Italian homes are tops for Brits in new property-swap fad

Italy is Britons’ top overseas choice for a new holiday craze – house-swapping.

Just under 3.5% of UK adults – an estimated 1.7 million – plan to take their vacations on the cheap this year – by agreeing to temporarily exchange homes with a family in a spot they would like to visit.

Joint top of the favourite foreign destinations are Italy – whose rich tradition offers countless Italian entertainment opportunities – and Spain, the choice of 15% of house-swapping vacationers. Some 12% plump for France and 10% the United States. Domestically, Cornwall, the Lake District, Devon and Scotland are the spots that head the list.

The number of people taking part in the trend has doubled since 2010. More than half of them cite the economic downturn as the No1 reason that they give a stranger the run of their home – and frequently car as well – for the chance to to spend a free week or two abroad in return.

The practice highlights how the economic downturn has altered Britons’ vacation habits. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that people in the UK made 10 million fewer trips abroad in 2009-10 than in the preceding 12 months – the sharpest drop for more than 30 years.

House-swappers first of all need to register with a website or agency and supply photographs of where they live – and indicate whether their largesse will extend to leaving their home-exchange partner the keys to the family car.

Ed Kushins of HomeExchange.com – which with nearly 40,000 homes is one of the largest such websites – pointed out: ‘”Costly hotels are out. Apartments and houses and are in. They’re more appealing, more comfortable and less costly.”

A note of caution, though. Some 24% of holidaymakers who have tried the practice say they returned to find their homes had suffered some kind of damage in their absence.

Lloyds TSB Insurance, which carried out the survey, said vacationers tempted by the trend should register only with reliable house-swapping websites. And it said its research highlighted the need for householders to ensure their properties had adequate cover beforehand.

Paul Spillane, in charge of the insurers’ home claims department, said: “House-swapping could become one of the trends of 2011 as it is the sort of break that caters for so many different tastes.”

Of course, rather than simply swap homes, you may want to buy a property in Italy. Our picks this week are farmhouses in Umbria and beach houses in Calabria.

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Calabria town’s lifeline from 200 refugees

An Italian mayor has revitalised his shrinking ghost town  – by encouraging more Third World immigrants.

Riace, just four miles from Calabria’s Ionian coast, is home to 1,700 inhabitants – but it has seen thousands others leave for northern Italy or as far afield as Germany, the US and New Zealand. The result was an area in such decline that it had no bars or restaurants  shop, not enough children to fill classrooms and large swathes of houses were left vacant for decades.

But Mayor Domenico Lucano has stemmed the exodus by attracting more than 200 foreigners with a scheme in which some abandoned homes in the Calabrian town have been turned into free accommodation for them while other properties have been converted into craft shops in which they work unpaid.

He said: “This was a ghost town before… There was the perception our destiny had already been written. Psychologically speaking, everyone had already packed their bags, ready to leave.”

One newcomer to have benefited from the scheme is a woman known only as Lubaba, currently employed making glass ornaments. She was pregnant when she fled her native war-ravaged Ethiopia in a tiny boat crammed with 250 others. She said of her ordeal: “The journey was awful. We were squashed like sardines and the sea was rough. I was desperately thirsty but there was nothing to drink.”

Mr Lucano’s initiative has also provided €700-a-month jobs for around a dozen locals, employed in the workshops selling handicrafts to tourists. It means residents no longer have to leave the town to look for work.

The Italian state provides around €20 a day for each refugee to cover accommodation, food, medical expenses, training and their kids’ education. The Mayor argues that is barely a quarter of what it would cost Italy to house the immigrants in a detention centre.

The seeds of his idea were first sown in 1998, as he drove along a coastal road in Riace and saw a boatload of 300 Kurdish refugees wade ashore. He helped to organise accommodation for them. Six years later, as Mayor, he decided they could be the new lifeblood of the dying town. Mr Lucano – recently voted the world’s third best mayor in a contest – now looks back and says: “The wind brought us a special cargo. Who are we to turn it away?”

Along with the immigrants have come their youngsters, who are also helping to transform the face of Riace. Among the children’s first tasks is getting to grips with learning a new language, which they are managing with remarkable ease.

Mr Lucano, himself a teacher, looked on approvingly at a group of them in a classroom. He said: “Kids are very quick. It only takes them five or six months to become proficient. They make me proud and they give me hope that this place has a future. In 2000 our school was shut because we had so few pupils. Now it’s flourishing.”

