Italy’s residential property market has seen price reductions of between 10 and 20 percent in the economic downturn, said Rupert Fawcett, head of the Italian department for Knight Frank, a research company.
Sales volumes were down in late 2008 and early 2009, but have started to recover, Mr. Fawcett said, and foreign owners were more likely to sell their Italian properties than Italian owners, partly because weakened currencies in the United States and Britain made it an attractive time to sell foreign holdings.
In Florence, buyers looking for apartments to use as vacation homes tend to look in the city center, called the Centro Storico, Mr. Fawcett said. For houses and villas, popular second home neighborhoods are to be found in the hills surrounding Florence, such as Bellosguardo, Fiesole and Impruneta. Daniela Gisti, the business development manager for Precious Villas, a real estate firm with offices in Florence and London, said the hillside village of Settignano is known as the Beverly Hills of Florence.
