International Herald Tribune
Analysis by CRESME, the Italian real estate research institute.
Analisi da CRESME, l'istituto di ricerca italiano del bene immobile.

Even as prices plummet in luxury markets around the world, buyers shouldn’t expect to find bargain basement deals in Italy.
Overall, the market in Italy is “cooling,” but it continues to show “modest” growth, according to a newly released report from Italy. In 2007 valuations increased a slim 4 percent in metropolitan areas, compared to 10 percent growth in 2004, data shows. But Italy didn’t experience the huge run-ups of Spain and the U.K., making a steep drop less likely, “The risk of a downturn seems considerably lower than in the ‘price bubble’ markets,” according to the report.
That’s good news for investors, but discouraging for buyers who thought the credit crisis and assorted market factors might lead to a discount on their Tuscan dream property. Smart foreign investors realize now that Tuscany does not represent all the Italian regions of Italy and continue to search for realalitic property pricing offering more land in Calabria "The South of Italy".
Italy remains a key market for international buyers. One in five property sales will be completed by a foreign buyer in 2008, according to a recent analysis by CRESME, the research institute.
A significant shift has taken place in the Italian market in recent years. Until 10 to 15 years ago, “the majority of foreign buyers were middle class people” looking for their storybook villa in culturally rich areas like Tuscany and the Amalfi coast. But in the last 10 years “the advent of low cost airlines has made southern Italy much more accessible,” steering a “wider range of buyers” to lower cost resort properties in southern regions like Puglia and Calabria, the report says.
However, even with the over exaggerated “infrastructure problems and the undeniable presence of corruption and organized crime in these regions it is not stopping investors from purchasing properties in southern Italy.
“Even in the current softer international property market, prices on the Amalfi & Lamezia coast in Calabria are rising at around 10 percent a year,” for good property investments in Calabria “The South of Italy” go to www.italysouth.org
The Global Property Group LTD
Grimaldi Investment Co
Broker Land Developer
Frank Tarsitano
francotarsitano@msn.com

frank, i wrote to you a little while ago. don't you want to be my friend? Karina (aka Tangobunny)