Real estate investment: what to buy with 100,000, 250,000 and 500,000 euro

If you have spare capital and would like to invest in property in Italy, there are certain aspects you should focus on. The Tecnocasa Group’s Department of Research highlights the most important factors and identifies the areas and property types to choose for the best investment with different budgets: 100,000, 250,000 and 500,000 euro.

If you are looking to invest in a flat, you should first choose the areas where there is a high level of demand for properties to rent or where, thanks to urban regeneration projects, the area looks set to improve in the future.

Budget of 100,000 – 170,000 euro

According to data supplied by the Tecnocasa Group’s Department of Research about the prevalence of funds for investment, there is an increase in the percentage of those who wish to spend up to 170,000 euro on an investment. This percentage includes investors who sometimes spend less than 100,000 euro to buy small properties like one- or two-bedroom apartments.

With budgets that limited, they are normally focussed on city centres where the prices of houses which need renovating are more reasonable (e.g. Bari, Palermo, Naples or Verona) or in areas which aren’t necessarily central, but which have a large number of universities nearby or a lot of demand for rentals. This usually makes the property a highly profitable investment.

Recently, even areas in the outskirts are taken into consideration, but it’s important to remember that the income from real estate in these areas is lower. If buying a holiday home, you can buy in places which are less well-known and popular but try not to be too far away from those places.

For the more risk-taking investor, there is the option of shops and commercial properties on suburban streets with a lower rate of foot traffic. These investments can generally guarantee yields of about 9% per annum, before tax.

Budget of 250,000 euro

With a budget of a quarter of a million euro, there are more choices since you can buy apartments with two or three bedrooms in the centre of semi-centre of large cities. Analysing the areas where most investors with this budget buy, we can see that most of them are historical centres of cities and university areas, for example, Navigli-Famagosta in Milan with the Bocconi and IULM universities or the Policlinico-Pietralata in Rome with the Sapienza, LUISS and Policlinico Umberto I universities.

Another growing tendency for investors with this budget is to focus on central areas of touristic cities and less on the coast, with the aim of buying properties such as holiday homes or B&Bs. With this level of capital, it’s possible to buy a two-bedroom apartment in one of the most famous ski resorts, on the lakes or by the coast in a place that has the kind of services of interest to tourists wanting to rent a property for the summer or winter season.

Budget of 500,000 euro

With capital of 500,000 euro or more, the centre of cities like such as Rome, Milan and Florence are still preferred seeing as they’re cities which have seen the least devaluation of property prices during the economic crisis.

In this case, the possibilities with a budget like this also allow the purchase of commercial properties on busy streets or more than one property in coastal areas or more famous tourist destinations.