Brits opt for luxury seaside towns as choice destination
ROME -- The top holiday destination for wealthy British tourists has changed from the Tuscan countryside to the luxury seaside towns of Portofino, Capri and Taormina, a tourism study has shown.
As the Italian newspaper ‘Il Fatto Quotidiano’ expresses, wealthy British holiday makers and expats continued to be attracted to the luxury Italian lifestyle on their holidays, and are willing to spend more and more money on houses in the ‘Bel Paese’.
However, their preferred region is no longer Tuscany as it was up until 2015. Luxury seeking Brits are now moving to prestigious seaside towns, particularly Portofino, Capri and Taormina, where the very wealthiest are willing to spend up to 10 million euros on houses.
This has become apparent in a survey conducted by Immobiliare.it and LuxuryEstate.com, which revealed a 15 percent rise from last year in British demands for Italian villas and luxury houses.
The survey shows that those buying in the region of Tuscany are not willing to spend over about two and a half million euros on their new home, whereas the average budget for luxury properties in the prestigious seaside towns ranges between an impressive six and ten million euros.
“According to many British tourists,” the survey says, “Italy is a country of beautiful landscapes and crystal clear waters. This does not put them off from buying homes in the main cities though, but in this case, the budget is smaller.”
As Il Fatto Quotidiano says, the preferred Italian cities for British buyers and tourists are Rome, Florence and Milan, with Milan doing especially well in the tourism sector following the success of the Expo. For their city homes, Brits are typically willing to spend between about two and three millions euros. The budget is much bigger for those wanting to splash out on a maritime residence, and goes as high as ten million euros.
Until 2015, Tuscany was the British favourite, with purchase requests for Tuscan houses making up 30 percent of the national total. 2016, however, saw the figure fall by half to only 14 percent.
se