Luxury Real Estate

Courtesy of Rimontgó

Rimontgó is delighted to be able to offer its Italian clients their own website in Italian. This new addition to the online family joins the Spanish, English, German, French and Russian sites and will hopefully increase the company’s international profile still further.

The world of international property is fascinating and rewarding, but it faces those who work within it with extraordinary challenges, the most important of which is to offer a truly first class service to its valued clients.

Being able to access details about properties and services in their own language is the very least that any prospective client should expect, so the addition of Italian to `Rimontgó’s range of websites aims to cater to Italian-speakers buyers and investors in a personalized manner.

The era of the global village, identified decades ago by Marshall McLuhan, is now truly upon us, and businesses – particularly those who wish to maintain an international profile – are obliged to act decisively in order to stay ahead of the field.

Rimontgó always aims to serve its numerous international clients in a truly international manner and hopes that its Italian website will be of considerable assistance.

Looking for luxury real estate in Italy?  Your search just got easier: Luxury Real Estate member World Real Estate Immobiliare recently launched their new website-- www.worldrealestate.it.

The new look and feel of their website is very consumer-friendly.  The easy-to-navigate pages prominently display larger than life photography of the company's impressive listings-- listings that now include both both properties for sale and for rent.  The new site also allows the company to incorporate their social media efforts, with links to facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn.  At the bottom of each listing you can even "share" or "like" the property, simply by logging into your account, never even leaving the page you are on.  

Founded and based in Sicily with offices in Capri and Rome, World Real Estate Immobiliare’s new website makes it even easier to view some of the most beautiful and exclusive properties in the world.

Courtesy of Mark of Luxury Real Estate Vacation Rentals

Homebase Abroad, a leader for luxury vacation rentals in Italy, provides thoughts on travel to their previous guests. We wanted to pass along Mara Solomon’s message this month. Please contact Homebase Abroad if you are planning a trip to Italy. They represent the very best accommodations across Tuscany, Umbria, Amalfi Coast and Lake Como.

Mara’s Message: I know the holidays were a lifetime ago but there is a lot to catch you up on. December was spent in Italy – testing, tasting and trying new experiences. Even after 17 years there is much to learn.

For starters, Lake Como in the snow is dreamy and stunning and totally different from spring, summer or fall. Villa Maria Taglioni was incredibly comfortable and atmospheric with effective radiant heat for coziness, and the brilliant but humble chef Dewa in the kitchen. I urged the owner to keep her pure Italian linen sheets -for authentic aristocratic deliciousness - rather than switching to cotton.

This year I added a family Christmas in Italy as well. What a treat. No shopping malls, no wrapping until dawn, no anxiety over what I did or did not buy. No menus, no overcooked veggies, no crazy holiday parties. Just the six of us, abundant good food, a never-ending blaze in the fireplace and a lot of laughter. My personal highlight was watching my 87-yr-old father-in-law boogie across the living room of Casanuova San Casciano with my 13-yr-old daughter. A nourishing time all around.

We wish you a peaceful and joy-filled year, Mara Solomon Director

P.S. Thank you to all who weighed in on last months’ survey, we sincerely appreciate your input. With this issue of Insights we are introducing three new properties; Podere due Scale, La Limonaia di Celsa and Villa di Torno. More to come in February. P. P. S. Rachel Birtwhistle has been added as a wedding planner. She is superb and resourceful and can create a flawless weekend event at Villa La Cassinella.

Courtesy of Luxury Homes by VAPF

According to the well-known ‘A Place in the Sun’ magazine, Spain has once again come top as the favourite British destination for buying a holiday home, ahead of neighbouring France, Portugal, Italy, Florida, Turkey and other Mediterranean locations.

The results of the study carried out by the British publication, specialized in overseas properties, situate the Spanish coast as the most popular location for second homes, having carried out a worldwide research on the standards of living and the property options available in each country. Hundreds of the magazine’s readers and visitors to the exhibitions they organize have pointed out their reasons for purchasing their dream hideaway home in Spain and the survey also reveals the costs involved in buying and owning a house in this sunny country. The result is that Spain tops the chart of the best places to buy abroad in 2011, with all the right ingredients: a great transport network that makes travelling to and from Spain extremely easy, an extensive cultural offer, well-established infrastructure and, of course, the fundamentals, sun, sea and siesta!

