ITALY, Tuscany is still the Italian dream location

While the villa is an Italian invention that goes back to Antiquity, it was the Tuscans who made it popular again at the end of the Middle Ages.

At the start of the 21st century, Tuscan villas are still a source of attraction, nestling agelessly in valleys and hills amid vineyards and olive groves. “Since supply is basically made up of old restored properties, it is by definition limited,” explains Paolo de Chicca, owner of an agency in Livorno. Hence the explosion of prices between 2000 and 2003.

The budget required is still 20% higher than in next-door Umbria which has also grown in popularity.

These elitist prices are mainly due to foreign demand from Northern Europeans, Americans, and also the French. For thirty years, Chianti, the region between Florence and Sienna, has won the punters’ palm. “The average price per sq. m. for a property in a preserved area runs from €4,000 to 5,000 a sq. m.,” says Giorgio Piccini at Piccini & Partners in Florence.

For example, “a 400 sq. m. villa with two hectares of land will swing between €1 and 1.5 million,” reckons Paolo del Chicca, “with peaks of two million for a country location not too far from the sea.” In Marina di Massa, the “Saint-Tropez of the Tuscan Riviera”, says Pina Taurner at Bella Toscana, prices range from €500,00 to 1 million for properties of 80 to 130 sq. m. with a balcony or garden.

Town apartments negotiate at around €300,000. Think in terms of an average of €5,000 per sq. m. for a pied-à-terre in historical town centres such as Sienna and Lucca and €6,000 if you want to enjoy being near the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio.

ITALY, Tuscany is still the Italian dream location, Luxury real estate in the world

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