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.