PROPERTY NEWS
FAIRY TALE CASTLE FOR SALE
Castello di Scerpena, a five-bedroom mediaeval castle in Tuscany, is now on the market for €16.5m. There are two villas, a guardian cottage, a deer park and 190 hectares of land with 7,000 olive trees attached to the property’s sale. Contact Savills International on 0207 016 3754 or go to www.savills.com/international.
TUNNEL TO GIVE HAMPSHIRE MARKET A BO0ST
Buyers, previously turned off by commuting to London through A3 congestion, are expected to flood into the West Sussex and Hampshire area thanks to the completion of the Hindhead tunnel. Anticipating this demand, Knight Frank is launching a new office in nearby Haslemere in September.
EURO CRISIS HITS CLUB MED PROPERTY MARKET
The Eurozone crisis is making itself felt in the Club Med property market. Between the first and the second quarter of this year, interest in homes in Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain fell by almost a quarter (24 per cent), according to PrimeLocation.com’s latest International Index.
BUYERS SAY DELAYS ARE MOST FRUSTRATING
More than half (55 per cent) of home buyers and sellers in the UK say the length of time it takes to buy a house is the most frustrating part of the buying process, according to research from First Property Lawyers. While a further 17 per cent complained specifically about a lack of communication from their conveyancer.