white beaches and tranquil lagoons teem with birdlife, while its eleven thousand hectares of hilly ancient forest are filled with deer and other wild mammals. The whole promontory was declared a national park more than a decade ago, guarding it against future development. The area is well-loved by northern Italians, who flock to the rocky eastern tip of the promontory in high summer, filling charming resorts like Vieste, Mattinata and Péschici. Very few British or other non-Italians buy property here – perhaps because the area is quite a way from Puglia’s airports and is fairly deserted out of season. It’s possible to make good rental returns on the promontory, however. Summer tourists are very reliable, but there’s also the possibility of renting to the many visitors who make religious pilgrimages to inland spots such as Mont Sant’Angelo and San Giovanni Rotondo.
In complete contrast to the undulating terrain of the adjacent Gargano Promontory, the landscape around the small, workaday city of Foggia is table-flat and highly fertile – bristling with endless wheat fields, making some of Italy’s best pasta. The homes in and around Foggia tend to be low and solid-built – testament to the fact that this is the only part of Puglia prone to occasional earthquakes. The land grows hilly again as you move west and south of Foggia, and there are some very attractive but rarely-visited villages set on high amidst the trees. Lucera is a recommended spot if you’re in these parts. Moving south along the coast, there are some pleasant little towns – Trani, for example, which is quite chic and prosperous. And then you reach Bari, Puglia’s capital city and hard-working rival to industrious Bríndisi a few miles further south. Bari’s ‘cittàvecchia’ is a magical, kasbah-like jumble of streets, but there’s little else here to draw the tourists. Bari’s evening passaggiata is performed with much gusto, to be sure, and the city has some very colourful festivals. But for general pleasantness and safety, Bríndisi probably just has the edge as a city.
South of Bari, Puglia’s coast ranges from craggy cliffs to flat, fertile scrubland and back again – all punctuated by short, pale strands of inviting sand. Polignano a Mare is a delightful spot, its scuffed medieval centre perched on a line of modest cliffs. Further south, and 5km inland, the ‘white city’ of Ostuni has recently seen lots of interest from British buyers and visitors. Ostuni’s striking centro storico is a pile of white buildings set on high overlooking thousands of olive trees stretching down to the sea. From afar, it looks like a fairytale city of some kind. Close-up, it looks uncannily like a Greek Cycladic-Island village. Small-sized, but with good restaurants and a particularly lively calendar of public events, Ostuni offers a great lifestyle. Continuing down the coast, you arrive at Bríndisi, a port-city which has thrived since ancient times thanks to its superb natural harbour. Very much a working town, Bríndisi is nonetheless a pleasant place to be – with great local food and an especially exuberant passeggiata every evening. The recent pedestrianization of Bríndisi city centre, and the moving of the international ferry ports a few miles out of town, have both massively boosted local pride and eradicated street crime. This is a city on the up!
The hinterland behind the Bari-to-Bríndisi coast forms Puglia’s hottest property area. The green, undulating Itria Valley and its surrounds have seen the majority of British-buyer interest ever since direct flights to Puglia were introduced in 2004. Cute, cone-roofed trulli homes are scattered across the countryside in great abundance, and lovely little towns blossom here too – towns which remain active year-round rather than shutting up shop in the winter as some more touristy spots are wont to do. Fasano, Ostuni, Locorotondo and Martina Franca are all recommended. Property is still quite affordable across this area, despite its popularity, and prices are expected to go on slowly rising. On average, you’ll pay about €250,000 for a good-sized country home with land. Particular value-for money can currently be found buying just to the southeast of the Itria Valley – between Bríndisi and Taranto. As you move further back from Puglia’s Adriatic coast towards its Ionian coast, the gentle landscape begins to break into crags and grottoes. Either side of industrial Táranto, there are some delightful white beaches backed by pine woods.
The beautiful heel-tip of Italy, the Salentine Peninsula is roughly everything below a line drawn between Taranto and Brindisi. The attractive coast down here is rocky and cliff-bound, and the sea lapping it is particularly clean, calm and shallow – making the area a great spot for summer holidays. A few low-key beach resorts serve the occasional stretch of sand, but elsewhere the rugged, uninhabited spaces are thrillingly empty and elemental. If you’re after the best beaches, start by looking either side of Gallipoli. Northern Italians have long sought holiday villas on the Salentine Peninsula, so the property market is quite well-developed. Over the last couple of years, a few British and other non-Italians buyers have been drawn to this part of Puglia too - including some celebrities. As you’d expect, prices are highest beside the water, and fall as you move inland. There are some appealing little towns to consider down here, such as Otranto, Castro and Galatina. Lecce, meanwhile, is a stupendous small city radiant with pale-coloured Baroque buildings. Note that the Salentine Peninsula coast can be quiet in the winter and the whole area can feel a little remote compared to the rest of Puglia. For some, this edge-of-nowhere feeling is part of the charm.
“We’d always liked Italy and Italian food,” David explains. “We’d seen the northern half of the country, but never been to the south. Then we saw a Grand Designs programme about a couple restoring a property in Puglia, and we thought ‘ooh, that looks interesting!’ We eventually met up with the very couple, but that’s another story… We started looking at properties on the internet, and came up with a plan for semi-retirement. We’re very seasonal here in John O’Groats, and the idea is to spend more of the winter out there in Puglia, and come back here for our tourist season.
“We bought our little villa through Buyahouse-italy.com. It’s just outside San Vito dei Normanni. It’s a very sensible house, in a sort of cul de sac with about five or six other villas – two or three with permanent residents and the rest summer houses like ours. It was in good condition when we bought it, just full of rubbish and furniture. It has three bedrooms, a good kitchen, a garage, and about 2,000 square metres of land. There are four really big, hundred-year-old olive trees in the garden. The rest are almond trees, fig trees, orange and lemon bushes. And there are three rows of edible grape vines as well. Lots of Puglian properties come with thousands of square metres of olive trees, and it’s just too much to take on that kind of management from a distance. I don’t think people realize.
“We both come from Middlesex originally, and we moved up here to John O’Groats in 1975. The strangest thing about Puglia is that it’s very similar to what this part of Scotland was like when we moved here three decades ago. Rural and traditional. Family members all living locally, not scattered all over the country like people tend to end up now. Lots of small, family-run shops. Puglia is definitely charming, and we like the people a lot.
“Our buying experience really was quite trouble-free. I thought buying in Italy would be more bureaucratic than in the UK, but actually the whole process was quicker and easier. Our agents were very helpful; they took us along and set up our utility accounts and did all the translation, for example. Everything went smoothly and according to plan.”
www.villa-olivia.co.uk
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