Sol Italia Blog

The past few years have seen an unprecedented growth in the market for property overseas. The number of UK households with second homes abroad rocketed by 30% from 194,000 in 2000 to 254,000 in 2004 with an estimated sales value in 2006 of nearly £20 billion. This trend is set to continue in the next few years with over 30% of UK residents reportedly looking to buy property abroad.

Don’t miss the boat!

Contact info@sol-italia.com

Last year a member of our Office staff spent Christmas in Lake Como. He recalls a Christmas Eve trip to Bellagio across the Lake and returning with his bags stuffed with festive fayre. The goose came from the butchers in Mennagio and the vegetables from the friendly greengrocer in the village. Hot chocolate and brandy was enjoyed outside the Hotel du Lac and some of the shops were even open on Christmas day! He remembers sitting with friends having a coffee whilst listening to the church bells pealing out on Christmas morning. The Italians love Christmas and it is a typical family affair but the evenings on Lake Como are cool and the log fire of his apartment greatly appreciated.

Winter is also the time to visit Milan as the heat of the city is less stifling. Spend a weekend visiting the art galleries and museums and perhaps visit the Chiesa di Santa Maria to see Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper’. The Lakes of Northern Italy are within a short driving distance of Milan and Sol-Italia have some beautiful properties available in the surrounding areas. Contact us for further information.

Some of us in the Office can speak fluent Italian and some of us are not so good. One of us is learning Italian at the current time and can recommend a book called Buongiorno Italia by Joseph Cremona.

We will be recommending Language Courses near to the Italian Lakes in the near future.

If you run a Language Centre in this area then please do contact us at info@sol-italia.com

Many of you have contacted us to ask if we can recommend somewhere to stay in the Italian Lakes. We are compiling a list of our favourite places to stay in Northern Italy and the places we select will have been vetted by our own staff.

If you have somewhere that you wish to let in the Italian Lakes then please do contact us at info@sol-italia.com

Sol Italia has a success story to share with you as we received this e mail from one of our customers who spent his last Sunday evening in his new home on the shores of Lake Como. He and his family were flying home the next day to begin the new academic year….“I fired up the wood oven in our garden and roasted grouse stuffed with thyme and bruschetti, wrapped in pancetta and some potatoes and onions, roasted with a splash of olive oil and thyme until golden, crispy and lightly caramelized, all served with some sautéed Savoy cabbage cooked with garlic. Washed down with a glass of Chianti from Antinori it made a fine conclusion to a very memorable holiday”.

NONE OF US ARE JEALOUS, OF COURSE!!!!!!!!

There is no sight as beautiful as the sun shimmering on Lake Como near Mennagio. Mennagio is an ideal place to buy a property in the Italian Lakes as it offers lake access but there are also plenty of places to sit outside and enjoy a coffee and a drink whilst watching the beautiful people pass by. From Mennagio you can catch a boat to other areas of the lake and I particular enjoy shopping and lunch in Bellagio.

Mennagio is a wonderful place to invest in as there are people around all year round and last year the coffee shops and small shops were even open on Christmas day for those last minute gifts.

There are some interesting new build properties in the Mennagio area and some beautiful palazzo renovations. There are many who enjoy a Cosmopolitan atmosphere and this is what you experience in Mennagio. If you are interested in properties in the Lakes of Northern Italy then do contact us at info@sol-italia.com and we will direct your search.

Sol Italia is renowned for the personal service that we provide for our clients and partner agencies. In order to keep up with the demand from our clients we are now seeking ‘partner’ agencies in other areas of Italy. If you are a small Italian agency and feel that you would like to increase your business by working with Sol-Italia and expanding markets in Europe and beyond then do contact us in order to discuss co-working partnerships.

Sol-Italia will offer you a personalised service and provide your properties with international advertising and other support services. We are committed to offering a quality service to our clients and it is important that at least one member of your staff is able to speak some English. Please contact us to arrange a time for a preliminary discussion through info@sol-italia.com

Still a firm favourite amongst property hunters searching for that authentic Mediterranean lifestyle, Italy’s seductive powers now extend beyond Tuscany. The pretty villages of Umbria and Le Marche offer more affordable rustic gems, while the southern Calabrian coast is has bargain beach pads
Prices for Italy Properties from 38,600

The Market: Restoration heaven
Dotted with unspoilt historical villages full of charming properties, Italy continues to grow as an attractive alternative to France or Spain for buyers looking for a tranquil bolt-hole immersed in Mediterranean culture. There are now an estimated 60,000 British people living in Italy. Most buyers tend to choose between two types of property: traditional rural houses near a village or town which are used as a second future retirement home, or apartments in rural complexes or historic towns which serve as rentable holiday pads.

