Introduction
When buying a property in Italy everybody seems to want an old farmhouse to restore. They seem cheap and 'Hey, we can fix that small leak in the roof!'.
Buying an old farmhouse of 200m² for say €200,000 that needs
fully restoring will add another €220,000 to the price*. What you end up with is a place that is to your own liking but not the cheap place in the sun that you expected. Structural building work, electrical and plumbing systems must be installed by a qualified technician. You can do some of the work yourself but this should be done by prior agreement with the
geometra and the builder. It is probably a good idea to limit yourself to manual labour such as mixing concrete and watch and learn from the experts. Techniques can be very different here in Italy.
As a rough guide you need to allow between 850 euros per square metre for a modest restoration and up to 1,200 euros per square metre for a complete restoration or rebuild using the materials salvaged from the demolished house. However, you can make a lot of money this way, as the example above could be worth €500,000 or more when finished.
Dealing with Italian builders, whose concept of tomorrow is pretty vague, will test the patience of a saint, and plumbers can be the worst in our experience as emergencies take priority over your new bathroom!
However,
we have built up an excellent team to handle the restoration and management of your property including English/Italian architects, and our project managers
Helen Wood for the north of Umbria and
Lois Ferguson for the south of Umbria, who can manage a restoration from start to finish. Our architects are very qualified and experienced with a passion for restoring properties in the correct way and re-using old materials whenever possible. They also try to keep the cost as low as possible for you. They work with a hand-picked group of
geometra (surveyors).
If you need to know the cost of restoring a particular property one of our geometra can give you a general report on the condition of a property together with an estimate of maximum and minimum cost of restoration, depending on the level of restoration you require. For example it will obviously cost more if you want the original tiles taken up, repaired, cleaned, re-laid and treated than if you replace with new tiles. A report (in English) like this will cost you €120 and is a very worthwhile investment.
Any structural work needs permission from the Comune. Any permission must be submitted by a geometra and all structural work must include seismic strengthening which all adds to the cost. Even the colour you paint the outside of your house must be approved by the authorities and only certain colours can be used. If necessary we can organise a Full Structural Survey prior to submitting your plans to the Comune. The cost of permission is quite high (from €450 upwards depending on the area) but it is the same for any level of work. It is therefore a good idea to get the permission for all the work submitted at the same time. The project must be started within a year and finished within three years. As well as all the normal things like safety fencing, etc. you must display a board stating the project number, who is doing the work, who is responsible for safety, when it will be completed by and even who owns the property. This satisfies the nosey neighbours too!
Remember also that it is likely to take quite some time to get through all the plans, permission and restoration of a property and all that time you will not be earning any income for holiday lets. Allow about one month for the plans to be drawn up and a further three months for the permission to be obtained. The full restoration of a standard farmhouse can take up to a year. During this time you will not be able to use it yourself either, of course. You may feel that it is a better idea to buy a property that has already been restored and be able to let it immediately. But that's the easy way out, and hands up who wants that!
You can sometimes live in the property and do it up yourself, as we did. Living in a property while restoring it is personally not something I will ever do again. Eating dust, no shower, using a Porta Potti and cooking in our camper every night for weeks was a severe drain on anyone’s resolve. Then we needed a new roof, to renew rotten beams the floors of several rooms had to be completely replaced! A good idea is to renovate an annexe, if there is one, and move into that to oversee the restoration of the main house. Then move into the house and let the annexe as holiday accommodation.
Having said all that it is hard to imagine a better place to live than Umbria; the art, history and beautiful countryside completely captivate you. Add to that a wonderful climate, world famous food, great wines, coffee and ice-cream together with the kindest, friendliest people imaginable and you’re hooked, as we are. The pains of moving here, restoring a house, learning the language and dealing with the bureaucracy rapidly fade away as you sit in the sun sipping wine at less than €1 a litre or, better still, free from your own vineyard!
* This figure was amended in April 2006 from 200,000 in the light of a new edition of the book of charges issued to geometras. The book is issued by the local comune (council) and lists the prices per square metre or linear metre for all the works involved in building work, like plastering, tiling, etc. From this a geometra draws up a computo metrico (schedule of work) and the whole project is costed. Quotations are then obtained from the builders and prices compared with those calculated.