The photographs of Helen Mirren rising magnificently from the waves near her
holiday home in Italy last week will do more for the property market in
Puglia than any amount of marketing. She owns a 500-year-old castle worth
£680,000 in Tiggiano, near Lecce, which she reportedly bought to celebrate
her 2007 Academy Award for Best Actress.
The 63-year-old actress is just one of the Britons to settle in Puglia,
southeast Italy, though not all have such a generous budget. Andy and Claire
James recently bought a dilapidated farmhouse there for £59,000, having
spent three years fruitlessly searching in Spain and Panama.
In time-honoured fashion, the right thing came along when least expected. In
May 2004, while on a diving holiday in Puglia, Andy heard about the
“fairytale” town of Alberobello. He was instantly taken with the small
whitewashed trulli houses with thick stone walls, conical roofs and
intriguing painted symbols. Andy says: “With their pointed roofs they looked
like homes for pixies. My reaction was: I want one.”
Trulli, which are often cylindrical and are made without mortar, are unique to
the Itria Valley. They are thought to have been built in the Middle Ages to
avoid tax on houses - one story has it that buildings without mortar were
not taxable.
Soon after his diving trip, Andy returned with Claire; after four days of
viewing properties the couple came across a rundown farmhouse with six acres
of olive groves and orchards and that all-important detail, three trulli
roofs. And all for £59,000.
“Puglia might not have the rolling hills of Tuscany, but it is seen as real,
undiscovered Italy,” Claire says. UK visitors began to arrive in earnest
four years ago when Ryanair began flights there. Then came the chefs:
Puglia's outstanding cuisine, pointed out by the likes of Rick Stein and
Antonio Carluccio, put the region on the holiday menu. Andy and Claire say:
“We will be growing our own fruit and veg, and keeping hens for eggs, and
guests will be welcome to help themselves.”
Trulli owners of old used to sleep on the floor, beside their livestock, but
the couple have introduced 21st-century standards of comfort and luxury to
make holiday lets. The pig pen is now a bathroom, the alcove of the old well
is a wardrobe, and the animal stalls, summer kitchen and store buildings are
the family home. The farmhouse has become a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house,
and the barn a studio for two.
Enlisting the right help was crucial. Andy says: “An architect friend was
invaluable and our Italian project manager grew up in the UK, so he
understands us.”
Claire, who works for the autism charity TreeHouse, as does Andy, says: “We
wanted a rural lifestyle so we could have a proper family life when we had
children. We didn't want to be rushing between work and home, squeezing in
an hour with the kids before bedtime.” The couple, both 39, met at London
Zoo, where Andy worked as a zoo-keeper.
The project has taken four years, cost nearly three times as much as expected,
and their children - Rosie, 2, and Lucas, 3 months - arrived before the
house was ready. But the family, who are renting in London, will move into
their trullo in September and will open for business in the spring.
One challenge was the subtleties of building regulations. “At one stage we had
to go back to the drawing board,” Claire says. “Most rural properties have
an extension allowance to put in bathrooms and kitchens. But when we
submitted our plans we were told that the title deeds allowed us to build on
only a certain percentage of our land and the extension allowance would
exceed that.” Some original estimates also fell short. “We were told we
could connect to a water supply, but were later advised that it would be
better to have our own system,” Claire says. Choosing to be green where
possible also racked up the bills, as did fixtures and fittings.
So far they have spent £261,000 on the renovation - and the bill for the
swimming pool has yet to arrive. Fortunately they had sizeable funds from
selling their two properties in London: Claire sold her two-bedroom house in
Brixton for £267,000 in 2006, and Andy his one-bedroom flat in Holloway for
£184,000 in 2007. “We couldn't have done this without the UK property boom,”
Claire says.
Prices have boomed in Puglia too. Claire says: “Our trullo in its unrenovated
state, with the land, would have nearly doubled in value in four years. We
could have made a quick buck by doing nothing.” But they have yet to show a
profit because their property has been valued at £316,500 - about the same
amount that the couple have spent on it.“We could have renovated it more
cheaply but we deliberately went for very high standards,” Claire says.
Fast facts
Property prices in Puglia vary from €30,000 (£23,950) for an unmodernised
trullo to €500,000 (£399,000) for a villa.
Do not be too reliant on cheap flights as routes can be dropped.
It is fairly easy to obtain a mortgage on a trullo, but Simon Conn, of Conti
Financial Services, says: “It's like buying a windmill: if your house is
unusual, it will have restricted appeal when you come to sell it.”
The trulli of Alberobello were added to Unesco's World Heritage List in 1996.
The two-bedroom trullo, left, is near Alberobello. It has nearly two acres of
land, including an orchard. It costs €195,000 through Properties Around
Italy, propertiesarounditaly.com.
To rent the James family's trullo, go to: rusticpuglia.com or e-mail
info@rusticpuglia.com
