Brits beguiled by ‘beautiful’ italy

Italy’s popularity as an investment destination is rising all the time…

Andrew Hamilton, sales and marketing manager for financial services provider Baydonhill, said that there had been a noticeable close in the gap between the Italian and rest of Europe's property markets.

He added that over the last two or three years the company had noticed that the number of mortgage and foreign exchange enquiries had quadrupled for Italy.

The Association of International Property Professionals' (AIPP) report for 2006 ranked Italy as fifth in popularity for foreign property investors.

Market worth for foreign property bought by British people was put by the association at about £20 million, with individual buyers spending an average of just under £100,000.

"I've noticed on the trade side that Italian agents are very much geared up for UK buyers," Mr Hamilton said.

He concluded part of its allure was due it its beauty and the fact that as a lot of areas were undeveloped and bargains were still available.