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

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.

Calabria Property Market to Benefit from Buyers Returning to Italy

Italy has been named as one of the five most popular countries with the Brits currently buying overseas property.

This is according to new data from UK broker of overseas mortgages Conti.com, which showed that the current overseas property buyers are clearly favouring the established market over any emerging market.

This has been put down to people's risk aversion after so many lost their money when the downturn struck, but you can't ignore the fact that most of the people currently buying overseas property tend to be equity rich lifestyle buyers with substantial down payments.

Lifestyle buyers have always favoured the established markets in short-haul Europe because it is more readily and affordably accessible to make full use of for all the family, i.e. you can book a cheap flight and head over to southern Italy for a long-weekend.

This just wouldn't be practical for long-haul destinations, neither in terms of the price of the flights, and the time spent actually enjoying yourself, not to mention jet-lag.

Thus, the fact that British lifestyle buyers are back out there and buying overseas property is always going to be good news for the Italian property market and those throughout Europe. Calabria, the hot new emerging market will benefit from this.

This is because it offers the cheapest property in Italy -- if not all the established markets -- with beach-front apartments for sale in Calabria being for well under £100k. But the main reason is: the properties that were being sold off plan when Calabria became popular in 2007 are now being sold as key-ready.

Calabria Property Seeing Increased Activity as Brits Start Buying Again

Things are really looking up for the overseas property industry at the moment, with reports of increased activity throughout Europe, on the back of Sterling's improving exchange rate against the Euro (Brits and Irish are the biggest buyers of overseas property.

Among the biggest benefactors of this increasing activity is the Calabria property market. Calabria property began seeing increased interest from overseas property buyers and investors in the second half of 2007 and into the middle of 2008. However its growth potential was severely stunted by the onset of the international economic misery.

None the less Calabria property developments continued to be built, and you can now get some real bargains on almost completed properties at off plan prices.

What's more all the same draws are still in place; Calabria property is still cheap, it is still underdeveloped and most likely to stay that way, and it is still set to see massive growth in tourism which will grow rental yields from their current 4-6% to 6-8% over the next 5 years from 2010 onwards.

Tam Stanley of Calabrian-Property.com is not surprised to see Calabria property picking back up where it left off now that the Brits are out there and buying again.

"Calabria offers the safety and stability of being in the established market of Italy, with the low property prices and growth potential you'd expect to find only in the more-risky emerging markets, making it a truly unique investment property. With all it has going for it we always knew that Calabria would be among the first to bounce back," he said.

Calabrian-property.com is a good indicator of the rising interest in Calabrian property; the site has climbed rapidly through the Alexa rankings, and is now ranked the 700,000 most visited site in the world -- a very respectable position for an overseas property agency.