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Ask the average British person to describe what Italy looks like, and chances are the answers will be dominated by visions of Tuscany. Rolling hills cloaked in vineyards and olive groves, fields burnished gold by the summer sun. Meandering lines of cypress trees black and totemic against the cobalt blue sky, big stone farmhouses with terra cotta roofs. Medieval villages built round belltowers, ancient cities teeming with churches, palaces, cathedrals, statues, paintings… With one in three visitors to Italy making a beeline for Tuscany, the region is better known to non-Italians than any other.
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To outsiders, it’s ‘quintessential Italy’. Ironically, this most archetypal region is now in many ways one of the least Italian of all Italy’s regions. In some Tuscan towns and villages, ex-pats and second-home-owners actually outnumber the local Italian population. Crowded, expensive, and full of tourists, you’d think Tuscany might start to fall from favour. But the place is still so delightful, it seems no one can quite bear to stay away. |
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For many foreign property buyers, any other Italian region is unthinkable. While regions like Liguria have been popular with aristocratic and artistic ex-pats for more than a century, the ex-pat phenomenon of recent times – which has seen vast numbers of non-Italians buying up old Italian properties and settling down to a new life in the country – all started in Tuscany. It is this region, in particular its countryside, which first inspired outsiders to come to Italy en masse. Other Italian regions owe much of their current popularity to how they compare to Tuscany: Umbria became a hot target because it’s adjacent, and geographically similar; the south became interesting because it was so much cheaper; etc. As a property-seeker in Italy, you simply can’t ignore Tuscany. And chances are, it’s your first choice.
But what of the market here? Isn’t property now beyond the budget of most? Haven’t prices and popularity reached such a pitch they can only go down? And hasn’t the region been spoiled anyway by over-building to meet demand? Tuscany is generally Italy’s most expensive region for property, it’s true, but there is still no shortage of buyers desperate to get their hands on a home here.
| The market shows little sign of slowing, although it’s hotting up faster in some places than in others. Perhaps more than any other Italian region, it’s important to know how Tuscany’s market differs from place to place. There are prohibitively expensive areas, merely expensive areas, affordable spots, and even some bargain corners. |
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As for ‘over-building’, something which could spoil the character of the region and dilute the strength of your investment here, you need have no fears about Tuscany. Strict rules protect the region’s rural character, obliging developers to build only where there is an existing building rather than on any old piece of empty agricultural land, and also obliging them to stick to traditional building styles and materials. As these tasteful new-builds go, a recent trend has seen them targeting buyers on a more modest budget than previously. Once very pricy, and constructed only in the most expensive and popular areas, they’re now appearing in rather more up-and-coming places and sporting smaller pricetags.
Many British buyers in particular will have little time for anything newly-built, however, preferring instead something hundreds of years old and ideally needing a fair bit of renovation work. Exaggerated reports say there’s no longer any houses left in Tuscany to restore – the British have restored them all!
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This is far from true. Both in the countryside and in the villages and towns, there are still plenty of homes ripe for the efforts of would-be restorers. The good news is that, while the cost of properties in Tuscany might have gone up exponentially over recent decades, the price of actual restoration and building work has gone up only by the same amount as any other service. The standard of workmanship, meanwhile, has maintained its very high level. Certainly there are a lot of ready-restored old homes on the market here too, if you like old houses but the thought of building-work fills you with horror. Many of these have been very lavishly restored and offer extreme style and comfort inside. |
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Tuscany’s status as the ex-pat paradise in Italy got going about forty years ago, which means the market here has had a long time to develop – and prices have had a long time to inflate. In some places they’re quite swollen indeed. ‘Chiantishire’, the utterly charming area of perfect hilltowns and rolling countryside just north of Siena, is the world’s most expensive rural area for property. The area’s Anglophone nickname lets you know just how many Brits have settled down here over the years. And they’re not the only ones. Innumerable Americans also own homes here. And Germans. And French. Such overseas interest has pushed prices up and up over the last twenty years or so, with the result that local farmhouses – the few that are available – usually go for more than a million euros, while two- and three-bed apartments can go for €800,000 [2007 prices].
No surprise that ‘Chiantishire’ has something of an unreal atmosphere. Lots of international rich people crammed together in one tiny bit of rural Italy isn’t the most normal or natural arrangement. But many thrive in it. It’s Italy, but many of your neighbours speak English, and belong to the comfortable, jetsetting cosmopolitan world you do. If you have the cash and like being amongst your own kind, you certainly shouldn’t dismiss this corner of Tuscany. It’s still breathtakingly lovely, and still unique.
