Better Homes and Gardens Quick, before the euro soars--buy a castle for a fraction of what you'd expect.
By Susan Hack Call them fincas, quintas, castelli, or chateaux. You can buy a palatial getaway in Europe for less than the price of a two-bedroom Manhattan apartment. In November a 16-room castle on Scotland's island of Mull sold for $700,000, and that included 31 planted acres and exclusive fishing rights on 2 1/2 miles of the River Bellart. In the French countryside between Toulouse and Bordeaux, the unrestored 17th-century Chateau de Corbere--with four towers, 11 bedrooms, and 100 acres of parkland--went for $750,000. "In America people spend $5 million on an unexceptional home in Silicon Valley," observes Alexander Kraft of Sotheby's International Realty. "In Europe, $5 million buys a historic estate with all the amenities." He's not just talking about everyday extras such as a billiards room. He's talking loose-box stables, landscaped gardens, old-growth forests. He's talking dungeons. He's talking moats. "About 14 important estates come up for sale each year in Great Britain," says broker James Crawford of Knight Frank in London, explaining that inheritance taxes and a farming recession force many landed gentry to part with family homes. Make no mistake: A lot of these properties are fixer-uppers on a mammoth scale, fraught with the hidden costs of renovations, heating, and full-time guardians. For many the charm lies in fixing up a romantic ruin. Others prefer a restored property--where you can move in, park your polo ponies, and invite 100 friends for a pheasant shoot. France, which has 40,000 chateaux, offers the best values compared with Britain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland. (Portugal and Spain can be cheaper, but France has a larger range of styles and sizes.) French interest rates hover around 5%, and the dollar has gained 25% against the franc since the euro was introduced. Foreigners can easily arrange a mortgage, putting down a minimum 20% of the purchase price. For a gutted hulk in need of major work, prices start at $300,000--but "renovations can easily double or triple a purchase price," says Aimery Forzy, whose company, SARDA, refits historic residences at an average of $100 per square foot. And for a really big place, the process can take decades. Jim Cumming, a Canadian real estate developer now living in the U.S., has been restoring a 50-room 17th-century chateau ever since purchasing it with friends in the early 1980s. Each year the partners take on a new project, such as fixing up the library or the chapel. "It's part of the fun, constantly enhancing the property," Cumming is able to say, even after it cost the group more than $250,000 to replace the 400-year-old blue-slate roof. "In the end every owner is a just a steward of a very special place evolving over generations." That's a view often shared by the government: Buying a chateau may mean agreeing to restore it along state guidelines. So many chateaux are being restored that to avoid waiting for specialist help, some desperate owners resort to keeping architects and artisans on retainer. In some cases, opening the property to tourists can defray costs and earn tax credits. But it's invasive at best. "The silence of living miles from the road, of mushroom picking and sunset watching--oh, there are moments of sheer bliss," says Sue de Brantes, who has lived in her husband's family chateau in the Loire Valley for nearly 40 years. "But for those whose houses are open to the public, especially the famous ones like Cheverny and Chenonceaux, it's nonstop fishbowl syndrome." The countries of Eastern Europe have castles too, but residence and title issues, uncertain politics, and high seller expectations based on Western European prices may be reasons to steer clear. As an alternative, an increasing number of castle buyers are heading for Morocco, which has hundreds of ruined Casbahs and neglected merchant's palaces. "If you've got time and a good lawyer to settle title disputes, you can find amazing properties," says Chris Lawrence of Best of Morocco. "But it's really better to restore a working-class house in the medina in Marrakesh, or to buy a piece of land and build a replica of a 17th-century Casbah using local materials and craftsmen." Skilled labor costs about 35 cents an hour, and for $200,000 you can create a fantasy world with pool, courtyard, fountains, mosaic floors, and tadlakt walls. "You can start from scratch and wind up with a palace," says Lawrence. "And the medina is very private, because behind those walls might be a hovel or a palace, and no one need know."
Source Reference:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/03/05/297864/index.htm
