In early October we took a stand at the A Place in the Sun show in Birmingham – the first time I had ever actively promoted our property search/project management service. Up until now most clients have either come via word of mouth, or because they were existing holiday clients.  It was slightly daunting jumping in at the deep end but the fair turned out to be  busy, informative and thoroughly enjoyable.

It was encouraging to see so much interest in Puglia, and there were definite trends: by far the majority of visitors had a modest budget (under 150,000€)  and people mostly wanted properties that were either in a small town, with an outdoors space, or on the outskirts of a town or village. Even those looking for a rural property wanted basic services within walking distance. Everyone wanted to be close to the sea, but in Puglia that bit is easy!

As soon as I got back to Puglia the search started in earnest, and I found some excellent properties which ticked all the boxes see pictures below and  article here for a small selection

If you are potentially interested in property in Puglia watch this space (the easiest way is to follow this blog using the button ). From now on I will add an average of an article a week on all aspects of the property market here on this blog. Alternatively feel free to contact us by email: caroline@personalpuglia.com and/or sign up for our monthly newsletter.

You can also visit our face book page http://www.facebook.com/perfectpuglia where I post different properties each week

View from the terrace of our property of the week, last week see  on.fb.me/1tsAaDj for further details

On the whole I massively prefer to meet people at the stage where they are starting to look for a property, though, of course, we can get involved at any stage of the process. Our property search service is free of charge (as estate agencies pay us the 3% normally paid to them by the purchaser). We definitely have some ‘favourite’ estate agencies (those who do their due diligence properly, don’t inflate prices for ’foreigners’ and don’t make empty assurances about planning permission for pools etc) but we can work with any estate agency. We can suggest properties that have  been vetted but are also happy to check out any properties that you may find on line. If it turns out that the agency has not done the due diligence we can get this done, for a small fee ,if you want us to. Similarly if the property is  over priced we will tell you, and can even go and view the property and report back.

Some recent experiences show fairly clearly the potential pitfalls with local agencies. I met two people at the show who had come out to Puglia specifically to look for properties. In one case the local agent made an appointment with them, which was then cancelled at the nth hour, leaving them to go home without any viewings. In the second case all the properties they liked, either online., or in estate agents windows were unavailable for viewing at short notice. They were amazed that some agencies never even answered the phone and frustrated by the fact that often no prices are given on agency websites or online. None of this is unusual –I recently found two very interesting properties which I had to reluctantly give up on as the agencies almost never answered the phone and were clearly going to be a nightmare to deal with going forward.

I was also contacted by somebody who was about to make an offer on a property , had seen this article about my last project, and wanted to enlist my help. We discussed, the likelihood of planning permission for a pool being granted for this particular property.  As this  varies dramatically from area to area I  asked a local engineer   to check  with the relevant council. He reported back that there was no problem getting permission for a pool at this address, but that, more seriously, it appeared that the property had been substantially extended without planning permission. There are specific, unusual, circumstances where this is not an insurmountable problem, and, in most cases, this fact would have come to light before the purchase completed, but the estate agent should have definitely informed the purchaser before they even viewed the property.

Obviously there are also some excellent agencies though and, through some of them ,I have found ome really good buys in the last month… Here are some pictures of our favourites

Town/seaside property of the month under 200.000 euros. Small house with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and two sea view terraces 160,000 see on.fb.me/1tsAaDj

Town/seaside bargain of the month: Any of the properties shown here

Rural bargain property of the month:  Well restored 2/3 bedroom house with land, planning permission for pool and extension, 150,000 euro  – see here for more details

Rural property of the month under 300,000 (see below, bottom row of pictures): A villa set in olive groves, 5 minutes from the sea, with sea views from the roof terrace. Total area 120 sqm, could be extended by 20% if desired, 3/4 bedrooms but currently only one bathroom. 250,000 euros. Email us for further details.

Luxury rural property of the month (see photos above): Spectacular mid 19th century villa set in extensive gardens 2km outside a charming small town, close to the coast. Main house consist of 10 rooms,over 300 sqm, with an outbuilding (currently an artist’s studio) of 100 sqm. Rooms have original floors,fireplaces and painted ceilings,and the garden extends over 7000 sqm. 890,000 euro

For further details of any of the properties on this blog, or to talk about any of our services email caroline@personalpuglia.com or phone 0039 3337911030.