According to Marina Rizzotto from PalazzoEstate, who is responsible for sales as well as the home staging service to help sell your home, “the market on Lake Como is more buoyant and demand is higher, but availability is now lower, while there is more choice on Lake Maggiore”. A lake view is always the number one priority, but Marina Rizzotto’s clients, most of whom are overseas investors, particularly from Germany, tend to prefer new properties in move-in condition rather than a renovation project, both historic villas as well as modern properties. “The most sought-after locations? Stresa and Lesa, but also the Laveno-Mombello shore”, the agent claims. To illustrate how the Lake Maggiore property market is growing, Rizzotto gives us an example: “In 2014, we sold an almost 400-square metre detached villa in Gignese, overlooking the lake above Stresa, for €2.4 million. Following its complete renovation, including adding a lift and swimming pool, the owner is now selling it for €3.5 million”. Yet Lake Maggiore is much more than its most popular shore comprising the sought-after locations of Stresa and Verbania, as its more modest shore is also full of property investment opportunities. This distinction is stressed by Loredana Costantino, associated with the Italian Federation of Professional Estate Agents (FIAIP): “Luino, for example, which attracts Germans and cross-border workers, people who live in Italy and work in Switzerland, is booming: a new or renovated residential property boasting panoramic views would cost at least €3,300 per square metre today, compared to €2,000-€2,200 five years ago. Here there are deals to be made. With short-term rent increasing by 40% this year alone in Luino and the surrounding area, people are buying apartments as a source of income”. Costantino also advises investing in other more “modest” and up-and-coming areas such as Brezzo, Porto Valtravaglia, Travedona Monate and Monvalle, which enjoy more sun than their counterparts on the more popular shore. Nathan Coltof, a partner of Leisure Properties, an estate agent that specialises in the mid-high end second home market - from apartments to villas - aimed predominantly at the Swiss and northern Europeans, also agrees that prices are currently on the up and now is the time to invest: “Six years ago, we sold a 350-square metre villa to a client for €1.2 million. After complete refurbishment, it is now back on the market for €1.9 million”. Francesca Marino, who runs her own estate agents, advises Ville&Casali readers to invest in Arona: “There are many villas ripe for renovation to buy at a good price in the historic heart of this beautiful town, which overlooks the lake and is full of life from morning till night. Property prices are rising and it benefits from good train and bus links: a 130-square metre apartment in the centre that cost €170,000 10 years ago has just been sold for €350,000 following minimal structural changes”.
Published on Ville&Casali May 2023
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