However for property investors who wish to invest in property in Venice, Italy, it is possible to buy Venetian property for a lot less money.

The beauty of Venice for overseas property investors is that it is a tourist trap. Each year, many tourists visit the area thanks to the history, culture, architecture and unique atmosphere of the city. This means that buying property well will ensure a steady rental income for any property investor.

Although the property market has recently slowed, there is still interest in the housing market and prices are remaining relatively stable. In particular, the high-end properties have seen virtually no drop in their value and the city has seen very few repossessions or distressed sales.

Probably the best properties to buy for renting out are small apartments in grand old buildings. These flats feature the charm of Venice without breaking the bank and the flats should be easy to rent out to families on holiday in Italy. Small apartments can go for as little as 250,00 Euro.

If you are planning to renovate an old flat, be warned that making adjustments to notable historic buildings in Venice can take a long time to get all the necessary approval. Developing a building into a set of apartments is very challenging and will require a thorough understanding of the planning system to gain all the necessary permissions for the conversion.

When buying a property in Venice, it is advisable to put everything into writing – including your offer for the property. Once this is signed by you, the property vendor and the agent, it is legally binding. You will then have to pay a deposit – this will be returned if your offer is rejected. A further deposit of around 25% will then need to be paid once your offer has been accepted.

If the property vendor pulls out having accepted the larger deposit, they must return it plus some money in damages. It is a good idea to put any deposit money into escrow as this makes the money easier to retrieve if the vendor does decide to pull out of the property deal.

Tax is levied at 10 percent of the land registry value if the property you are buying in Venice is your second home. If you are planning to live in the property, the tax will be 3 or 4%. Do not be tempted to declare the property as your Venice home if you are not planning to live there as the local authorities will check.

You will also need to fork out some money for a notary – normally budget about 1% of purchase price – as well as a conveyancer (around 3,500 Euro) and around 300 Euro if you’d like a copy of the property contract in English.

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Nude sales are when an elderly person sells their family home, normally to a stranger and at a significant discount, on the condition that they are permitted to live in the property until they die. The purchaser also normally pays cash for the property. These sorts of property sales are known as ‘nude sales’ because the property owner is totally stripped of ownership of the house.

Currently, nude sales only account for around five percent of all Italian property transactions however as the economic crisis deepens, it is predicted that this desperate form of property sale will start to make up a larger percentage of property transactions.

The figures show that nude sales are already increasing – in 2000, there were around 18,000 nude sales; In 2008, this figure had increase to 40,000 sales. Around 85% of Italians over 65 are thought to own their own homes so there is massive potential for nude real estate sales to continue to rise.

Nude sales represent a risk for the property investor purchasing the property – the value that they pay for the house is determined by the life expectancy of the current owner. The older the current home owner, the closer the property will be to the current market rate of the property. This means that if a purchaser buys a house and the person dies relatively quickly, not only will they have bought a house at significantly under market value, but they will also be able to move in more quickly. However if the vendor lives for significantly longer than expected, it can be years before the property purchaser can do anything with the property.

History provides us with an interesting lesson in the risk of nude sales here. According to the Move Channel, in 1965 French lawyer Andre-Francois Raffray entered into a nude sale with 90 year old Jeanne Calment. Raffray expected to move into the apartment with his family in the coming few years.

Unfortunately for Raffray, Calment went on to live for a further 32 years – and in doing so became the oldest living woman in history – dying in 1997 at the age of 122. By the time she passed away, Raffray had been dead for two years and had never gotten to live in his apartment.

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