Country profile and map

Medieval towns, Renaissance cities, a Mediterranean climate and some of the best food, wine and fashion in the world – Italy has it all. But despite the obvious benefits Italy is viewed by many Brits as too exclusive, expensive and inaccessible for a holiday home – which is not helped by Tuscany's reputation for royalty and astronomic prices.

Areas such as Apulia, Umbria, Calabria and Perugia are now on the property map in a way that would have been unimaginable ten years ago despite the fact that, with their characteristic laid-back style, the Italians have never tried too hard to market Italy as an ideal holiday home destination.

Although Italians like to keep their favoured holiday playgrounds away from the knowledge of tourists, they have been quite happy for foreign second home owners to rescue their old stone houses in the countryside while they spend their summers by the sea.

So while prime areas of the Amalfi, Ligurian and Tuscan coasts remain mostly in Italian hands, the British have colonised some of what used to be poorer rural areas.

This is because a second home in Italy has historically been all about la dolce vita - the lifestyle - rather than investment, which is one reason fewer people have bought there than in Spain or France.

But Brits are nevertheless the largest group of foreign home-owners and are responsible for prices booming in areas of Tuscany and the Italian lakes - due to high demand. Although the property market hasn’t been fertile ground for pure investors – immune to the boom-and-bust cycles of Britain and Spain - it has climbed a steady eight per cent a year.

It’s also been extremely tricky to get hold of properties, and frustratingly bureaucratic once you do try to buy one, which has tended to put people off. Hardly any Italian agents speak English, and few operate in the UK.

But the influence of low-cost airlines such as Ryanair has opened up the more remote and lesser-known areas, and interest has begun to shift from the showpiece cities and lakes of the wealthy north of the country to the cash-starved, neglected ‘shoe’ of Italy.

Surprisingly affordable property in the three southernmost provinces of Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria has begun to grab the attention of British buyers who are hoping for high returns on seaside property.

Suddenly there are dozens of new-build apartments for £50,000 in the coastal resorts of Calabria which are attracting investors as well as second-home owners.

Sicily has also grown in popularity and is one to watch but perhaps the real rising star of the Italian property market is Sardinia, a beautiful island which is much less expensive than people think.

Map of Italy