When the real estate bubble burst in 2011 Umbria’s market to a huge blow, as happened in many other places. For a long time afterwards it seemed nothing was happening, moving or going anywhere at all. Until the beginning of this year when all of a sudden the market picked up and it turned out to not be a bad year at all.
The category of properties prices between the 300.000 and 600.000 gained much attention of foreign buyers. Those homes are now quite steady in price as the number of properties available on the market is steadily declining.
At the same time many properties that were priced around 800.000 to 1.200.000 have come down with on average €200.000. This happened due to very few requests but also because many of them have been renovated about 30 years ago and would need some serious up-dating to match the demands of the new generation of buyers. Floor heating, bathrooms, kitchens, energy efficiency, a lot has changed over the years and especially foreigners are used to modern features and comfort. We do see that potential buyers express more interest for these still stunning properties if the price is adjusted to the amount of work that needs to be done. The prices seem more realistic and therefor more attractive.
Umbria is located between Tuscany and Rome but offers clean air, tranquility and high standards of living compared to the crowded and expensive provinces of Lazio and Tuscany. This fact is becoming more and more a luxury item which is noticed by an increasing number of wealthy buyers as well. Large properties are sold of near important cities like Todi, Orvieto and Perugia and we can only hope for ore investors to boost Umbria’s efforts to keep up with the outside world.
Relatively little interest gain the attractive ruins and renovation projects on the market. Their average price of €250.000 apparently is not very attractive to the clients leaning towards building their new home. The surface they in general would like to build is about 300 sq m and with that it all very quickly adds up to 1 to 1,2 million to have a mansion with pool and garden. This seems to be amount that at this time very few people are willing to spend. Maybe because their expectations we too high, building here is not cheap, and property remains an exclusive asset. We do however not expect prices to go down, and on the contrary some owners are hoping they will be the last to sell and have put up whopping prices tags of € 800.000 to 1 million on houses that need to be demolished….. Whether they are right thinking people will pay to purchase the last great project only time can tell.
