Investors looking for a good deal on an Italian property should be able to find an asset at a reasonable price, it has been claimed.

Director of the international department at Savills Charles Weston Baker told the National buyers can now find houses in the country for 20 to 30 per cent less than their value in 2007.

He explained that stricter planning laws in Italy have resulted in less oversupply than in other Mediterranean nations, such as Spain, but that the weak market has still pulled prices lower.

Meanwhile, Harrison D’Onofrio, Italy sales manager for Hamptons, recommended that potential buyers look at regions such as Puglia and Calabria.

Significant investment has been put into improving the local airports in these parts of the country, he explained.

According to the Knight Frank Prime International Residential Index, several popular areas in Italy saw house prices fall throughout 2010.

The firm revealed that Cortina, Tuscany, Venice, Florence and Sardinia all saw property values drop by five per cent during 2010, with Rome being the only Italian destination to register an increase last year.

Report – IBTimes Hong Kong

‘There are bargains everywhere, although the market seems to be bottoming out,’ says Kim Brown, a partner in the international payment specialists Smart Currency Exchange, talking about prices for holiday and retirement homes in Spain.

‘There are a lot of British owners who want to come home [to the UK] and they are now prepared to drop prices just to get out. But some cannot. Much depends on the value of their loan.’ In other words, prices are such that even if they did manage to sell their homes, they would not be able to repay the mortgage.

While property prices in France continue to rise, property in Spain has been an unmitigated disaster. The value of property in France rose by 8.7% between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011, while values in Spain fell by 5.3%, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that promotes economic and social development worldwide.

‘I would not say that prices in Spain have bottomed out, but a lot of people are looking for bargains,’ says Tom Whale of online property agents Rightmove. ‘Last month, we had 350,000 searches for properties in Spain.’ And there are bargains to be had. Estate agents Connells, for example, is currently advertising properties at half price after striking a deal with the banks to sell off repossessed homes.
Prices slide 30%

The latest Spanish property report from independent house price index compiler Tinsa shows that the general Spanish Real Estate Market index (IMIE) continues to slide. In May, the index recorded a 5.9% year-on-year decline in prices, compared with 4.4% in April. The general index fell to 1,794 points, a level last seen in May 2005.

In May, properties on the Mediterranean coast were at the forefront of this trend falling 8.1%, followed by the major cities at 6.7%, and the Balearic and Canary islands at 6.6%. In the same month, the cumulative fall in prices from the highs of 2007 exceeded the 20% mark for the first time at 21.5%. Over this period, the Mediterranean coast properties top the list again with a 27.8% decline in value, according to Tinsa, but some estate agents are reporting falls of up to 30%.

The situation is most painful for UK pensioners who retired to Spain, some of whom have seen the value of their property drop by as much as 50%. Their situation is made worse by the fact that sterling has fallen against the euro by around 25% since the credit crunch. This means many British pensioners are trying to survive on an income that is 25% less than when they first left the UK.

Their situation is not being helped by the volatility in the markets. According to foreign exchange dealer HiFX, the worth of a monthly pension income of £628 will have fluctuated between €756 in January and €698 in May, a difference of €58.

And things are not about to get any easier for homeowners in Spain, says Mark Bodega, director at HiFX. ‘Looking ahead, we see the potential for sterling to weaken [further],’ he says.
Buyers’ market

All of this is very bad news for those who own Spanish property and want to get out. But for buyers there are bargains and financing deals to be had. In an attempt to move properties, many of the developers have arranged finance with the banks that initially lent them the development money and agents report that there are 80% and 90% mortgages available.

Spanish real estate website Property In Spain, for example, is offering two bedroom, front line golf apartments in Polaris World, at Costa Calida on Las Terrazas de la Torre, from €96,180 with a 100% mortgage. Or for those who want more space, you can buy a repossessed six bedroom, six bathroom, luxury Vistal Mar Duquesa villa on the Costa del Sol that is within a five minute drive of the beach for €525,000 – down from €735,000 – once again with a 100% mortgage.

Nobody knows how many UK residents own property abroad, or specifically in Spain, but the figure is likely to be much higher than the one million estimated by the British Embassy in Spain.

For those seeking to sell, it might be wise to consider cutting your losses now. It could be years before the property market rebounds and when European economies start to recover, interest rates will inevitably rise, which may make things even more difficult for buyers who need a mortgage.

