Profile Tuscany: If you want a place under the Tuscan sun, you'll need some sound advice. Paddy Agnew guides you through choosing a ruin or a refurbished farmhouse - and tells you how to deal with the all-important notaio
So, then, you have always wanted a piece of genuine Tuscan real estate, right in the heart of Chianti?
Tell me, though, do you want to buy a casale or a casa padronale, a rustico or a rovina, a casetta or a villa? Have you got your cheque book with you to immediately lay down the money for a proposta irrevocabile d'acquisto, prior to handing over the money for the caparra or compromesso?
Confused? Never mind, help is at hand. For any reader thinking of buying property in Italy, the first piece of advice is all too obvious - namely get yourself some professional help in the shape of those few and select real estate agencies which cater for the foreign buyer in Italy. There are several such agencies, many of them UK-based but with permanent Italy-based partners.
Life in Italy for those who speak little or no Italian is complicated at the best of times. Yet, if you think you can jump on a Ryanair flight, blather your way up and down the byways of Tuscany, find yourself a desirable property and clinch the deal without a parola of Italian, think again.
Without local knowledge and professional guidance, the potential dream home may well turn out to be totally abusivo (ie, without planning permission) and destined to afford a splendid view out over a yet-to-be-built autostrada or six floor apartment building.
Having said that, however, Tuscany is a highly recommendable region, not only because of its intrinsic charms but also because of the fact that it is a region where local government tends to be rigorous in enforcing planning regulations and bye laws.
Tuscany (see panel), like many Italian regions, offers a bewildering selection of possible purchases, ranging from refurbished farm houses (casale) to village houses (cassetta) and apartments and on down to a rustico (half-finished skeleton building) or a rovina (literally a ruin, and in dire need of restoration).
The price range moves from €50,000 for small isolated properties in bad need of renovation to €8 million for a three-star hotel in Florence, if that's what you fancy.
Most foreigners coming to Tuscany, however, are looking for a farmhouse-type property, in its own grounds and with land attached. Such a property currently costs from €500,000 to €1 million, depending on size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, additional facilities such as a swimming pool, the amount of land and, of course, the location.
It should be pointed out, too, that this is probably a good moment for the buyer in the Italian real estate market since Italy's current economic recession has slowed up a market that, until recently, was registering annual price hikes of 5-15 per cent.
Advice re what and where to purchase in Tuscany clearly depends on the requirements of the buyer. Do you intend to use the house only in the summer months or live there all year round?
Do you intend it for only personal use or would you like it to "earn its keep" by renting it out during the summer? In this latter regard, it is worth underlining that a Tuscan farmhouse, in excellent condition, with five bedrooms, plenty of surrounding space, swimming pool etcetera can fetch up to €7,000 per week rent in high season.
A Tuscan farmhouse up a lovely rustic track sounds splendid but the Tuscan winter can be very wet and cold. Your rustic dirt track may well become impassable to all but a tractor, making trips to the nearest supermarket, town, school etcetera highly problematic.
On the other hand, if the house is conceived as a summer residence only, then such considerations are irrelevant.
England-based Mike Butterly, who runs TuscanyRealEstate, recommends that prospective buyers come, visit and spend time in the area where they want to buy before they make any move.
Furthermore, he argues that it is probably best to buy a refurbished farmhouse costing €450,000, rather than a similar property in need of restoration but costing maybe €200,000.
At first, the cheaper property may sound like a good deal but, unless you are willing and able to spend your days on the building site keeping an eye on the builder and his renovation work, then it may prove very difficult to both contain costs and achieve the desired end product by way of dream home.
Furthermore, in Tuscany, renovations are strictly controlled down to type of roof tile, window frames (no aluminium or plastic) and extensions (usually not allowed at all, unless there was a previous building).
When it comes to the actual purchase, it is worth knowing a number of factors peculiar to Italy. For a start, the estate agent selling the property represents both buyer and seller and his/her aim is to reach a mutually favourable deal.
For a second, there are at least three important passages in the purchase of property. First, although not obligatory, there is the proposta irrevocabile d'acquisto, a sort of preliminary intention to buy by which you can block a house, usually by handing over €2,500 or more.
Secondly, there is the contratto preliminare or compromesso, a legally binding document which involves the payment of a deposit on the property (15-30 per cent of purchase price).
Thirdly, there is the rogito or atto notarile (notary act), usually signed one to three months later and involving the payment of the balance outstanding.
A visit to the office of the notaio (notary) is not to be missed for anything. These gentlemen belong to a caste all of their own. They wear gold-laced underpants and light their cigars with €50 notes.
Check for your shirt on the way out of the notaio's office because he will have claimed 1.5 per cent or more of the purchase price for the privilege of reading, ad alto voce, the supremely incomprehensible atto notarile or purchase act.
House buying also involves purchase tax (4 per cent if you take up residency in Italy, 11-17 per cent otherwise), stamp duty (1.2 per cent) and estate agency fees (usually 4 per cent).
After that, all you have to do is insure the property and contents, pay the local rates tax (ICI), the garbage tax (tasse communale dei rifiuti), the water bill as well as electricity, gas, phone etcetera.
If you have got this far, then yours is the Tuscan world and all that's in it. Sit back, pour yourself a long, cool Pinot Grigio for a sundowner on the terrace and just wait for the first denuncia (registered complaint) from the neighbours about the noise of your dogs, guests or music, the ill-kempt nature of your bordering hedge or the way your watering system leaks into their garden.
Benvenuto in Italia.
Where to start
Most Irish buyers will start their Italian property search on the web and there is no shortage of offers. Listed below are some useful sites, all of them in English and all of them catering for the foreign buyer in Italy.
The sites listed are merely a random selection of the many to be found on the web:
www.tuscanyrealestate.co.uk
www.stiglitzandwalker.com
[ www.propertiesarounditaly.com ]
www.toscanaverde.com
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