Yahoo Finance The ultimate fixer-upper? Tuscany estate with permission to build a grand house — priced less than the average London home
Sky’s the limit: a could-be Tuscan retreat has been listed for sale for less than the average cost of a London home
(Hidden Tuscany / Erna Low Property)An estate in the rolling hills of Tuscany has been listed for sale — for the price of a small London apartment.
At £476,000, it is well below the £501,300 cost of the average London property.
Those taking on the challenge will need more than the £25,000 spare change for this endeavour in the village of Terricciola, however.
For as well as a brave buyer, it’s also in need of a roof.
It is owned by a local farmer who was only interested in the surrounding 1,200 acres when he bought it 30 years ago.
“It took me years to convince him to sell,” says local agent Enrico Cristiani of Hidden Tuscany, who partnered with Erna Low Property to market the home.
With views of the snow-capped Apennine mountains to the north and seemingly endless Tuscan farmland to the south, the property is available with some of the land around it — by separate negotiation.
Future owners will be able to rebuild a home spanning 4,300 sq ft — effectively a six-bedroom house — on the basis of what stood on the site previously.
There’s also potential to add an additional 20 per cent, so a separate guest house or annexe, but that is always considered on a case by case basis by the local authorities, says Cristiani.
“People sometimes think that they have to buy a lot of land around their homes to prevent others from building nearby, but there’s a lot of red tape so that doesn’t really happen here.”
“Unless you want to be a farmer, enough for some olive trees would be plenty – just buy the land you need.”
Nearby are the walled medieval towns of San Gimignano and Volterra, while Pisa airport, the coast and the scenic vineyards of Bolgheri are all within an hour’s drive.
