Living in a non-conventional home in Italy? Yes you can!

The trend has been up for some time now. The appeal of living in a particular property of historical interest is attracting ever more people who want to feel the thrill of owning such a place and, to be frank, there's not a better place than Italy to find this type of home. According to a late study of the Italian Land Registry Office, the buildings marked for non residential use, in which are included buildings of worship, fortresses, train stations, lighthouses, even bridges and level crossing houses, are more than sixty thousands. On top of these we have to add ancient palaces, castles, mills, watchtowers, etc. so it is quite clear that Italy is plenty of non-conventional homes throughout its territory, this sums up a load of charm to the Italian property market.

At the beginning the trend was to convert these places into businesses such as hotels, restaurants, theatres, exhibition centres and so on, but now ever more people decide to buy them just for private use and live in enchanted by their beauty. Buying such a property though, requires a stronger effort compared to, let's say, standard properties. Not only money-wise but also as a matter of passion. You need to be in love with the history and the features the building represents and make sure to keep all the original character.

Left aside the romantic part and being more practical, how much money do these properties cost?

Well, the price range can be as wide as the figures in mathematics can be. With Italy so rich of history in each of its beautiful corners, there are plenty of this type of homes for any type of pockets. It can go from a few tens of thousands of Euros for a small private chapel to restore to millions and millions for a completely restored castle.

But quite often the buying price is the least expense, especially if you buy a building in need of restoration. When you start restoring such a property is easy to end up spending much more than expected. It is essential to learn every little detail you need to know about the property and foresee all the aspects of the renovation project.

One of the main steps, which is strongly advised, is to make a deep search to check if the property is listed with the Belle Arti, a branch of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities which rules all the buildings of historical interest, and see if there is any limitation or constraint for all or a part of the property.

If that's the case then, any type of work must be agreed with their office, following strict rules on what you can and cannot do with your property, resulting in an even more expensive restoration. This might seem (and sometime it is) a big obstacle and a further add-on above the already big mountain that is the Italian bureaucracy, but it could also provide a good deal of advantages.

The first one is that you can use Belle Arti as a “free” expert consultancy service, making sure the restoration works are done properly and that none of the historical features, which make that property so special, get ruined ending up losing most of its historical value; plus a property listed with Belle Arti, according to the building's level of historical importance, can get a part of the restoration costs financed. 

Another advantage is that in case the property is used as a second home, when property tax needs to be paid (for prime homes no property taxes are no longer due), the tax is calculated on the lowest category considered by the municipality in which the property is based; for example if you buy a 55 bedroom castle (which is listed with Belle Arti) and the lowest category of that municipality is a tool hut, you pay property taxes as if you had bought a tool hut!

For these reasons many people who have bought a building of historical interest which is not listed with Belle Arti, ask this office to make a site investigation to consider a possible inclusion.

But let's have a look what's out there. Going through Gate-away.com's properties there are many non conventional homes, going from a completely restored XVII Century church converted into a luxury home in Umbria to an apartment that needs to be completed in a XIV Century tower in Abruzzo, an ancient mill restored and converted into a wonderful home with internal and heated pool in the basement or a charming apartment in a watchtower. If you feel that after a whole life of hard work and savings you deserve much more you can consider this castle near Florence and you get, along with the castle itself and all the noble furniture, an heliport, 2 houses (900 sq. m. and 200 sq. m.), 2 pools and, of course, a church! However, if you feel that you still deserve to live in a castle, but can't be bothered with all the other bonuses (which you would need to take care of) you can consider a restored apartment set inside a medieval castle. There's plenty of this kind of solutions and many at a definitely affordable price, here there's a short selection, 2 in Umbria (http://www.gate-away.com/13865/umbria_todi.jsp) and (http://www.gate-away.com/13193/umbria_fabro.jsp) and one in Piedmont (http://www.gate-away.com/10699/piedmont_cocconato.jsp), but many more can be found on Gate-away.com.

Talking about non-conventional homes, we can't leave behind a quite popular but still particular building which is typical of an area of the Puglia region: Trulli! The trullo (singular trullo, plural trulli) is a cone-shaped home which was formerly used by farmers and shepherds and that now makes many people fall in love with. There's plenty of choice of trulli, from beautifully restored to ones needing a complete restoration.

Italy's beautiful and rich past has left us a huge amount of gorgeous buildings, many of which are true jewels. Buying and restoring one of these properties not only is a great satisfaction and a delight for the owner's eyes, but it also guarantee a longer life to the property, giving the possibility to be enjoyed by the future generations.


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