A growing number of international buyers looking for their ideal second home overseas are only interested in Italy compared to the other Mediterranean countries, such as France, Spain, Greece, etc.
This is what has emerged in the 2022 Gate-away.com research on among 40,000 non-Italian buyers using the portal.
Let’s see why and where.
Covid-19 pandemic effect and the need for a better quality of life
Covid-19 pandemic gave a boost to the desire of moving and improving the quality of life. This made Italy an ideal destination for holidays, business trips, investments or definitive moves for retirement or a new beginning.
As a matter of fact according to a survey that Gate-away.com has recently conducted among about 40,000 subscribers to its Newsletter coming from all over the world, in 70% of cases the main reason for which they are interested in buying in the country is to improve their quality of life.
Also, analysing Gate-away.com performances, requests for Italian homes from all over the world increased by 126.65% in 2022 compared to 2019, namely just before the world has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Interest in Italy’s property market from overseas investors
In 2022 the majority of international buyers looking for a second home in Italy through Gate-away.com, which gathers about 40,000 properties for sale throughout the whole country, are Americans with 27.62% of all inquiries. This is also due to the dollar which gained value against the Euro during 2022.
They are followed by Germans (14.46%) and British people (8.66%).
What international would-be buyers in Italy are looking for
The majority of requests are for detached houses (75,6%) over apartments, even if the requests for apartments are slightly increasing (+3.14%).
About 67% of the enquiries are for habitable or completely restored houses. A good 20% is related to partially restored or to be completely restored properties. The rest (11%) is for new houses.
Features like pool and land are not the most sought-after – but always appreciated if present – but houses with gardens are in great demand (about 60%).
How much they would spend
In 2022 Gate-away.com reports an increase in the investment propensity of international buyers in the luxury property market in Italy: properties in the high bracket which are worth from 500,000 to over 1 Million euros represent about 20% of the requests and this has increased compared to the same period in 2021. The majority of the requests are for properties worth up to 250,000 euros (60%).
Also the property average value for the requested properties is increasing and is now € 539,000.
Where they are searching
The South of Italy registered a boom in requests. Tuscany is still the ‘queen’ amongst the Italian regions with 19,03% of all inquiries with Fivizzano and Lucca in the top 3 of the most requested Italian towns, respectively in second and third place. It is followed by Lombardy (12%). Liguria is in third position (8,45%) and Puglia (7,66%) in fourth position with Ostuni as the most sought-after town of Italy.
A special mention goes also to the islands of Sicily in 6th position and Sardinia in 9th position that are the regions which grew the most compared to 2021 in this top 10 with +12.55% and +27.52% respectively.
As a matter of fact, the south of Italy is attracting more interested from overseas with their typical properties like the dammuso (+30%) and baglio (+68%) in Sicily, and the lamia (+13%) and masseria (+7%) in Puglia, which registered a boom in requests.
Pachino in Sicily is the town who grew the most in 2022 compared to 2021 with +881%. It is followed by Calasetta and Badesi in Sardinia with +772% and +520% respectively.