Tuscany in the north is by now well imprinted on the radar of British buyers, but the central region of Umbria is fast catching up and other lesser known regions are also drawing attention. As Luca Giovannlli of agent Casaitalia International states, They [British buyers] started in Tuscany and their number is still increasing, discovering different areas such as Umbria, Le Marche, Sardinia and Apulia. As future hotspots, Giovannlli picks Le Marche and Abruzzo as regions to watch.

The influx of would-be Tuscany property-owners is already noticeable in Umbria, its main attractions being the beautiful countryside and fewer foreigners. Most buyers there are opting for a casale, a traditional stone house with land. Prices for casales restored to a high standard start at around 300,000 but a property in need of restoration would set you back 100,000-plus. Areas in Umbria drawing interest are Perugia, Todi, Orvieto, Spoleto, Assisi, Citt della Pieve and Lake Trasimeno.

Property-owners in the very north of Italy benefit from the seasonal buy-to-let markets around the lakes (Como, Maggiore, Iseo and Garda) and ski resorts in the Dolomites and Alps.

Places here have obvious summer and seasonal appeal. Head south and prices drop noticeably, as does the cost of living, but you are further from the culture and fashion hotspots of Florence, Milan, Venice, Turin and Pisa, and the transport infrastructure is less established. If you want the southern sun, the Calabrian coast is starting to open up.

MILAN The lure of Tuscany’s sunshine keeps bringing a gold rush of foreign homebuyers to its cypress-scented hills. But for anyone looking for something equally idyllic and scenic, yet less expensive and more resolutely Italian, the Lake District just north of Milan is an alluring alternative.

Once de rigueur as a part of the Grand Tour, the area had lost some of its charm over the years as spots with guaranteed sun grabbed more attention.

Then famous people, most notably George Clooney, began buying properties along the glacial, deepwater lakes of Como and its three nearest neighbors, Lugano, Maggiore and Orta.

In what local agents call the “Clooney Effect,” anything along Lake Como now sells at 2,000 to 5,000 per square meter, or about $240 to $600 per square foot, with properties near the actor-director’s compound in Laglio pushing the top end of the scale.

On neighboring lakes, properties are a good 30 percent less, although agents say that prices generally have risen a steady 10 percent a year for apartments for the last 10 years and 5 percent for villas.

Prices were quite different 14 years ago when Bob Kaiser, an American engineer, paid the equivalent of 90,000 for a two-bedroom apartment in a renovated 17th-century villa between Lake Como and Lake Maggiore. Today, he estimates it is worth 200,000.

Ralf Koklar, Kaiser’s real estate agent, recalled that he was astounded to learn that Kaiser wanted to move from Hawaii to the lakes, which he admits can be cold and wet over the winter months. “I asked him, ‘Why?’” Koklar said. “Everybody was thinking that life in Hawaii must be absolute paradise.”

Kaiser said he and his wife, Vicki, wanted to start a new chapter in their lives. “We were certain that the Lake District was where we wanted to be,” he said. “The move has proven to be adventurous, humbling, exciting, eye opening, challenging.”

Kaiser now enjoys playing tennis almost every day, skiing in winter and attending the numerous jazz festivals during the long, hot summers.

And unlike the noticeable British presence in Tuscany, which some sarcastically call Chianti-shire, only about 15 percent of the property buyers in the Lake District are foreign, said Martin Hanslip, an agent who specializes in the region.

Lake Lugano, half of which lies in Switzerland, naturally has a large Swiss population, even on its resolutely Italian side, which also is a draw for other foreigners who work in Switzerland but do not want to deal with its complex property laws.

The Italians themselves have mixed feelings about the area. “We see the lakes as interminably sad during the winter,” said Fanny Meroni, an interpreter who lives in Milan. “We are finding the lakes a little more appealing these days as restoration work goes on in the nicer parts. Of course, due to the demand, prices have risen.”

But away from the “celebrity belt,” the southwestern shores of Como around the town of Menaggio, real estate agents say there still are some bargains.

Rustici, old farmhouses in need of attention or even rebuilding, start at about 45,000, with the best buys found along the helter-skelter roads of Como’s northern reaches, the farthest from Milan.

Gary Pennington and his partner, Nicola Craig, love that particular area, having discovered it on their way to ski in nearby Switzerland and Austria. “It was on one of these trips that we decided, just as a matter of curiosity, to look at buying a property,” Pennington said.

