The first to think about it and to obtain enough success was the Canadian entrepreneur Peter Gatien, better known as the king of night clubs in New York. His discotheque, the “Limelight” in the Big Apple, was opened in 1983 in a deconsecrated church on the Sixth Avenue. After a few years he replicated in London where the “Limelight” found its location in a 1754 former Presbyterian church in Shaftesbury Avenue. Since then the idea to convert properties such as former places of worship, but also level crossing houses, lighthouses, factories and even slaughterhouses into homes has taken hold throughout the world and has landed also in Italy. Of course we are not yet in the same situation as the US where the credit crunch forced churches and congregations to put several places of worship on the market, but what once was a niche trend now is becoming ever more popular.
According to the last data from the Italian land registry office, under the category “Properties for non residential use” in which are included buildings of worship, but also lighthouses, towers, fortresses, stations and even bridges, are only 60,875, just the 0.11 of all properties in Italy. But is the rarity of this type of properties that makes them so demanded by people who want to live in peculiar homes. Can you imagine the difference between the charm of living in a VII century church compared to living in condominium in the outskirt of a big city?
“To give an economic use to properties that didn’t have that use in the past – explains Mario Breglia, president of the property research and study institute “Scenari Immobiliari” it’s a trend that is becoming ever more popular in Italy. A few years ago the Public Property Trust put on the market 362 properties used as summer camps, a third of them were in Emilia Romagna. After a few years about half of them were converted into business use, manly into hotels. We can say that in areas where the property market is lush this type of buildings gains a value that didn’t have previously.
The price of this type of properties differs from area to area and the difference can be very wide; for instance a small church of 170 square metres in Florence goes for “only” €780,000, another church of 840 square metres in the centre of Naples is sold for €5,000,000. But not only churches are for sale, on the internet can be found also road mender’s houses on auction with bid prices starting from €19,000 to over €600,000. Definitely more peculiar is the sale of the town’s slaughterhouse of Spoleto (Umbria) with a bid starting from €2,000,000 for a 710 square metre property. Ferrovie dello Stato (The Italian Railways) often put on the market its properties and the railway station of Cervaro (Puglia) has a starting bid price of €9,300,000 whereas to buy the former school of Chilini Ozieri (Sardinia) are requested just €128,000.
But beware of what you buy: what seems a great bargain at first sight not always turns to be as such. “The buying cost is the least – says Mr Breglia – the problems start with the renovation, that can result to be a lot more expensive that expected. In Italy, at the moment, nearly nothing can be pulled down and rebuilt, then is very important to know all the aspects of that property to see if it can be converted into a home or whether there is the chance to negotiate a permission with the municipality. Another aspect that must be taken into consideration is the location of the property. The rarity of this type of properties makes impossible to compare the price with similar properties to understand whether the price is fair or not. “If the property market in a certain area is lush then there are not voids” says Mr Breglia, “in Milan a lot of buildings are converted into exhibition areas, but the same building in another city such as Campobasso can remain unsold.
It is also true though, that whoever convert such a property into their own home probably take this decision more with their hearts than with their wallet.
Author Resource:
Simone Rossi works for the Italian property portal http://www.gate-away.com . http://Gate-away.com is the leading property portal specialized in the promotion of property in Italy to foreign investors.
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