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Set in the centre of the Italian peninsula, nestled between Tuscany and Le Marche, Umbria is a serene and majestic place. Famed for its exquisite medieval hilltowns and its rolling green countryside, the region somehow manages the impossible trick of being beloved by visitors yet blissfully uncrowded and unspoilt. Space, peace and timelessness are its abiding features. |
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Thinly-populated, with fewer than a million inhabitants, Umbria is a spellbinding spot which seems naturally to draw the mind to higher things. Historically this is a land of saints and mystics – the birthplace of many of Italy’s most revered divines, and home to some of the country’s most impressive religious buildings. Orvieto’s show-stopping cathedral is here (judged by many Italians to be Italy’s finest duomo), and Assisi’s exquisite basilica remains a major pilgrimage site.
Umbria’s landscape is a perpetual inspiration – cloaked in vineyards and olive groves, in open fields and woodland, and forever opening onto huge vistas. The region’s central stretches see fertile valleys spreading between rounded hills, while northern, eastern and southern extremes climb to higher elevations, fracturing into crags or lying thickly covered in forest. Umbria is one of the very few Italian regions to have no coastline, but it makes up for this with some splendid lakes – chief of these being Lake Trasimeno, a warm, shallow playground ringed by pretty fields and small towns. The Mediterranean isn’t too far away, at about ninety minutes to the east or the west. And road and rail connections are surprisingly good given the region’s tranquillity and low population.
Like their ancient forebears, most modern Umbrians still live on the region’s countless hilltops. Unchanged for centuries, and offering a very high quality of life, their skyward-reaching settlements are treasure troves of art and architecture. Heavy with history, the pedestrian-friendly old alleys and cobbled streets open onto perfect piazzas lined with gorgeous buildings. The snug intimacy of the resident community elegantly contrasts the wide, open views available from balconies, roof terraces and ramparts. |
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Of course Umbria’s charms have not gone unnoticed. Foreign buyers began trickling in about twenty years ago – initially because Umbria offered much lower property prices than its much-coveted neighbour Tuscany. Over the years, those prices have gone up and up, and Umbrian property is now generally on a par with Tuscany’s. The region remains an excellent investment, however, as well as an unspoilt delight.
According to a January 2010 report by the credit ratings giant Standard and Poor’s, the world financial crisis has only ‘modestly’ affected Umbria. “Prospects are stable, financial and healthcare requirements are functioning well, businesses report a 4% rise, and for the next three years the prospects are good, thanks to strict financial controls,” they say. So, even in the midst of a worldwide crisis, it seems that Umbria manages to maintain its characteristic serenity.
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That isn’t to say that the region’s property market has been unaffected, of course. Estate agents report that foreign-buyer sales have been down dramatically over the last year or so. And at the time of writing [2010] there’s little sign of sales picking up significantly. Obviously a big factor has been the plummet of the pound and dollar against the mighty euro, deterring many British and American would-be property-hunters. (Buyers from within the eurozone are still coming to Umbria, however.) |
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John Tunstill of Properties Umbria has been selling homes in the region for thirty-five years, and he remains sanguine about the current situation. “I have lived through two of these international financial crises before,” he says, “and it always comes out right in the end. The market will pick up. Umbrian property prices are stable, and the recent Standard and Poor’s report confirms it. This is a clean, crime-free, traditional and hospitable area, with a Mediterranean climate and easy access to Rome or Florence. It has been increasing in value for the past thirty-five years and parts of the region are now more costly than nearby Tuscany, which used to be twice the price. So people with properties here are sitting pretty, and those wanting a safe haven for their investment are starting to look hard again.”
Many agents report that property prices in Umbria are currently a little lower than they were two years ago. Many vendors are also far more open now to offers below their asking price (say between 10 and 20% below). In short, it’s a buyers’ market. With lower figures making up the final purchase, you could feasibly offset the unfavourable pound-euro exchange rate.
