01 January 08

Property

Property

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Italian style Castles, canals and more

CASTLE IN MONTEGGIORI, TUSCANY
Price: from €5,420,000
Details: located in the Tuscan countryside in the heart of the most artistic area in Italy, 30km from Pisa, this is a 1,000-year-old castle that comes with a 5% estimated rental income.
Contact: IMO Invest,www.imoinvest.com

REGINA RESIDENCES, LAGLIO, LAKE COMO
Price:from €186,000
Details:the banks of the famous lake, this development is offering 36 one- and two-bedroom apartments on the waterfront.
Contact:Pure International,www.pureintl.com

SAN MARCO, VENICE
Price: from €5,000,000
Details: with views of the Grand Canal and close to the world-famous San Marco Square, this four-bedroomwaterfront apartment is in a Venetian palace.
Contact: Precious Villas, www.preciousvillas.com

VILLA GUINIGI, LUCCA
Price: from €320,000
Details: a 16th-century villa converted into luxury serviced apartments. Indoor/outdoor pools, restaurant, spa with gym and two tennis courts.
Details: Knight Frank, www.knightfrank.com

IRSINA & NACOSTI, SOUTHERN ITALY
Price: from €30,000
Details: a small development company in Southern Italy offering renovated old properties in medieval, mountain-top villages, which come with a full furniture package included.
Contact: Iberian Homes Worldwide,www.iberianhomesworldwide.com

Italy: where’s hot & where’s not
Venice is the hot spot at the moment, as it has only two tourist seasons — high and very high. A two-room apartment in a good central location will rent for about €700—€800 a week. Lombardy is a good investment, as prices can be reasonable and properties are popular with the locals. Lake Como and Lake Garda are the main attractions, but in undiscovered areas such as Lake Iseo, prices are 10—15% lower. While properties in Florence and the cities may still return a good rental income, overall prices in Tuscany have been sluggish.

Playing host in Italy
FROM CABIN CREW TO PR GURU

The cliché goes that the apple never falls far from the tree, and in the case of Annette Bontke that’s certainly been true. Born in the Canary Islands, Annette has travelled extensively around the world. At 20 years old she joined Virgin Atlantic as cabin crew. Later, after graduating from university in Scotland, she worked in Japan teaching English.

Annette inherited the travel bug from her mother, who was born in Germany and first moved to Spain, then to the UK while Annette was working in PR in London. In 2003 Annette decided that she was tired of the London rat race and longed for a Mediterranean-paced lifestyle more akin to her earlier days growing up in the sun.

She had never been to Italy so, being the explorer, decided to see it for herself and fell in love with the properties in Central Italy. She bought a house in Comignano, about two hours from Florence, in November 2003. It cost just under €100,000, and needed only minor renovation work to update the 1970s décor and modernise the facilities. Still Annette decided to use the time to expand her global knowledge and took an eight-month trek of South America before eventually moving into her new house in 2005.