According to figures from Gate-Away, an online real estate portal that promotes Italian properties to overseas buyers, the value of the Italian real estate in which British house-hunters have shown an interest has risen 90% in the last year.
In the first three months of this year, the average value of property about which information was requested was €324,000, up from €190,000 in the same period in 2014. The number of requests from the United Kingdom has also surged, up 87.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015.
The UK generates the highest number of requests on the website (17.6% of the total), ahead of the United States at 14.2% and France at 9.3%. The firm expects this to continue due to the favourable exchange rate that means sterling stretches a lot further in the eurozone than 12 months ago.
“The average value of the Italian properties sought by the British has grown tremendously in this first quarter, and even beyond the depreciation of the euro against the pound,” said Simone Rossi, commercial director of Gate-Away. “More and more Brits that ever are being driven by the favourable economic climate and are finding that the Italian real estate market is far from inaccessible and beginning to consider the idea of buying a house in Italy very seriously.”
The research also shows Puglia has ousted Tuscany from the top spot of most-desired destinations, followed by Piedmont, Abruzzo and Liguria at 9.3%.