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It always helps to have some general numbers as a guideline, so here are a few ideas on what you could expect to pay in Umbria these days. Small townhouses in lesser-known towns start at about €60,000, as do small country houses needing restoration. A nice two-bedroom apartment in a famous hilltown might ask €150,000-€250,000, as might a swish country apartment with a communal pool. Beautifully restored country houses and villas with land tend to go for between €300,000 and €450,000.
Could you make a better deal by choosing a ready-restored home instead of a tumbledown property to restore yourself? Paul Cleary of the estate agency Abode believes so. He says “Buy a ready-restored property in the current market and you should be able to negotiate well. In particular, people who bought and restored in the days before the euro will have paid almost half of what people paid doing the same thing after 2003.” So, vendors who restored their home in the cheaper days before Italy adopted the euro will still feel they’re getting get a good return on their investment even if you put in an offer of up to 20% below their asking price.
On the other hand, there are also still good reasons to buy a place to restore. Apart from the obvious advantages such as being able to design the house according to your exact needs and taste, and getting the huge satisfaction of bringing an abandoned property back to life, you might be able to save a bit of cash in the current climate by restoring. Paola Berlenghini of the Umbria-specialist agency Welcomeservice points out that, with fewer buyers in Umbria these days, local builders are rather short of work and therefore keen to woo you with very good estimates on restoration projects. It could be cheaper to restore in Umbria right now than it has been for many years.
Saving money is only one factor when it comes to choosing where to buy your holiday home, of course. While Umbria may be cheaper now than it has been for a long time, it’s still one of Italy’s pricier regions. But it’s also one of Italy’s most attractive areas, and it has a strong, stable market. Clearly, Umbria is a very wise choice if you can afford the place. It’s a sizeable region, so if you choose Umbria you also have to choose which part is best for you and your budget. Let’s break the place down into its various parts.
As we said earlier, Umbria’s medieval hilltowns are among the region’s chief attractions. For those of you hoping to rent to holidaymakers, proximity to one of the famous hilltowns can be a big factor in your level of success. The most desirable towns are of course the most expensive – namely Orvieto, Spoleto, Todi, Perugia and Assisi. Of these, Orvieto, Perugia and Assisi are the most accessible (good train connections serve all three), while Todi and Spoleto enjoy both the pros and cons of being slightly harder to reach. Assisi and Perugia offer especially abundant rental prospects. Assisi is a major pilgrimage site which attracts the faithful year-round, and Perugia has both short-term tourist and medium-term business and student populations to accommodate.
Central and western Umbria, including the Vale of Spoleto and Lake Trasimeno areas, offer arguably the loveliest and most characteristic Umbrian landscapes – rounded green and gold hills with wide, inspiring vistas and distant mountain backdrops. Many of the most prized hilltowns lie hereabouts, so it’s no surprise that central/western Umbria is generally the region’s costliest section. If you want to buy in this part of Umbria (and why wouldn’t you?), you could save cash by looking at lesser-known hilltop gems such as Montefalco, Spello, Trevi, Montone, etc. Or lower-ground places like Bevagna, another medieval stunner.
Umbria is cheapest on its northern, eastern and southern fringes. Attractive hilltowns include Amelia and Narni in the south and Gubbio in the north – each much less visited and less expensive than their centrally-located cousins. The terrain is generally steeper on Umbria’s fringes than in its central/western parts. The south can be craggy and dramatic – with gorges, waterfalls and a feeling of wilderness. Muscular, wooded mountains spool all along the region’s east. Buy a country home in these particular stretches of Umbria, and you’ll pay a lot less than you would in the centre.
