Hi there

With very little thought into the process/costs we are considering buying a property perhaps in Puglia.

I am sure reading responses in other forums here people will warn me of a. making decisions after posting on forums or realising costs etc however its early days and I am just making enquiries in a general kind of way. People said the same when I thought of moving to London, Asia and Australia but hey here I am and very happy

We currently live in Australia but are welsh.

We were considering buying a total reno project costing around 80000Euro including charges in Ceglie Messapica - any thoughts on the location? Some retired friends of ours live there and would help with the purchase perhaps but we are a youngish family with 3 children. Anyone with children living in this area?

Then leaving it empty for 2 or 3 years - vaguely thinking about problems with garden upkeep - here in Australia unattended properties tend to grow noxious weeds and need to be cleared regularly - any thoughts on this? Are there any specifically Italian rules where you can lose property if someone lives on the land for so long like the older rules in the UK?

I am thinking of travelling over in December to perhaps try find somewhere. As I say, the amount of research gone into this is minimal so if anyone has anything that could help start me off that would be great.

I run a business here in Australia that would continue. Its primarily online and I would be keeping a house here and renting it out long term. My husband would likely work in the UK some of the year.

thanks so much
Vivienne

Hi, and welcome to BE. Most of our regulars are off on the annual UK fix so replies might be slow in coming.

I don't see why you buying a property in Puglia isn't feasible. Not sure about leaving it empty 2/3 yrs. Never mind the weeds. It's the bugs that scare me! Can't tell you anything about the area, but there are a lot of posters on here in that area. The most I can do is offer to house sit occasionally. And we also have a very helpful estate agent. Though not in Puglia, he is usually willing to offer advice about legalities and costs etc.

You must have a C R A Z Y accent!

We love living in Puglia, we are in San Vito dei Normanni not far from Ceglie, there are a few expats in the area (Ceglie/Ostuni/S Vito/Carovigno etc) and it is really up to you how much or how little you want to get involved in the expat scene.

There are lots of rennovation properties for that kind of budget (including legal fees) however you than have to take into account the actual cost of rennovating, that could easily double your budget and more besides, in addition before you commit to a purchase in a contrada (rural/semi rural area) you really need to find out what the planning regulation are for that aprticular area, in San Vito for instance you are only allowed to build as living accommodation 1% of the size of the land the building is on, other comuni will have different regulations. One word of caution if internet is a must I wouldn't even consider a property where there is no telephone already available (as in telephone pole already on the property), forget any reassurance that it is not a problem getting one, it took me 1 year (and that was very fast, with constant daily arguments with Telecom Italia, others have waited 2/3years) to get a line installed my new neighbour about 100mts from us have been told no chance of getting one. We were also lucky that the engineer that came around to do the intial survery gave the go ahead, however other engineers have told us that if they had done the initial survey they would have rejected the request for adsl as too far from the exchange (5kms)

Personally I wouldn't go to the expense of rennovating a property to leave it empty for 2/3 years regardless where the property is anywhere in the world. Probably worth getting rennovation done a few months before you actually move to the area.

We don't have children but know of families that have moved here with children and not heard of anything really negative, the families we know of the children have gone through the state school system, there is an International school in Brindisi (mainly used by Boeing employees).

I am sure there are other on here living in Puglia that can give you info on their experience of living in this region

Hi there - nice to meet you all!

I have a very welsh accent actually so am sure that as many Australians don't understand me as italians wouldnt!

The timeline was to wait before renovating. So buy something this year. Leave it empty. In 18 months - 2 years watch lots of italian films and try to learn italian - save a good budget to cover renovations (which I kind of thought may cost perhaps up to 100,000E), my husband go spend 6 months there and start to renovate while I base in the UK. Then us all live there for perhaps 3 years before returning to Australia (hopefully bilingual) - the children would then be starting secondary school. So aim to be back here for the oldest to go into that first year. perhaps..... If I could get the whole budget under 200k that would be achievable but I know how things blow out. The cheaper the better though obviously as it would be an unoccupied second home for the first couple of years and since it wont be our forever home, its can be basic for that time - but by basic I mean habitable in the uk sense as the kids are young.