For some, though, Chiantishire is beginning to pall. In search of a more ‘real’ Italian experience, many buyers who could otherwise afford Chiantishire are looking further afield – into Umbria, Le Marche or southern Italy, or into different parts of Tuscany. Certainly Tuscany has other areas which command very high prices and appeal very much to the seriously wealthy buyer. Some of the region’s islands and peninsulas are very exclusive (and gorgeous) indeed. Take the Monte Argentario peninsula, for example – unspoilt, arresting, and with very little property for sale. Likewise the delightful island of Giglio further out to sea. If you’re lucky enough to find a place for sale on either, you’ll pay a pretty penny for it, and put yourself amongst an elite community able to pay similarly for their own places in such paradise.
For many with no cash flow problems, however, there’s only one place to be: Firenze. Ah, to wake each day and gaze from the window at Brunelleschi’s brown dome, to dine on the Uffizi’s treasures for breakfast, to talk art and architecture over mid-morning coffee with other Florence-smitten ex-pats… For the culture-loving italophile, Florence is an irresistible honeypot. And for the international wheeler-dealer who loves Tuscany but for whom the quiet hills of Chianti or the tranquil offshore islands can sometimes seem just a little too sleepy, Florence is the ideal place to buy. A venerable townhouse, or a luxury apartment in a converted palazzo, perhaps. There’s no shortage of foreign buyers jumping at the chance to buy in the capital city of the Renaissance, and local prices reflect this. Currently [in 2007], one-bedroom apartments in central Florence start at about €200,000, making the city one of the most expensive in Italy. But for buyers hoping to make excellent rental returns, this is a superb place to buy. Tourists visit Florence year-round, and there are lots of international students in the city. They all need a place to stay. Generally, Tuscany’s costliest locales yield great rental returns. A farmhouse in Chiantishire will be swamped with enquiries from spring to autumn; likewise a seaside home on an island will attract huge interest throughout the summer.
Inching out of the Tuscan super-league of property prices, and so leaving behind places like Chiantishire, the islands and Florence, there are still plenty of highly fashionable and desirable parts of Tuscany where home prices are high but not dizzying. The northern half of the coast is very popular with Italian and foreign buyers, and you’ll pay a lot for property here but benefit from excellent rental prospects in the summer. Villas and farmhouses in the lovely countryside to Siena’s south and west are significantly cheaper than those in the Chianti hills to its north. Expect to pay about €800,000 or €900,000 [in 2007], rather than a million plus. A tourist mecca like San Gimignano is always going to be in demand property-wise, and a four-bed farmhouse near here could set you back by about €750,000. Central Siena and Pisa are pricy places, but nowhere near as expensive as Florence. Holiday rental prospects are good for a property in these two little cities, especially Siena (fewer visitors stay overnight in Pisa itself, preferring to daytrip there from elsewhere in Tuscany).
One area which has become increasingly fashionable in recent years is Lucca and its environs, to the northeast of Pisa. This tiny walled city has grown and grown in popularity with foreign buyers, pushing up property prices. It’s still a good place to invest, as buyer interest doesn’t seem to have peaked yet, and the city’s walls mean there’ll always be a limit on supply of accommodation. You might pick up a comfortably renovated apartment in a historical building, or renovate one yourself. It’s surprising how many properties for renovation are still available in and around Lucca. As elsewhere in Tuscany, there are also a number of tasteful new developments in Lucca’s surrounding countryside – complexes of traditionally-styled farmhouses and farm buildings, built with original materials, set on the site of existing agricultural buildings and designed to blend seamlessly into the local architecture. For large rural homes old and new near Lucca, it’s easy to pay more than €1 million. But you might also get a five-bedroom farmhouse with a pool for less than €500,000. Or a luxury two-bed apartment in a historical villa for less than €300,000.
Buyers hoping to find the lowest property prices in Tuscany should turn their attention to the region’s fringes – to the extreme north and south, and to the borderlands with Umbria to the east. These three areas have quite different characters, and it’s important to know this before you start looking. Not all of Tuscany is rolling hills punctuated by cypress trees, and in the far north and south especially you’ll come across landscapes that don’t immediately accord with the expected Tuscan ‘brand’. If you want to keep as close to the classic rural Tuscan idyll as possible, look to the Umbrian borderlands. The dreamy, rounded hills are here in abundance, as are the vineyards, olive groves and cypress trees.