Naturally holiday rental prospects are lower on Umbria’s fringes than in central and western parts. However, Umbria remains one of Italy’s best bets for rental interest, and that magical U-word in your property description will surely bring a fair few enquiries. Note that rural Umbria sometimes attracts longer-term rentals – from one month to three. The region’s lovely hilltowns, meanwhile, tend to draw one- and two-week lets, but plenty of them. You might reasonably expect to garner more than €1,000 per week for a country house with a pool, and about €300 per week for a restored apartment in a hilltown. And you can generally anticipate a May to October rentals season, or longer. Umbria’s visitors come almost year-round, being drawn by the region’s cultural and artistic offerings as much as by its warm weather.
www.tuscanyrealestate.co.uk
www.Propertyinumbria.com
www.umbriarealestate.co.uk
www.propertyinitaly.co.uk
www.italianpropertygallery.com
www.laportaverde.comwww.welcomeservice.it
www.propertiesarounditaly.com
www.abode.it
The fourth largest lake in Italy, Lake Trasimeno is a warm, shallow expanse of tranquil water ringed by reedy shores. It’s a popular place with foreign buyers, who go for farmhouses in the low surrounding hills – lush with vines and olives – or for village homes in the pleasant shoreline settlements. Prices are slightly lower here than in Umbria’s other property hotspots, with 2-bed apartments averaging about €130,000, and 3-bedroom houses about €320,000. Restoration projects are also available, with smaller initial pricetags. Northeast of Lake Trasimeno, the countryside grows wilder and steeper. The upper Tiber Valley between Umbertide and Sansepolcro in Tuscany has seen a lot of foreign buyer interest over the last decade, pushing up prices in this otherwise sleepy area. A 2-bed villa near Umbertide would ask €200,000+. East of here, the landscape grows increasingly mountainous. Gubbio is a steep, perfectly-preserved medieval hilltown with increasing numbers of visitors. You could get a 5-bed villa near here for €330,000, or, for a similar amount, a 6-bed house in the nearby medieval mountain town of Gualdo Tadino.
Umbria’s lively and atmospheric capital city Perugia takes the form of a large medieval hilltop town with modern suburbs sprawling around its base. Up on the top, 3,000-year-old streets sport Etruscan and Roman relics as well as superb medieval palaces and piazzas. Perugia has a booming economy, lots of visitors, and it was recently included on the network of budget flights from the UK – making it a great place to buy property. The rentals scene is perhaps the best in Umbria, after Assisi. As well as short-term lets to holidaymakers, investors should consider offering longer-term lets to students and visiting businesspeople. The city has an august academic university, and another devoted solely to teaching the Italian language to foreigners. (You might expect €700 a month on a long-term let of a 2-bed apartment.) 1-bed apartments in the old centre start at about €90,000; 2-beds at about €160,000. Apartment prices are lower in the plentiful modern condos at Perugia’s foot. As in other Umbrian towns, there are apartments and townhouses to restore in the old centre. Homes in the surrounding countryside are quite popular and good value. Recent listings included a refurbished 2-bed house asking €180,000, and a 6-bed villa asking €450,000.
Southeast of Perugia, a long, table-flat plain snakes for many miles between soft hills and steeper mountains, forming perhaps Umbria’s most enticing area. Breathtaking medieval hilltowns are sprinkled liberally here, viz. Assisi, Spello, Bettona, Montefalco, Trevi, Spoleto – each offering awesome views-from-on-high of glorious surrounding landscapes. Picturesque Assisi, clinging to the side of Mount Subasio, is the priciest spot in Umbria – drawing innumerable tourists as well as hordes of religious pilgrims come to honour local-boy St. Francis. 1-bed apartments in Assisi get going at about €170,000, with 2-beds starting around €200,000. (Lower prices can be found on Assisi’s outskirts, in nearby mountain hamlets or in a handsome satellite town like Santa Maria degli Angeli). Assisi’s visitor season is almost year-round, and you could expect €500 a week rental on a 2-bed apartment. Country homes near Assisi and other lovely towns around the Vale of Spoleto are very appealing. Recent listings include a 3-bed house to restore near Assisi for €185,000, a 2-bed to restore near Bettona for €200,000, a 3-bed villa near Assisi for €230,000, and a 4-bed villa near Bettona for €340,000. At the southern end of the vale sits the ancient and impressively scenic town of Spoleto – hugely popular with foreign buyers over recent years. Within the city walls you might get an unrestored 2-bed apartment for €150,000-€200,000, or a fully restored one for €250,000-€350,000. Villages nearby are in various states of repair and can offer some good restoration bargains. Or try the 10th-century village of San Marmiliano, allegedly the oldest in Umbria, which has been conscientiously restored throughout.