Enjoyed reading this article? Then why not browse through our Calabrian properties for sale, part of our vast range of houses on sale in Italy? A version of this article first appeared on the BBC website.

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Italy real estate: Home with pool tops women’s wishlist

Installing a swimming pool is the No1 attribute Italian women would love to change about their homes, a survey has revealed.

The dream property of Italian donne, as well as being comfortable and welcoming inside, should ideally also come equipped with a large, open-air area ideal for putting one’s feet up.

Some 53 per cent of those quizzed cite a swimming pool as top of their wishlist in which to relax at weekends, after an exhausting day at the office or just to cool down from the heat in summer.

Just over 40 per cent, with an eye on a healthy lifestyle and diet, would go for a small garden for growing healthy and organic foodstuffs for themselves and their families. A Jacuzzi would be the idyllic choice of 37 per cent, while a home gym ticks the right boxes for 29 per cent of Italian women.

In addition to price, other crucial factors that would-be homeowners weigh up include brightness, living space and the tranquility of the local area, the survey, on behalf of an Italy real estate listings site, suggests.

However, the two types of neighbours Italian women would least want to live next to are musicians and students.

One in three of Italy’s women are currently looking for a home, with purchasing outright preferred over renting. The type of property they are looking for tends to be on the large side: 39 per cent are after a two-bedroom home while more than 46 per cent want at least three bedrooms.

Good news for property portals - 72 per cent of searchers go online to look for properties. Above all, they appreciate the convenience of being able to use the internet at any time of day or night. Secondly, they are attracted by the possibility of buying property directly from owners.

Enjoyed reading this article? Then take a look at our range of Sicilian homes and Tuscan real estate?

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22 weeks to buy a home in Italy’s cities

The average sale of a property in one of Italy’s large cities currently takes 22 weeks, a survey has revealed.

The 154-day period, a little over five months, is actually a couple of days down compared to six months previously, figures for January to June this year indicate.

The process of buying a property in Italy, explained elsewhere on our site – involves three distinct stages – signing the offer (the proposta irrevocabile di acquisto or irrevocable proposal to buy); preliminary sales contract (contratto preliminare di compravendita) and the signing the rogito (final contract) in a notary’s office.

It can seem unfamiliar and a little complex to many overseas buyers but it contains several checks and balances to protect the interests of both parties.

Typical property sale times in Italy’s provincial capitals such as Trapani in Sicily and Cosenza in Calabria are slightly longer, typically 181 days (up 14 from 167 in January). If buyers wish to head inland, it takes 184 days on average (down from 188 at the start of the year) to complete a property transaction.

Note that on average sales in the larger metropolitan centres are concluded more quickly than those elsewhere, thanks to their more dynamic market. No large city registered a sale length beyond 200 days, the analysis by Italy real estate conglomerate Tecnocasa found.

The cities of Palermo (Sicily), Bari (Puglia) and Verona (Veneto) are the ones with the lengthiest sales times – 181, 178 and 176 days respectively. Among inland locations, the provinces of Verona (216 days), Bologna, Emilia-Romagna (208) and Turin, Piedmont (205 days) showed the longest times.

Have you found this article informative? Then why not browse through our range of Sicily real estate and properties in Tuscany?

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Foreigners’ budgets rise in Italy real estate sector

The spending power of overseas buyers looking for a property in Italy has risen sharply this year, new research suggests.

The three months to the end of June saw a 23 per cent rise in the average value of homes they have enquired about compared with the first three months of the year. The figure was up nearly 12 per cent improved on the first quarter of 2009.

Even more impressive was the continued strong performance of the luxury homes in Italy sector. Here, there was a spectacular 52 per cent growth in investors looking for properties in the €500,000-€1,000,000 bracket. Top spenders continue to be the Russians, followed by the Germans and Dutch.

Demand for Italian real estate at the other end of the budget scale also appears vibrant, with an 11 per cent upsurge in homes on the market for less than €100,000.

However, it is between the two extremes where the market is yet to accelerate, the study by an Italy real estate listings firm suggested. Demand for properties in the €250,000-€500,000 bracket declined by just over 1 per cent while the €100,000-€250,000 bracket saw a 17 per cent fall.

Have you found this article informative? Then why not take a look at our range of real estate in Sicily and Amalfi coast real estate?

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