Russian Buyers Overtake Brits to Dominate Calabria Property Market

According to Calabria property agents based in Calabria and the UK, Russian, Eastern European and Scandinavian buyers have increased in volume so much lately, that they have almost completely filled the void left by the exodus of British buyers.

According to Calabrian-Property.com it is Russian buyers in particular who have become the dominant force in the Calabrian property market in recent months.

Reports of increasing numbers of Russians buying property around the world began in mid-2008. Not that Russian buyers never bought overseas property before then, but that it when they began to become so numerous that UK overseas agents began to hire Russian translators and advertise on the Russian portals.

However, activity from Russian buyers died pretty much the same death as that of British buyers, but it seems that it was predominantly fear, rather than new-found financial constraints, that was stopping the majority of Russian's from buying. Now that fears over how bad the crash will get internationally are subsiding it seems that Russian buyers are back out there in force.

That being said, it does seem to be a different breed of Russian buyer that is currently active: during the boom years Russian's were becoming famous for buying multi-million pound mansions on the French Riviera and football clubs the size of Chelsea. Calabria on the other hand is known for its low-cost high-value properties.

Calabria is also becoming known as having a large proportion of privately owned holiday homes, within the total tourism accommodation infrastructure. It is unclear what the Russian buyers will mean in that equation.

Calabrian Property to Benefit from Changing Trends

Calabrian property is set to benefit from increasing tourism levels in 2010. According to a new survey on tourism by Eurobarometer, only 20% of over 30,000 randomly selected EU citizens are planning not to travel this year, compared to 31% last year. The survey also found that some 57% of those intending to travel will be sticking to Europe’s established tourist destinations.

Specifically the survey found that Italy was the third most popular destination with 9.2% of those who have chosen a destination planning to travel to Italy. 17% of respondents have not yet chosen a destination.

Of further benefit to Calabrian property owners, and its investment potential was the fact that the survey also found that the number of people arranging their own holidays increased again in 2009, to 58%.

In Calabria, privately let properties make up for a large proportion of tourist accommodation stocks. Needless to say the popularity of Italy as a tourist destination, coupled with the rising number of people putting together their own holiday packages, is going to generate substantial exposure and revenues for Calabrian rental properties in the coming months and years.

Calabrian Property to Benefit from Increasing Private Rentals

Savills have just released data from the largest ever survey of British overseas holiday home owners to the Daily Telegraph.

For us the most important finding is that bookings for privately rented properties increased in 2009 compared to 2008. Because 2009 was still a depressed year for international travel, this can be interpreted as proof that more people are putting together their own package holidays using the internet.

This is great news for the Calabria property market, which has huge potential as a holiday home destination. Calabria is one of the most beautiful coastal regions in the world, but it is relatively undeveloped.

Sloping upwards from the sea almost all properties have sea-views, and with Spain as a clear example of the damage over-development can do, Calabria is set to become one of the world’s top tourism spots for a peaceful break by the sea.

Because the tourism market is developing at the same time as the overseas property market, practically all the tourism accommodation inventory is/will be privately owned. This presents a great opportunity for Calabria property owners.

Want to be one of them? View Calabria property for sale

Coast Avoids Damage from Calabria Landslides – One thing that Didn’t Slide is Property Prices

By now most of you will have heard about the devastating landslides that hit Calabria and Sicily in the last few days. Anyone who had been considering buying Calabria property will be glad to hear that the new developments were mostly on the coasts, which has avoided any damage from the landslides.

One thing that didn’t slide in Calabria is property prices. Incredibly enough, despite demand having fallen since the 3rd quarter of 2008, developers and agents have held firm on prices.

This is thought to have been because, while demand dropped, there was still a constant trickle of lifestyle buyers keeping the market going.

Now, as we move into 2010, and demand for overseas property grows around the world; with agents reporting several sales per week in most tourist hotspots including parts of Spain, there is even a likelihood that Calabria property prices may start to rise before the end of the year.

Calabria Property to See Sales Surge in Coming Weeks

Around the world agents are reporting increased activity from overseas property buyers. Calabria has long been forecast to be among the first to benefit, and now an expert on the market is predicting a sales surge in the coming weeks and months.

“Calabria is a new emerging market within the established market of Italy, so it benefits from the safety of an established market, with the value for money and growth potential of an emerging market. A combination of that reality, and the fact that Italian property has proven resilient to the downturn, will cause a sales surge from today’s researching brand of buyer,” said Robert Davies, a spokesperson for Calabrian-Property.com.

Calabria property started to see new developments springing up and began rising in popularity as an overseas destination in 2006/07. It continued growing in popularity throughout 2008, at which point demand slid badly.

None the less the development’s continued to be built and there are now some fantastic opportunities to buy completed properties at off plan prices.

Calabria Property Market to Benefit from Increasing International Demand

The Italian property market is set for a 2010 recovery according to Italian property portal REPlat. The firm said that the main factor to drive this recovery was the fact that vendor realism finally began to increase in the third quarter.

“This decrease is the basis for market recovery, which we expect to take place towards the end of 2010,” says REplat president Vincenzo Vivo.

The REplat index also said that supply had decreased slightly, while demand increased, two very useful trends if a property market is to recover.

Italian property is also likely to benefit from increasing demand from overseas buyers, especially British, on the back of a recovery in UK consumer confidence triggering increased spending, and increased appetite for overseas property acquisitions.

The Calabria property market will benefit massively from this increase in demand from overseas buyers, especially because they are doing their research a lot more carefully than during the boom years.

This is because everything points to Calabria property prices seeing some very solid growth in the next few years. But more importantly than that, today's buyer is predominantly the holiday home buyer hoping to cover some of the cost by renting the property out. Calabria property is perfect for this:

A coastal region surrounded by sea on three sides, you are never very far from the beach in Calabria, as such it is increasingly popular with tourists from within Italy and around the world. There is a shortage of hotel rooms or commercial entities to house the increasing visitor numbers. This means that rental yields are almost certain to increase from the current 4-6% to 6-8% in the next 5 years.

A look at the Calabria property for sale currently tells you that the number of properties coming onto the market has been kept under control, which will ensure demand will continue to meet or outstrip demand. It will also tell you that the Calabrian property market has remained healthy, and developers have not had to cancel projects.

Reasons to Support Buying Calabria Property Sooner Rather than Later

Currently, there are two factors that are making overseas property investment in Calabria property less bright than it used to be:

1. The British Pound is currently very weak against the Euro, which means that Calabria property looks more expensive that it did in 2006.
2. British people are staying at home for their holidays, both because of the weak Pound, but also because of the recession.

However, if you look at it a different way, these are actually reasons to support buying Calabria property sooner rather than later.

Firstly: The fact that Brits are staying at home now is not a reflection on their reduced desire to go abroad, simply on their reduced ability to afford it. This means that when the UK economy recovers, which will cause a recovery in Sterling’s value also, there will be a surge in British tourism abroad. Calabria will be a favourite destination to avoid overcrowded beaches. This will be happening sooner than you might think; there are clear signs that the UK recovery is already underway. see: http://www.write-about-property.com/articles/?tag=uk+economy.

Secondly: Sterling can only go up from here, and so the fact that it is currently weak doesn’t make any difference to an off plan purchase. Off plan property is bought with stage payments, so the first one might cost you more because of a weak Pound, but as Sterling strengthens you will still benefit. Currently most Calabria property for sale is off plan.

And finally: there is currently some opportunities to buy off plan property in Calabria fairly cheaply, including apartments in Calabria for under 50,000 Euros. These will not always be off plan and will be a lot more expensive when completed.