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 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.