I found lots of perfect houses in Abruzzo - couldnt believe the prices but of course 3 hours later found out about the earthquake.

Thank you for the telephone/internet comment, that is vital to me.

Also if anyone does know any other nice places - we are not fixed on location but would like to be within 40 mins of the sea. We like rural and also smaller towns but wouldnt really be happy in a city.

I was looking at sicily too but although the websites all minimise mafia issues, i am not sure if there are things there to concern about?

Viv

Oh and I think I too would be wanting state school for the children rather than an international school. Young children adapt really well I think -my youngest would be going into year 1, one into year 2 and one into year 3 so they will be fine I am sure.

i wouldn't worry about the earthquake in abruzzo as it is a very large area and the effects of the earthquake were felt in the region around aquila. on the other side where i live i.e. north east there were no problems at all especially around teramo and towards pescara. there is information which gives the earthquake risk scale of each region.

Some houses I saw were really good value but I guess I was worried about structural effects of that level of seismic event.

There were two types of houses that I saw - one in the old parts of town needing total refurbishment and the others were this government scheme - http://www.buying-property-in-italy....ing=PA333-Casa del Cavaluccio Marin

Does anyone know about this sort of thing? I was gravitating towards puglia but these houses look really budget and kind of central and perhaps worth a look

Hi
I live near that place. I can give a lot of information about the site and all services around,
and...if you'll need a good gardener...read my post in the introduction
See you here!!

Giuseppe

It can happen in Italy too. I think it's like the (old?) British rule that said that if they stayed there for 20 years without you saying anything you could lose the property. But even where you haven't lost the property the courts can be very slow in actually getting the people off your land (years go by).

I don't know any details about this.

I live in Puglia although further south, better off rent if you are coming for a few years, I looked around that area and note the properties I looked at are still all for sale, three years later, do up a house and sell it is not that easy, if you really want to buy better buy somewhere ready to move in better value I am sure, plus the sheer agro and paper work involved in everything here is enormous, in an ideal world it would be best to live in a place as test first, one village near me I am called by my first name and its smiley people all the way, another village they don't like foreigners, everyone says the same that is not Italiano, they must be a different gene pool there, I read somewhere people want to live up a mountain or by the sea, I chose the sea, if you like living among millions of olive trees and never see a anyone move out in the sticks, re doing up a house I am at least forth generation builder and I don't think getting work done here is that cheap, People tell me what they pay, costs will go up as they checking all the building work to see if the workers are paying tax, that's where I live anyway, when I look back at how difficult it was with paperwork not sure I would recommend, allow a big lump of money for the unexpected!

Of course the following are just few suggestions to be taken with a grain of salt...
All of Central and South of Italy, a part some parts in the North and along the coast, are subject to seismic action ( see: http://zonesismiche.mi.ingv.it/mappa...04/italia.html), but you shouldn't worry you too much, as there are ways to make buildings quite sound.
If you want to start with good material (I presume you are looking for a rustico or an old building), look for a house which has a reinforced concrete ring beam on the top of the walls, and doesn't have too big openings that are vertically offset between the floors. This is a good start as you will not have to make too many changes. If these are not available there is still scope for making modifications, but will cost more. I wouldn't give up straight away, as in my modest theory I look at location and land too. I get so much more pleasure from enjoying the green than living indoor. Also in old buildings a good sign is the edge of the corners, better if these are straight.
In hilly/mountain areas look for sings of landslides. These are in a way as dangerous as earthquakes. There is a lot of rain now in areas which where dry.

I'd also look in Le Marche, an upcoming and nice region.
Regards
H&G

Clint is that the same for all Italy? or depends of what zone you live? as I really need internet for my job

We live in the Teramo region of Abruzzo and because it's so hilly we found it impossible to get internet. After 9 months of desperation we bought a satellite dish from a UK company and now have a fast reliable connection )))

I don't know if in other areas things are different, I would imagine the distance from exchange to a property would be a standard one as far as adsl is concerned. If internet is a must as it is for us than personally from experience I wouldn't touch a property that didn't already have it. We were just very lucky to get it. I went as far as contacting AGCOM