(Visited 140 times, 1 visits today)
(Visited 140 times, 1 visits today)

Real estate in Tuscany is growing again

29 May, La Nazione

Tuscany is the third region in Italy concerning transactions and the first for purchases by international investors looking to buy a house in Italy.

According to the 2018 report on the real estate market in Tuscany by Scenari Immobiliari with the collaboration of Casa.it, last year the region registered 35,500 transactions, corresponding to 6.3% of the total purchases at a national level. In central Italy, only Lazio did better.

Tuscany will keep the same the pace also in 2018. In fact, according to the outlook, the year will close with 39,500 house purchases, 11.3% more than 2017, little below the national average of 12.5% expected by the year-end.

In the meanwhile, prices remain stable. According to Scenari Immobiliari and Casa.it, they’ll resume the growth only in 2020, when they return to the level of 2010, a year that reported numbers already below the pre-crisis period. Prices in the region decreased in 2017 by 0.5%, while for the current year the outlook is for a countertrend with an increase of 0.5%.

Concerning prices, Florence has substantially maintained the same numbers in the last ten years along with Pisa and Siena, while Massa has seen the sharpest fall in prices, with a 29% reduction compared to 2008.

Prato, Grosseto and Pistoia have also reported significant value losses equal to 20%, while in Arezzo prices have fallen 23% from 2008, even though the city has left the toughest part of the crisis behind. Lucca and Livorno have decreased by 17.3%. The figures referring to second houses purchases suggest that the property market is picking up, even though buyers are for large part foreigners.

From this point of view, 2017 has been a good year. And 2018 will also be good: according to the outlook, 9 thousand foreigners are evaluating buying a house in Italy, nearly 1,900 of them will invest in Tuscany. The favourite destinations are beach and cultural ones, as long as they’re not too close to the city. The average investment amount to 530 thousand euro, but transactions over one million euro to buy a farmhouse or a villa are also common, especially if the property comes with a vineyard or an orchard.

Foreign buyers are mostly German and Russian. Americans are set around 10%, while the presence of Chinese and Indians is growing.

“The Tuscany property market doesn’t stop at the main dwelling – comments Mario Breglia, president of Scenari Immobiliari – on the contrary, it offers interesting opportunities in the second house segment to Italian and international buyers, either to rent or to use as a holiday house”.

Where? “The preference goes to trendy locations, especially if the location offers beautiful views and is well connected”. For what concerns Italians, 4 thousand will invest in a second house in Tuscany. This trend caused prices to hike, especially in beach destinations such as Porto Ercole and Porto Santo Stefano in the province of Grosseto, and in Forte dei Marmi, in Versilia, where prices go from 7,500 to 14,300 euro/Sq m.

Source: La Nazione

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi