½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

the best thing is to buy land with planning permission already in place... there are national and local formulas regarding size of plot and the sq meterage of the building area... this sq meterage also then has a cubic measurement attached which then stipulates the volume of the building .... which retricts the height you are allowed to build to.... all architect / geometra offices will have a booklet for each of the local communes and their regulations...

as far as i can see i would say this is one of the more sensible and less costly routes of buying.... to give an example here some land circa 3000 m sq has just been sold for e60,000 in a rural area with a full project in place to allow the building of four houses...the buyer wants only one...because the permission is already in place it will only require a variance on the permission with the new project of the one house..... virtually guaranteed because the palns are being drawn up by a local firm with full knowledge of the commune and the rules.... the project will be approved and sent in by the end of the year,,, the building work started in april and the houses completed by june of the next year....should say only 1500 m sq is allocated to building

the project will be priced at e1000 per sq m which will include a complete finish with all permissions in place at the end and will be key in hand ... the house size is say 200 m sq the management and taxes of the project will arrive to 13-15 % on top.... ok total cost about e300,000...

with a traditional style of house... fully insulated ... guaranteed for ten years and built to all the latest seismic regulations......... and built to your own ideas...compromised only by what you can afford.... the rest of the building area still available if you want your aunt,uncle or gran living next door

i give the example really as an idea of how to cost what you want...you can do a build at e800 or more than e1000... but really there should not be much of a variance from these figures... and in my opinion you will end up with a much better value house than if you follow the ruin/restoration route...

the main problem with this is that you must have good advice from the contractural viewpoint... if you do find land make the prelimnary offer with a proviso that planning permission has to be obtained ... a seperate contract then for the time scale of these permissions which will obviously involve you in selecting someone to draw up the project the drawings to be agreed also to a timescale...and the costs of the project ... this will limit the type of design and in general this stage will cost you a percentage of the total cost of the whole thing... aprox 8-10 %... by the time the plans have been submitted and approved you should then have finished the purchase of the land....which before any permisions have been granted will also have required a geological/engineering survey

at this stage you will be in the actual contracts for the build... which will have to be on a build/payment formula... ie skeleton finished... and approved first payment... roof on ...next payment...etc etc.... its very complicated and should all be reviewed by a solicitor to make sure you are ending up with what you want....

however no more complicated than any restoration project... i dont want to put you off... but it bit more complicated than off the peg habitable modern villas...already waiting... however it does allow you to spread payments over what will in general be a two year process unless you push hard or the land already has the permission to build not just allocated as available building land

We have been told that the ease with which you get planning permission varies enormously from commune to commune. We are in Ostuni which is apparently one of the more difficult. We have been told that if we were in San Michele or Carovigno we would get planning permission easier and quicker (they are both actually geographically closer to us, but we are not in their commune administratively, so you must check the actual commune you come under).

However, we haven't yet put anything to the test - we are still thinking about what we want to do. We have had a geometra measure the square footage of the existing property accurately so that the calculation can be made as to how many square footage w have left to be able to extend Still waiting for the results.

Good luck.