Report by Lorna Bourke – Citywire Money

Discover Traditional Village Houses in the Herault Department of Languedoc in the South of France…

The Herault area is situated on the Mediterranean coast with the Black mountains to the North and acres of vineyards in between. The villages and hamlets can date back to early medieval times and the lanes and roads are narrow.

The houses are terraced but each one is unique in height and size. Most village houses front onto the road with no garden, some will have back gardens. These houses when built had a “cave” a space for wine-making etc. this area can  take up the entire ground floor with stone stairs leading up to the first floor. Lots of caves have been converted into living space, garage, storeroom or workshop.

Houses are generally two to three stories high and can range in size from 50 to 250 square metres of living space, built of stone with walls up to a metre thick with tiled floors. Each room will have at least one window and the living room may have a french window onto a small balcony, the roof is built with traditional terracotta tiles.

State of Repair

This can vary from…superb condition to total renovation project. Most of the houses that come on the market are in “OK” condition i.e. the structure and roof is sound. In some cases the kitchens and bathrooms will need to be updated or replaced and the whole house given a make – over. Some people have converted some or all of the top floor into terraces.

General Information

There are lots of public parking spaces in and around most villages.
Most villages have at least one bakery, grocery / fruit shop, butchers, post office and newsagents and some have weekly markets selling local produce etc.
Many villages are within a 20 minute drive to major supermarkets and stores.
Quiet at night with little or no crime.
Very friendly neighbours
Bus service

Typical Herault Village

Saint Thibery is situated fifteen minutes by car to the Mediterranean coast, thirty minutes to Sete, fifteen minutes to Agde, Beziers and Pezenas and and hour and twenty minutes to Spain. The Celts once lived here and the Romans built a road ( Via Domitia ) through the village cira 118 BC. Within the village boundaries you will also find a Roman Bridge, an early medieval corn mill and bridge, a Benedictine Abbey and Church and many medieval houses. The village is surrounded by vineyards and the rivers Herault and Thongue run by.

The village has…
Four Bakeries
Veg and fruit shop
Small supermarket
Tabac
Three bars / restaurants
Hairdressing salon
Post office
Gites and B&B’s
Wine caves
Weekly open-air market
Camping site
Annual festivals and fetes etc.
Bus Service
Taxis
School
Church
Community hall
Mayor’s office
Major supermarket,  a few minutes drive (or a 10 minute walk)
Train Station, fifteen minutes drive
Beautiful walks

Discover more about the village of St Thibery

Article by BJK © The South of France Guide (All photos are of St Thibery)

UK house prices are set to be 16% higher by the end of 2015 following a four-year recovery in the market that will start late this year, an economics group has predicted.

Property values will continue to fall for much of 2011, ending the year around 1.4% lower than they started it, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

But the market will begin to stabilise towards the end of the year, when the UK’s property shortage will once again underpin prices.

Improvements to the major banks’ balance sheets should lead to them loosening their strict lending criteria, enabling more people to buy a home.

The previous upturn in the housing market was caused by a mismatch between supply and demand, but the recovery petered out as economic uncertainty caused potential buyers to sit on their hands, while those who wanted to press ahead with a purchase continued to face problems raising the mortgage finance they needed.

But CEBR said with just 130,000 new homes built in 2010, around half the level needed to keep pace with the growing number of households, prices should increase by 16% between 2011 and 2015, the equivalent of a gain of around 4% a year.

The recovery will be more marked in London with demand from international buyers set to push up the cost of housing in the capital by around 2% a year more than across the UK as a whole.

CEBR chief executive Douglas McWilliams said: “We still believe house prices will fall this year, although there are signs that prices will stabilise over the second half of the year.

“The main factor driving house prices up is the shortage of available housing which has already pushed up rents. Housing completions fell to only 130,000 in 2010, well below the level required to keep pace with demographic change.”

But consumer spending is likely to take longer to recover, with the group expecting it to fall by 0.8% in 2011, followed by relatively low average growth of 2% from 2012 to 2015.

The volume of food sales looks set to drop for the second consecutive year, falling by 0.1%, while clothing sales will increase by just 3.3%, one of the slowest growth rates in recent history.

The predictions come the day after property intelligence group Hometrack said house prices in England and Wales fell by 0.1% in May following a drop in the number of house hunters registering with estate agents.

The group expects the industry to lose 1% of its value during 2011 as a whole.

Report by Nicky Burridge – Belfast Telegraph