Saint Moritz is only an hour’s drive away, providing the kind of “dual season” potential for investment property that many buyers want, said Sheila Leavitt, who runs Italy House Scout, a search service for English speakers who want to buy in the area.

Pennington paid 220,000 for a three- bedroom apartment two years ago. Now he gets 1,000 a week in rental income during the summer and believes the apartment is worth about 300,000.

Lake Como (Lago di Como in Italian, also known as Lario; Latin: Larius Lacus) is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of 146 km, making it the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. At over 400m deep it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe and the bottom of the lake is more than 200 m below sea-level.

The lake is shaped like an upside-down Y. The northern branch begins at the town of Colico, while the towns of Como and Lecco sit at the ends of the southwestern and southeastern branches respectively. The small towns of Bellagio, Menaggio and Varenna are situated at the intersection of the three branches of the lake: a triangular boat service operates between them.

Lake Como is fed in large part by the Adda River, which enters the lake near Colico and flows out at Lecco. This geological conformation makes the southwestern branch a dead end, and so Como, unlike Lecco, is often flooded.

The mountainous pre-alpine territory between the two southern arms of the lake between Como, Bellagio and Lecco is known as the Larian Triangle, or Triangolo lariano. The source of the river Lambro is here. At the centre of the triangle, the town of Canzo is the seat of the Comunit montana del Triangolo Lariano, an association of the 31 municipalities which represent the 71,000 inhabitants of the area.

The lake’s name in Latin is Larius, Italianized as Lario, but this name is rarely used; it is usually called Lago di Como (literally “Lake of Como”). In guidebooks the lake may be variously described as “Lake Como”, “Lake of Como”, or “Como Lake.”

While the town of Como is referred to as “Como”, the lake itself is never referred to solely by this name. (This is not true of another lake in Italy, Lake Garda, where “Garda” may refer to either a town on its shores, or the lake).

The lake is well known for the attractive villas which have been built here since Pliny the Younger constructed the Comedia and the Tragedia. Many have admirable gardens which benefit from the mild climate induced by the stabilising presence of 22.5 km of lake water and are able to include tropical as well as temperate plants.

Villa Carlotta.The Villa Carlotta was built for the Milanese marchese Giorgio Clerici in 1690 and occupies a site of over 70,000 sqm at Tremezzo, facing the Bellagio peninsula. An Italian garden, with steps, fountains and sculpture was laid out at the same time. The villa was later sold to the banker and Napoleonic politician Giambattista Sommariva. Stendhal was his guest in 1818, and his visit is recalled at the start of La Chartreuse de Parme. In 1843 it was purchased by Princess Marianne of Nassau as a wedding present for her daughter Carlotta, after whom the villa is now named. The latter, together with her husband, Georg II of Saxen-Meiningen laid out the wooded park in the Romantic style. The villa today includes a museum of agricultural implements as well as important works of sculpture by Sommariva�s friend Antonio Canova and by Luigi Acquisti. [2]

Villa d’Este.The Villa d�Este, at Cernobbio, was built in 1568 by Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, a native of the town. In 1816�17 the villa was home to Caroline of Brunswick, estranged wife of the Prince of Wales and shortly to become Queen Consort of King George IV of the United Kingdom. The landscaped gardens in the English style are a product of this period. Later in the century it was turned into a luxury hotel. Today the Villa dEste is known for attracting such celebrity guests as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Paul McCartney, Oscar Kiss Maerth, Sharon Stone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Yves St. Laurent, Alfred Hitchcock and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Villa del Balbianello.The Villa del Balbianello, famous for its elaborate terraced gardens, lies on a promontory of the western shore of the lake near Isola Comacina. Built in 1787 on the site of a Franciscan monastery, it was the final home of the explorer Guido Monzino and today houses a museum devoted to his work.

The Villa Melzi, at Bellagio was built in the neo-classical style by the architect Giocondo Albertolli in 1808 1810 as the summer residence of Francesco Melzi who had been vice-president of the Napoleonic Italian Republic. The park includes an orangery, a chapel, statues and a Japanese garden, and is planted, as often on lake Como, with huge rhododendrons. Nineteenth-century guests at the Villa included Stendhal and Franz Liszt [3]

The Villa Serbelloni, also at Bellagio, houses the Bellagio Study and Conference Center, a residential center set up and managed by the Rockefeller Foundation since 1959, which operates a ’scholar-in-residence’ program for scholars from around the world. This is believed to have been the site of Pliny the Youngers villa Tragedia. Its well-known park was created at the end of the eighteenth century by Alessandro Serbelloni.