To many minds, a home on the Tuscan-Umbrian border enjoys the best location in all of Tuscany, since it provides access to two delicious – and different – regions. Umbria is a spacious, inspiring place of perfect medieval hilltowns stuffed with exquisite churches. It complements the sensuous and cultural charms of Tuscany very well. But this fact is no big secret anymore. The Tuscany-Umbria borderland has been steadily growing in popularity over the last decade or so, which means that while property here is still cheaper than in many parts of central Tuscany, it’s certainly not dirt-cheap.
For Tuscany’s very cheapest property, look north. Or south. In the extreme north, a final spur of Tuscany tucked between Liguria and Emilia-Romagna calls itself ‘Lunigiana’. Describable as quite up-and-coming, property prices here have risen significantly over the last ten years [1997-2007], but there are still plenty of bargains around. Think €150,000 or so for a detached house. The area is unarguably attractive, its high hills dotted with castles and lovely walks, and it benefits from being within easy reach of the stunning Ligurian coast and the gastronomic delights of Emilia-Romagnan towns such as Parma. In Tuscany’s deep south, meanwhile, the rolling hills typical of the region’s centre grow into broad, brooding mountains or fracture into high, rocky outcrops – and its coast grows wild and empty. This rugged, thinly-populated part of Tuscany has some very low property prices indeed, both in the countryside and in tiny towns and villages.
Wherever you choose to buy in Tuscany, you should have no problem finding an estate agent to help you. There are more specialist agents dealing with the foreign buyer in Tuscany than in any other Italian region. Read through ads or websites carefully to identify the right agent/s for you. Several deal only with the top-end of the Tuscan market, others focus almost exclusively on one area, such as Lunigiana. Be prepared to look a little harder to find someone who deals with the least popular places, such as the far south. Take advantage of the competition and hold out for the agent who seems most helpful and attentive to your needs. There are a lot of highly experienced people out there, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get the very best service.
And when it’s all over and you’ve finally, finally got your house in Tuscany, make sure you marvel at your exceptionally good luck in having won a tiny piece of the most popular region in Italy. Then settle back and thoroughly enjoy all the things that have made it so very popular in the first place.
[All quoted prices accurate in 2007]
The cradle of the European Renaissance, Florence once teemed with hugely influential artists and intellectuals – people like Michelangelo, da Vinci, Dante, Giotto and Galileo. Nowadays it teems with visitors, come to admire the artistic and architectural legacies of such luminaries. The city has an unparalleled wealth of paintings, sculpture and lovely buildings; a third of UNESCO’s official world treasures are here. Traffic-choked, crowded in summer, and hemmed in by industrial outskirts it may be, but there’s no denying the charm and beauty of Florence. Many, many ex-pats have submitted to the city’s appeal and joined its half a million inhabitants. Many others have recognised the potential profit in owning a second home here and renting it to holidaymakers. Property prices are very high, with central one-bedroom flats starting at about €200,000, and two-beds at about €350,000. Apartments can be let for roughly €1,000 per bedroom per week. And your rate need not dip much in the colder months, as visitors carry on flocking to Florence pretty much year-round. Florence may be one of Italy’s top three most expensive cities (with Venice and Milan), but it’s also one of the top three most visited (with Venice and Rome). Apartments are popular with tourists and make a good investment.
Tuscany’s extreme north should interest anyone seeking comparatively low property prices. Up here, there might not be the cypress-lined, olive-clad rolling hills typical of central Tuscany, but there’s no shortage of geographical beauty. Think low, leafy mountains dotted with castles, and small villages full of friendly faces. Within easy daytripping distance lie the coastal delights of Liguria and the sophisticated charms of Emilia-Romagnan cities such as Parma. In this northernmost bit of Tuscany, stone barns needing conversion start at about €30,000, while the ready restored kind might ask €100,000. Two-bed village houses can go for as little as €60,000; four-beds for €90,000.
While certain stretches of Tuscany’s east are now fairly familiar to foreign buyers, other parts are only now being discovered and currently offer very good value for money. Many estate agents single out the Arezzo area as a good place to buy. The prosperous and lively city itself has reasonable prices, with two-bed apartments in and around town starting at about €150,000. Out in the surrounding countryside, meanwhile, you can pick up restored and unrestored homes from €100,000. Charming nearby Cortona and Montepulciano, both built on high and giving stunning views, are rather pricier – with central two-bedroom apartments asking about €300,000. This eastern stretch of Tuscany has an extremely attractive landscape, with stripy vineyards and so on. It has the added bonus of easy access to lovely Lake Trasimeno and, further east, the enchanting hilltowns of Umbria.
