I believe that the coming year will bring major opportunities for many who live in this wonderful part of Italy and also for many others who do business in the Le Marche region.

Le Marche is a truly beautiful and unspoilt part of Italy and is rightly known by many Italians “As all of Italy in one region”

There are many many reasons why I feel very positive about the coming year and in this blog I will highlight what I feel are some of the most important reasons for this optimism in 2010.

Real estate in Le Marche will carry on being popular with foreign buyers and I am sure the market will pick up again as we approach the spring.

Estate agents in Le Marche have suffered over the past eighteen months as Italian as well as foreign buyers have been in short supply since the tail end of 2008.

But toward the second half of 2009 and also carrying over into the recent holiday period there has been a major increase of interest about property for sale in Le Marche in the southern and central areas.

Most of these enquiries have concerned country properties in need of restoration and surprisingly very few about village houses and apartments. This is a new and developing trend and it could possibly mean that confidence is returning to restoring property in Le Marche which has been the hardest hit over the past year.

Large country properties and farmhouses usually require large amounts of investment and the type of purchaser who has large amount of funds has been conspicuously absent from the market over the past eighteen months.

Then there are many exciting restoration projects and cultural events on the cards for 2010 throughout the Le Marche region and also in the UK.

One of the most exciting are the plans for a major property development in the village of Montalto delle Marche in southern Le Marche. The faded beauty of the imposing Palazzo Sacconi is located close to the centre of Montalto and it has stood empty for many years but now there are detailed and exciting plans to bring this wonderful building back to life. Cocoon Sacconi Limited purchased the property in 2008 and currently there is a project to convert the building into fifteen luxury and contemporary apartments.
Detailed and sympathetic plans have been submitted and are going through the lengthy and necessary planning process and hopefully initial preparation work should be ready to begin in the second half of this year.

Another major development are the plans by the Comune of Carassai in cooperation with the Comune of Fermo to finish the restoration of the magnificent Rocca di Montevarmine in southern Le Marche.
The plans include the use of the Rocca as a cultural and business centre and also a large golf course and tourist development but always sympathetically in keeping with the beautiful surroundings and location.
The Rocca has already had a large amount of restoration work carried out and this has been carried out to a very high standard by the local skilled craftsmen. But the next exciting phase will see the work on the Rocca and its surroundings finally finished and it will then prove to be an enormous asset for the community and business in that part of southern Le Marche.

I am also helping to organise a Le Marche festival in London in the spring, it will feature both the culture and produce of the Le Marche region and also include workshops on buying and restoring property in Le Marche.

The produce available will include wonderful Le Marche olive oils and jams, pasta, cheeses and salami and many of the small artisan producers hope to be at the show.

It is hoped that if this event proves popular then later in the year we will follow this up with shows in both Norwich and Oxford.

I am always grateful to my many wonderful Italian friends in Le Marche who are so passionate about their region and also promoting their wonderful food and area to a wider audience in the UK.