In Umbria’s southwest, two classic medieval hilltowns are much loved by foreign buyers. Orvieto sits on a column of ginger rock rising from an immensely fertile valley floor, and is home to arguably the most beautiful cathedral in Italy. It’s a lively and cultured place with excellent road and rail connections. Todi is more remote and less easily accessed, with a magnificent central piazza and an expanding community of ex-pat artists and writers. Both towns offer a very high quality of life and can be pricy for property. 1-bedroom apartments in Orvieto start at about €80,000; in Todi, €120,000. 2-bedroom apartments in Orvieto start at €150,000, while in Todi they go for between €170,000 and €290,000. Holiday rental prospects in both towns are good. Bargains and restoration projects on small townhouses sometimes crop up, particularly in Todi. Farmhouses in the countryside around Todi, however, can often go for Chianti-style prices.
Umbria’s least-visited – and lowest-priced – areas are its southern and southeastern extremes. Mountainous and thinly-populated, with green valleys, plunging waterfalls and high flower-meadows, the south and southeast are great places for a second home or a retirement retreat but not so great for holiday rentals. Terni is an inexpensive but industrial place whose historical buildings are sadly depleted thanks to wartime bombing. Nearby Narni is rather more charming, with its medieval centre intact, but the nicest medieval hilltowns in this southern area are probably Amélia and Otricoli. Town and countryside property round here can be about half the price of the same around Spoleto. Umbria’s southeast corner, the ‘Valnerina’, is especially wild, remote and beautiful – with long-abandoned farmhouses testament to the area’s mass emigration early last century. Norcia is the largest of the many tiny settlements here – an attractively tumbledown mountain-town that happens to make the best salami in all Italy. Again, this is an area of comparatively cheap property.
BBC broadcaster Peter Hobday and his wife Victoria bought and restored an old farmhouse in Umbria more than twenty years ago, when the region was still little-known to non-Italians. Ringed with olive and cypress trees, Casa del Lauro sits in five private acres near Lake Trasimeno. The Hobdays enjoy a few months at the house every year, and offer holiday rentals when they’re not there. Peter turned his colourful experience of restoring the property – and of discovering Umbria – into a 1995 book, In the Valley of the Fireflies.
“I didn’t know Italy at all,” Peter admits. “It was back in the 1980s when I was presenting the Today programme on Radio 4. I read an article in The Telegraph saying that you could buy ruined farmhouses in Umbria for £15,000 and do them up for them for £15,000. So we went out and had a look. This lovely old house just about had a roof but no windows or anything. We got it for about £20,000, and we now have a place that we couldn’t possibly afford.
“Our restoration was ongoing. The house was habitable after a year, but then we were always adding something – planting olives and doing bits and pieces. After about ten years it was absolutely finished. Then we acquired more land and put in a swimming pool. And then we decided to offer holiday rentals to pay the upkeep. We’ve been doing that for about six or seven years now and it’s going well. We have lots of returning guests.
“We were among the first English people in the area. Now it’s relatively cosmopolitan. You bump into surprising people here sometimes. One day Victoria and I bumped into Neil Kinnock! We were always told by older Italians that Umbria was traditionally a very poor part of Italy. Now we’ve noticed a lot of development – new houses being built for Italians. And the local communes are gearing up more for tourism.
“We have very good local friends. I used to live in France and I have to say that the French aren’t quite as warm to foreigners and strangers as the Italians are. I’d advise anyone buying a house here to learn Italian, as you get so much more out of the place and the wonderful people. Don’t just buy because you think there’s going to be sun, or you think it’s going to be cheaper! Throw yourself into the place. The poet Horace said ‘there are two types of people – those who travel to change the climate and those who travel to change their mind’. Italy has things that will annoy you, like the bureaucracy and the driving, but you’ll never be disappointed with the food or the friendship, and the climate and culture are great.”
www.casa-del-lauro.com
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