Last spring a new agency opened in Nardò, where I live, and where there has been a property boom. I was amazed when I went through their listings. All relatively inexpensive for the town and every single one looked like it had issues.

First job for the week was to talk to some new clients who I am helping to find a house. Once I worked out what their parameters were, I invited them to send me any properties they had found that they liked the look of and then drew up a selection of properties I thought they would like. Of the ones they sent me I had to tell them that one would have blown their budget in the restoration stages, and one was in too much of a one horse town for them. Of the ones I sent them (everything in the area which met their criteria) they liked most of them and, after another call we arrived at a short list of nine properties which they were really excited by. I fully expect that some of these will have already been sold (estate agents here are very bad at taking things down) but will start ringing agencies later this week to make appointments for when they come on a viewing trip in November. I will write a separate piece about their trip and the properties we viewed later on but, essentially, we will see all of them and take a builder and an engineer on any second viewings so that they already know the cost of restoration before making an offer. Again, before the offer I will do all of the due diligence about planning issues.

One of the properties on the short list is here in Nardò and I have already seen it. It has huge potential but, again, planning issues. The owners had built over an internal courtyard, adding a bathroom, corridor and laundry room with no permissions. This is an increase in volume, which can’t be pardoned, and these rooms need to be demolished. Since these rooms are not necessary and take away light from the surrounding rooms the property would be vastly improved by the demolition, and it is priced very low for Nardò. There is also an illegal mezzanine in one room, which could possibly be pardoned but which ruins an otherwise beautiful star vaulted room so this would go as well. This is an example of a really interesting property with ‘abusi’ which are not really a deal breaker. Starting a complete restoration with a demolition is not a problem and the property would cost at least twice as much if this issue wasn’t present.

I was going to Galatina to have another walk around a property I am about to restore as an investment project for multiple owners and investors (fractional ownership). I am in love with the property which will be called Palazzotto Toma and can’t wait to get started. It has beautiful cementine floors, vaulted ceilings and will have four bedrooms, reception rooms, an amazing kitchen, a lift and a pool and outdoors kitchen on the roof terrace – shares will start at 19,000 and early birds will get at least a 30% return if/when they sell their shares – details to follow (or email me for more information. While I was there the agent showed me another extraordinary property which the owner doesn’t want published online and which could work well for my new clients. I sent them a video and photos and it is now on our shortlist.

During the week I did a webinar on fractional ownership and one on buying in Puglia. See the fractional video here and the audio from the buying a property seminar here

I also touched base with two other clients. For one of them I have provided consultancy since they first found their property, visiting it before they made an offer, doing due diligence and then finding them an engineer to oversee the work. I then visited with the engineer, discussed the work to be done and went through all the quotes when they got them. We are in touch periodically whenever they have questions and concerns, advising about suppliers and helping them get work back on track when things have slowed down. This was just a quick catch up.

The owners’ geometra pointed out that he had submitted a Cila a few years ago showing the 1938 plans but declaring that all modifications had taken place between 1938 and 1942 (the cut off date after which, for properties in the historic centre of towns planning permission was required). This is a very common claim and almost certainly untrue – unlikely that there was a building boom in Puglia during a world war! Either way this didn’t reassure me as, for a Cila, you just inform the council what you are doing and get on with the work. Had it been a SCIA (where the council has 30 days to raise an objection) this may have been enough but I wouldn’t be confident – the council could have passed the first SCIA and objected to a new one.

I advised Rose that she should only make an offer if she could accept that she would probably have to demolish those rooms, then I got quotes for the demolition and we took this off the asking price   The offer was accepted. A lot of people ask me what happens if they buy somewhere with planning issues. First of all the buyer becomes responsible for the ‘abusi’ and will not get permission to carry out any other work without fixing the historic errors and paying a fine. If the errors can’t be fixed they could be made to return the building to its original state. Even if no future work is planned the property could not be rented out even occasionally as a holiday let as all rental properties now need to be registered at the local council. Any future sale would also be problematic.

The call this week was to discuss the engineers structural report and the quotes for the work other than the demolition which I had obtained. Rose had wanted a written structural report, for which the engineer charged her 500 euros plus IVA. I said it wasn’t needed, and in fact it confirmed everything I had already seen and the engineer had corroborated on our walk round, but it provided the reassurance Rose needed. We also talked about the date for completion which will be the 28^th of October. I have liaised with the notary and will be there the day of the sale acting as power of attorney (even though Rose will be there) to avoid having to have the deed translated into English and read out in both languages – an expensive and time-consuming procedure.

I also had introductory calls and exchanged emails with a handful of other prospective new clients, as well as sending out additional resources to people who had attended my free webinars. and passwords to modules for my restoration course/paid content. I had a couple of emails and messages from people wanting to have a coffee when they were in the area on an exploratory property/area search trip. Can I just say for the record that I am always happy to have a free introductory call with people and I do regular free webinars but that, during the day I am usually extremely busy and don’t have time to stop what I am doing and meet complete strangers, who I have never spoken to, for a coffee. A drink after work is already more appealing but I would still prefer to speak to people first and work out how/if I can help them. You can book an initial free consultation here

I also spent time catching up with the owner of Il Cortile Antico, where we have completed the first property (see before and afters here) and are currently trying to resolve the planning issues on the second, which I will write about later. So the week ended as it began – all in the planning as the title says!