Matera has been proclaimed European Capital of Culture 2019. We look at how investments in the capital of the Italian region of Basilicata have changed as a result.
Matera began its rebirth in the 90s when the recognition by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site gave rise to the conservation and restructuring of the legendary "sassi di Matera" cave dwellings. Today the capital of Basilicata is an increasingly important tourist destination, which is also interesting from the point of view of real estate investments. Today Matera has about 60,500 inhabitants and 4,670 buildings, of which 3,610 are residential buildings.
House sales in Matera
According to Re/Max Italia, after a peak in sales recorded in 2010, Matera saw a drop in the number of property transactions for a few years, until 2015, the year that marked the recovery of the real estate market in Matera. In 2017, 698 sales were recorded in Matera, 4.5% more than in 2016 and there was an increase in prices of 2.2%, which reached an average value of 1,552 euro/m2 (144 euro/sq ft). Today the market values average around 1,800 euro/m2 (167 euro/sq ft), which is about the average house price in Italy as a whole. Prices are growing especially in the area of the historic centre and the outskirts of the city. There are also over 700 Bed & Breakfasts and other hotels in Matera.
"The demand is focussed on the historic old town of the city, particularly in the area of the Sassi, and comes mainly from international customers from different European countries to which in recent years have been added also investors from Russia, Japan and China," say the real estate consultants Re/Max who operate in the territory daily.
In the ancient Sassi districts, the typical property type that is sought after by investors is the cave dug into the tuff and the structures with a "barrel" vault called "lamioni". In many cases, independent real estate units have been obtained from these buildings and from the parts built on top of them that are enlarged with panoramic terraces.
Increasing rental prices in Matera
The supply of property in Matera, however, has greatly decreased. Most of the properties are owned by the municipality, which has no intention of putting them on the market, while the remaining real estate has already been sold in recent years and does not look set to be put up for sale again any time soon. There are currently about 400 residential properties for sale in Matera.
The lack of real estate for sale and the high attention that the city is capturing internationally are provoking an increase in rental costs, reaching 6.70 euro/m2 per month (0.62 euro/sq ft/month) in December 2018, an increase 2.34% compared with the same period of the previous year. All signs point towards rental prices continuing to have a upward trend.
Buy houses to renovate in Matera
As far as sales prices are concerned, according to the Tecnocasa Research Office, in the first part of 2018 real estate in Matera showed a fairly dynamic character, characterised above all by the fact that the purchase of the famous Sassi involves remodelling work that respect the rules of preserving the nature of these historical sites. The cost of materials (usually tuff and terracotta) must be added to the cost of highly skilled labour for this work. Often these renovation costs for sassi can run up to 1500-2000 euro/m2 (140-186 euro/sq ft) and the sizes of these properties can range from 50 to 250 square metres, which is between 540 and 2,690 square feet.
The main buyers of property in the city are both first-time buyers, who focus mainly on three-room and four-room apartments in Matera and the surrounding countryside, and investors who buy real estate to rent out to university students. For properties of 140-150 m2 (1500-1600 sq ft), the average sale price is 200 thousand euro and the rental price is 1000-1200 euro per month. The trend of those who buy for tourist purposes continues but is slightly lower as of late.
One of the most appreciated areas by buyers is in the north of Matera, where there are better services and more new builds with average prices of 1800-2000 euro/m2 (167-185 euro/sq ft), while the latest cooperative constructions cost around 2000 euro/m2 (185 euro/sq ft). The new constructions from private developers cost an average of 2200 euro per square metre, or 204 euro per square foot.
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