France comes on the list as a close second, followed by the other European countries of Portugal and Italy. Florida has dropped to 5^th position from 2010’s second place, then its back to the European continent to Turkey, in 6^th place, Greece, in 7^th, and the Mediterranean island of Cyprus in 8^th position. Finally, the 9^th and 10^th places are taken by two new entries, Malta (which officially is the most crowded country in Europe) and Egypt, with countless new developments bordering the Red Sea.

Don’t miss out on the trend of owning a luxury seaside villa in Spain and take a look at the kind of properties that you can enjoy in 2011’s ideal destination by logging on to the Luxury Homes by VAPF website, www.luxuryhomesinspain.com.

Courtesy of: Marquette Turner Luxury Homes

Here’s a selection of six stunning locations, all in Europe, where cities and towns are perched precariously, delicately, but neatly on the edge of rock and cliff faces. Taking advantage of volcanic eruptions of millenium’s past, or gorges from wild flowing rivers, many of these locations were initially established for their natural fort-like characteristics.  Today, many of them are tourist Mecca’s.

In the process of researching and writing this article, the number of analogies for “living on the edge” that came into my head was wide.

In the end, however, I thought it best to let the images speak for themselves.

Certainly not for the faint hearted.

The locations featured are:

- Cuenca, Spain: Cuenca is a city in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha in central Spain, and is one of the country’s largest provinces. It is located across a steep spur, whose slopes descend into deep gorges of the Júcar and Huécar rivers.

- Bonifacio, France: It is located just west of Cap Pertusato, the southernmost point of the island of Corsica. Bonifacio is perched on a narrow limestone peninsula about 1.6km long that parallels the coast and forms a natural harbour. It was for this reason that it was initially founded as a defence against pirates in the 1st Century.

- Castellfollit de la Roca, Spain: Located in Catalonia, the town is situated on a basalt crag, formed by the overlaying of two lava flows, and is over 50 metres high and almost a kilometre long.

- Ronda, Spain: With a population of just over 35,000, Ronda is located in the Spanish province of Malaga. In a very mountainous area, the city was initially settled by the Romans as a fort.

- Manarola, Italy: A very small town, Manarola is located in the province of La Spezia, Liguria, northern Italy and can trace its origins back to the 14th Century.

- Santorini, Greece: Often described as one of the most stunning places on earth, Santorini is a small, circular archipelago of volcanic islands located in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km southeast from the Greek mainland and is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history. The earliest human settlement known is the 4th millennium BC.

Courtesy of Stribling & Associates

By Amy Tennery of the New York Real Estate News

Many New York City brokerages expand in attractive vacation locales, but Stribling & Associates has gone via Italia.

The luxury residential brokerage best known for its high-end Manhattan homes now represents about a dozen multimillion-dollar properties in some of Italy's most sought-after locales, including Tuscany and the Umbria region.

Please click here to continue reading

Courtesy of: Greg Moesser of Rodeo Realty

Following an International Agent Around the World

By Katharine Angelo of Bel Air Magazine

This international agent is not a gun-toting 007; instead he’s a real-estate agent that specializes in worldwide luxury properties. The name is not Bond, James Bond, but Moesser, Greg Moesser, Vice President of the Private Estates division of Rodeo Realty in Beverly Hills, and he’s a man that’s doing something different. Today almost every real-estate company advertises international marketing, but many companies define that as just having a few affiliated international property websites. Agent Greg Moesser’s business model is much more hands-on, bringing on-the-spot knowledge to the worldwide properties he represents. In a recent conversation, Greg revealed his undercover secrets to taking his luxury real-estate business to a global level.

BAM: How long have you specialized in international marketing?

GREG MOESSER: It began about seven years ago when I had two inquiries from my website, one was from a European buyer and the other was a vacation rental request from the Middle East. After specializing in the luxury market domestically, I found that many clients, instead of just moving locally, are often moving between global cosmopolitan cities. The number of foreign buyers in our market has also risen steadily in the last few years. This is even more true today with the weaker dollar and the recently devalued world property markets, such as Spain, Ireland and Dubai, just to name a few. Now I have inquires every month from all over the world on my website www.LAClassicEstates.com.

BAM: Why do you think you have been so successful in this exclusive niche?

GM: The difference is personal networking and connections. Agents and buyers want to work with someone they know and trust. You can’t achieve that by just marketing a property on a bunch of global websites. When an agent from New York, San Francisco, London, Dubai or Paris has a client for Los Angeles, they will call me first, because I have an established personal relationship. My approach takes a lot more effort and planning, but it gets results. It’s also a great advantage to my seller clients, as they get the benefit of both an extensive local and international market representation.

BAM: Where have you been already this year?

