For those of you thinking about summer in Europe right now, here is an interesting WSJ article about the real estate market in Lake Como, Italy. It's behind a paywall, though, so here are two things that stood out to me.
Firstly, the market is all about foreign buyers:
The key driver of the Como market is, and has long been, foreign buyers. Prepandemic, Baysal estimated, non-Italian buyers were responsible for 70% to 80% of sales, with buyers from Russia, the U.K., Germany, and Switzerland leading the way. Today, foreign buyers still dominate. But while Russian and British buyers have gone quiet, said Baysal, North Americans stepped into their shoes last year, attracted by the relative strength of the dollar.
More:
Sara Zanotta, founder and managing director, Lakeside Real Estate, said most of her buyers are American, Swiss, Scandinavian and German vacation-home buyers. Armed with budgets of between $880,000 and $2.75 million, they are eager to buy a four- to five-bedroom villa, preferably historic, with a lake view and within walking distance of the water. Apartments in historic houses are also popular. “Outside space is a must,” she said. As a result of strong demand, Zanotta estimates that prices for this class of home have increased by around 20% between 2021 and 2022.
Secondly, there appears to still be some deals if you don't need to be directly adjacent to George Clooney. The first home that is profiled in the article is a 1,000 sf two-bedroom condominium with a clear and direct view of the lake. It was purchased back in 2020-2021 for US$254,000.
That feels very reasonable -- $254 psf! The owner also purchased the property site unseen, visited it for the first time in 2021, and is somehow already approved for an Italian citizenship. (Doesn't naturalization usually take 5 years of residency?)
I can think of worse places to retire than Lake Como.
Back in 2020/2021 when we were getting ready to launch sales for One Delisle, the team came up with the idea of pill-shaped kitchen islands for our residences.
What that means is we wanted to use perfect semi-circles on both ends. We didn’t want oval islands. We didn’t want distorted semi-circles. We wanted islands shaped like pills!
We felt these opened up the kitchens and also looked really unique. So with Studio Gang and the rest of the team, we proceeded to design a few different types.
We needed ones that would work for smaller suites, we needed ones that would work for larger suites, and we needed to accommodate breakfast bars/seating.
When we approached Scavolini Toronto about this idea their first response was, “we’ve never done this before. It would be a first.”
However, their second response was, “but we’ll figure it out with you.” And based on this response, we built (by hand) a pill-shaped island for our condominium sales gallery, and then included them as part of One Delisle.
Fast forward to 2023 and we are now in the “let’s figure it out phase”. This week we reviewed the very first production prototypes in Scavolini’s factory in Pesaro.
They are everything we could have hoped for, and we are thrilled that Scavolini was a willing partner in this endeavor.
It’s not easy doing new things in construction. The smallest things can (usually?) end up being a lot more work. But it all feels worth it when you get to see the results.
Today I learned that one of the most important quality assurance tests you can run on a kitchen is this one here:
It is the “pasta sauce test”. And it involves repeatedly boiling a cauldron of water underneath some cupboard doors for at least several hours.
It is an important test because the combination of heat and humidity is particularly tough on certain kinds of finishes.
So if you happen to be in the market for a new kitchen, make sure you ask them about the pasta sauce test.
P.S. Scavolini is supplying the kitchens for both Junction House and One Delisle.