Kings Cross Train Station

The first to think and to get enough success has been the Canadian entrepreneur Peter Gatien, better known as the king of nightclubs in New York. His nightclub, the "Limelight" in the Big Apple, was opened in 1983 in a disused church on Sixth Avenue. After a few years, he replied in London where the "Limelight" found its location in a former Presbyterian Church 1754 Shaftesbury Avenue. Since then, the idea of converting properties such as ancient places of worship, but also at the houses of way, lights, factories and slaughterhouses, even in homes swept the globe and landed Italy. Of course, we are not yet in the same situation as the U.S. where the credit squeeze forced churches and congregations to several places of worship on the market, but what was once a niche trend is becoming increasingly popular.

According to the latest data from the Land Registry Office Italian, under "Properties for non-residential" which are included in the buildings of worship, but also of the lighthouses, towers, forts, stations and even bridges are only 60,875, only 0.11% of all properties in Italy. But it is the scarcity of such properties makes them so required by people who want to live in private houses. Can you imagine the difference between the charm of living in a church of the seventh against condominium living in the suburbs of a big city?

"To give an economic value for properties that do not use this in the past - says Mario Breglia, president of Property Research and Studies Institute" Scenari Immobiliari "-. It's a trend that is becoming increasingly popular in Italy a few years the public trust property on the market 362 properties used as summer camps, one third of them were in the Emilia-Romagna. After a few years nearly half of them were converted to professional use, manly in hotels. We can say that in areas where the housing market is flourishing this type of buildings gains a value that had not before.

The price of such property differs from region to region and the difference can be very broad: for example a small church of 170 square meters in Florence is "only" aぎ 780 000, another church of 840 square meters in the center of Naples is priced at aぎ 5,000,000. But not only the churches are for sale on the Internet can also be found on houses mender auction with bid prices from aぎ 19 000 to over aぎ 600,000. Definitely more special is the sale of the slaughterhouse in the town of Spoleto (Umbria) with a bid from aぎ 2,000,000 for a property of 710 square meters. Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian railways) are often marketed its properties and Station Cervaro (Puglia) has a purchase price from aぎ 9.3 million while buying the old school of Jilin Ozieri ( sardinia) are asked only aぎ 128 000.

But beware of what you buy: what seems a bargain at first glance appears to be not always as such. "The purchase cost is less - said Breglia -. The problems begin with the renovation, which may result to be much more than expected in Italy today, almost nothing can be demolished and rebuilt, is then very important to know all aspects of this property to see if it can be converted into a house or if there is the possibility of negotiating an agreement with the municipality. Another aspect that must be considered is the location of the property. The scarcity of such properties makes it impossible to compare prices with similar properties to understand if the price is fair or not. "If the housing market in a certain region is rich then it are not empty, "said Breglia," in Milan a lot of buildings are converted into exhibition spaces, but the same building in another of those cities.