GM: In January I attended the International Luxury Real Estate summit conference in Rome, Italy. This is a worldwide group of top agents, owners and presidents of leading firms that meet annually to discuss global property trends and strategies to market luxury properties. In March I attended the MIPIM conference in Cannes, France. The agenda included meetings with top agents, buyers and investors, foreign ministers and even the American ambassador. I was also in Punta Del Estate, Uruguay performing some property research for a client.

BAM:What is the Private Estates division?

GM: The Private Estates division at Rodeo Realty specializes in representing multi million-dollar properties in Southern California’s premier luxury markets. Our specialists are able to provide the highest level of expertise, professionalism, personal attention and discretion that is simply not available at large companies or franchises. Our international database is second to none, including our Luxury Real Estate affiliation with luxury agent specialists in over 60 countries worldwide.

BAM: What’s currently your most interesting property?

GM: I just did a price a evaluation on an extraordinary pre-war, French-style estate in Hancock Park that was featured in one of the first issues of Architectural Digest and should be coming on the market soon. I’m also excited about my latest international project. I’ve been selected as the exclusive U.S. agent for the Residenza Del Lago Azure in Lake Como, Italy. This is a rare new luxury development of 28 villas and apartments and should be completed by early next year.

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By Jean-Yves Piton

LuxuryRealEstate.com is proud to introduce our new member in Italy.

Property At Lake Como, a trade name devised and developed by Marco Badalla, primarily focuses on and is specialized in real estate in the Lake Como area.

Property At Lake Como may count on teamwork with some of the leading real estate companies in the Como area, Lugano, London, New York and Moscow, as well as with professionals in the legal and financial fields.

What it offers is special attention to every customer, so that it may provide a better service to those who are seriously interested in making a dream come true, that of buying a house by Lake Como.

All negotiations are followed with the greatest reliability and confidentiality. After purchasing, the customer has the option of a full property management service offering a variety of personalized solutions, provided by our partner company: DinamikComo. Born in Lugano, Marco Badalla has lived in Como most of his life and has an excellent knowledge of the entire Lake Como area and particularly the lakeside villages, thanks to his personal and thorough real estate exploration. In recent years Mr. Badalla has organized the successful purchase/sale of many prestigious properties, both apartments and villas, and his competence has been greatly appreciated by those people who have had dealings with him.

For more information regarding Mr. Marco Badalla’s portfolio of luxury properties, please feel free to visit http://www.propertyatlakecomo.it/ and/or contact Property At Lake Como at info@propertyatlakecomo.it.

About Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate:

Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate is an invitation only network representing the best luxury real estate firms and professionals from around the world. Each affiliated member is carefully selected to represent his/her market area. Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate also hosts the industry leading Website www.LuxuryRealEstate.com (a 2009 Webby Award Honoree).

By Raphael Harris of World Real Estate Immobiliare

One of the few houses on the seaside in Capri and forever the only home nearby the famous Faraglioni rocks. This unique combination makes the site and property exclusive. The house, built in 1913, includes an authentic Roman cistern, which can be transformed into an appealing extra room.

The home has two floors, each equipped with a kitchen, a bathroom, an extra toilet and a separate entrance. The upper floor, which holds 90 sqm, has a central oil heating system and a very big terrace of 110 sqm with amazing ocean views. The ground floor with 50 sqm, offers a terrace space of 70 sqm. Through a private access, one can go directly through the garden to the beach or to a boat anchored nearby. The Faraglioni Villa is one of the most famous and prestigious houses in Capri. It will offer you a new life shared between the mountains, infinite sea and the security in the property value of Capri, which is one of the most secure in the world. It is an enchanting place for you, your family and friends to rest, a prestigious place for one to meet business partners in a not so formal atmosphere. One can certainly not go wrong with the Faragiloni Villa.

By Raphael Harris of World Real Estate Immobiliare

Sitting on a coastal hill up above the antique town of Sorrento, we propose a very beautiful villa surrounded by a panoramic lush garden of 12,000 mq. cultivated for olive & lemon groves.

The Sorrento city center is located only 2.5 Km away. One will be entranced by the views that embrace the entire Gulf of Naples, Vesuvius and the islands of Ischia and Procida.

This property gives one the privacy when acquiring a second home or retreat in paradise, but also the access to the movement this historic coastal town boasts all year round.

The villa is arranged on four levels and consists of five residential units of various sizes. The residence has 26 rooms and 9 bathrooms for a total of 630 mq. The property has been totally renovated with great attention to details, and it has kept its historic Sorrento Coastal feeling.