Tuscany’s coast is generally at its most attractive in the north, with sandy beaches backed by pinewoods and mountains. Viareggio is the biggest resort up here, a place of faded grandeur where property costs can reach startling heights. A newly-built two-bedroom apartment can cost about €250,000, but there are much heftier pricetags on fashionable streets and hillside villas. Inland, Pisa is a costly spot with far more to recommend it than one wobbly tower. Buyers hoping to make big profits renting to tourists here should note that most come just for the day, so demand for accommodation isn’t very fierce. Further inland, the beautiful walled city of Lucca is now a firm favourite with second-home-owners, and its prices are still reasonably attractive. The quality of homes in and around the city is excellent, and the holiday rental prospects very good. On average, a two-bed property here would cost you about €250,000. In the surrounding countryside, you could pick up a five-bed house for €490,000. Or you could choose a farmhouse for anything from €500,000 to €2 million plus.
The triangle formed with Siena, San Gimignano and Chianti at its corners outlines the most popular area for foreign buyers in Tuscany. No surprise then that this is also Tuscany’s most expensive area, and the area with the highest number of ex-pats. The Chianti hills area northeast of Siena, a.k.a. ‘Chiantishire’, is as rich in Brits as its monicker suggests. Its property prices are astronomical – it’s officially the most expensive rural area for property in the world. An old farmhouse needing restoration here would set you back by at least €500,000, and a ready-restored one is likely to ask more than a million. If you can afford it, and you like the idea of never being far from another ex-pat, by all means buy here. The area is exquisitely beautiful, and despite a current fashion for buyers ignoring Chiantishire in favour of places with a more undiluted Italian population, prices show no sign whatsoever of going down. The local holiday rental prospects, meanwhile, are spectacular.
Tuscany grows increasingly rugged and wild as it inches south towards Lazio. The population drops, and the geography throws up striking features like bald tufa outcrops, isolated high hills, sulphur springs and drained coastal marshland. Property prices tumble to very affordable levels (except on the gilded Monte Argentario peninsula), and bargain-hunters should definitely investigate the area. Of towns down here, rock-perched Pitigliano and spring-riddled Saturnia see good numbers of visitors, while many others simply offer a peaceful little place to settle down. The local roads are small, few and uncrowded – perfect for a quiet life. The sea is never far way, nor is the delightful, crystal-clear Lake Bolsena just over the border in Lazio.
Melinda Kilkenny bought a ramshackle farmhouse with outbuildings and land in northwest Tuscany in 1997. “I’d gone to Italy every year as a child and I wanted a home there,” she explains. “My mother came from Naples and I spent two years looking for a house around that city until my relatives said, ‘No, no! This is bandit territory! Go to Tuscany!’”
“The house I bought came with twenty acres and was three or four miles outside a medieval walled city. I was a single parent then, as now, and I didn’t want to be seventeen miles down a dirt track! I wanted to be able to get into a town quickly and easily; I didn’t want a country hideaway. From my house I can see for miles across Umbria and Tuscany. Umbria is steeper and greener, Tuscany is more rounded and golden. Where I am isn’t quite Chiantishire, but on my hill we have an English couple, a German family, and a Canadian family. In a three mile radius from here, four houses have Italian families and four are foreign. But my local town, Sansepulcro, isn’t touristy at all. I paid about €180,000 for this place in 1997. To buy an unrestored place like it here now [in 2007] would cost about €700,000 or €800,000.”
An avid restorer and interior decorator, Melinda made huge changes to her property. “I had some barns taken down, leaving me with a big house, a stone barn, a little church, a garage and outbuildings. Italians like to live on the first floor, and the main house had several ground floor cantinas where they used to keep the tractors. I dropped a staircase down inside the house, joining the cantinas to the first floor living accommodation. I switched things around – putting the kitchen and dining room downstairs. I put in wooden ceiling beams. Outside I put in a pool…” Recently, she replaced the roofs. “It’s like the Forth Bridge. I’m a house freak. I will go on forever. I just like improving the place!”
Melinda advises anyone buying a place in Italy to go and meet their neighbours. “You need to ask them about any issues. Are there rights of way on your land you don’t know about? Common boundaries there might be disputes over? Problems with water supply? I’ve found my neighbours incredibly helpful and informative. Also, having a good agent is essential. They’re your conduit, your local knowledge. Get a survey done on your house and land. Find out if you’re in an earthquake zone, and strengthen your buildings if necessary.” |
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