Abruzzo Property Market After The Quake

Abruzzo real estate was in a positive trend during the previous years of 2009. This was mainly due to a good promotion done by the Administration and by several Britons who decided to invest in there; this region attracted property buyers also by fairly low prices and beautiful scenarios.

But then the earthquake of April 09 drastically changed everything.

The huge amount of damage that this tremendous event has caused has been under everybody's eyes, a visibility hugely magnified by the G8 and the world's media coverage that followed big personalities walking through rubbles and promising to reconstruct this or that monument or church.

But if on one hand Abruzzo benefited from the media coverage, on the other hand it gave the impression that the region had been utterly destroyed, instead of passing the message that the earthquake was localized in the city of L'Aquila and its surround villages. This forced tourists and property investors away from Abruzzo, diverting their interest to bordering Le Marche region and to other areas of Italy. This has caused to Abruzzo's economy a bigger damage than the quake itself.

Also Abruzzo properties were affected by all this factors, even though less than expected, that pushed down the number of enquiries by 19% across the eight months after the earthquake. The negative trend was stronger in the first four months and then it rose up in the last four mounths of the year.

The return of interest in the last months of the year gives a wave of optimism and hopes that property in Abruzzo will weather the storm and will come up again in 2010.

This optimistic scenario is backed by the fact that the number of enquiries sent for Abruzzo properties in January 09 are 42% up compared to January of the previous year. Americans and British are the most interested in Abruzzo homes with the 39% of the enquiries, although a large amount of requests come also from Germans, Belgians, Dutches, Swedish and French (with the 42% of the requests). Mainly the requests are either for restored properties or in habitable conditions (61%), 2 bedrooms (44.9%), with an average price of €159,850.

For all the ones that are interested in restoration projects Abruzzo is the right place to look at, both for the big availability of properties in need of restoration and for the nice style that properties have in this area, giving the new owner the chance to end up with a very beautiful and worthy piece of real estate. This let apart of a very important fact: that property prices in Abruzzo are still lower than the Italian average. The price of a country house to be restored of about 100 square metres is around €80/100,000 although it is not difficult to find much better bargains doing a thorough search. On the site Gate-away.com are listed country houses of that size in Abruzzo with price starting from as little as €50,000, even less for something smaller.

Abruzzo gains interest from buyers not only for its property prices but also because of its high mountains (actually the highest in central Italy) with beautiful ski resorts along with a marvellous coastline. The average price for a cozy 1 bedroom apartment by the sea is around €100/120,000, which can be perfect to be rented out as a holiday rental. To give an idea of the income that such investment can generate, the rental rate for this type of apartment (depending on the distance form the sea) can go from €200/300 per week during the low season to €1000/1200 per week during the high season. The rental season covers period that goes from May to October, even though you could have a very warm weather also in April and November. What impresses Abruzzo's visitors is the genuine approach that this land gives, from the people to the food, very tasty and at a very good price. The nature is stunning as Abruzzo hosts a big number of natural parks and offers a wilderness that has not equals in Europe.

Abruzzo is such a beautiful region that if you decide to buy a property there you'll hardly regret it.