A Tuscan renaissance

The village of Castelfalfi and surrounding estate

Deep in the Tuscan countryside, Europe’s biggest travel company has embarked on Italy’s biggest village regeneration project – turning an abandoned, hilltop borgo (village) and surrounding land into an 11,000-hectare rural retreat.

German travel group TUI is building 207 holiday homes at an estate centred on the medieval village of Castelfalfi – once home to the aristocratic Medici family – which lies between Pisa and Florence to the north and Siena to the south. When completed in 2014, the Toscana Resort Castelfalfi will be much changed from when TUI bought it in 2007. Then, empty and dilapidated after five decades of rural exodus, it had only two full-time residents, and its shops and castle were closed.

Plans for resurrecting the estate centre on finding new uses for existing buildings. Along the main street, eight shops, a pizzeria and 35 apartments will be created in renovated two-storey buildings. At its south end stands the four-storey, 13th-century castello, where a gourmet restaurant and cookery school will open. On the slopes below the castle, existing buildings will become holiday apartments.

At the north end of the village street is a closed-up church that the developer hopes the local bishop will help to reopen, and a public garden filled with exotic trees collected over centuries by the Medici family. West of here is an abandoned public swimming pool which will be restored. To the north is a 32-room hotel; this is being refurbished and gaining a new spa.

Residents will be allowed to hunt for truffles and 500 wild boar, and to help harvest grapes and olives for the estate’s own-label wine and olive oil. They can ride horses and mountain bikes on its 100km of roads and paths.

In its final phase, three villaggi consisting of 137 new holiday homes and two hotels will be built on the slopes below Castelfalfi, and 18 farmhouses will be restored in the estate beyond. Eleven golf villas and a new clubhouse will be built next to two golf courses.

This is the first time TUI has created a large resort community on its own. Castelfalfi is modelled on Germany’s Fleesensee resort, northern Europe’s biggest leisure community, which TUI helped masterplan and where it has run three hotels since opening in 2000.

The 2009 downturn killed off other borgo redevelopments in Tuscany, and similar schemes are thin on the ground because bank funding is hard to come by. But Martin Schlüter, who is managing the €250m ($340m) Castelfalfi project, says the developer has enough funds to complete it without the need for loans.

Current woes for both the euro and the Italian economy mean Tuscan country home prices are 20 per cent down on their summer 2008 peak, so now would seem a difficult time to launch a new project. But Schlüter thinks not: Tuscan property will attract buyers because is a safe store of wealth in a turbulent world, he says.

“We feel very confident about launching Castelfalfi now,” he says, “In times of uncertainty, buyers seek investments of outstanding quality and authenticity.”

TUI is offering its holiday homes as freeholds at prices from €230,000 for apartments to €2.5m for restored 1,500 sq metre farmhouses. Twelve sales reservations have been made – but Schlüter wants one-third of buyers to be Italian, to ensure the estate retains an authentic feel. He also wants street markets to return to recreate a sense of traditional Tuscan country life.

Some 500 people will be employed in its construction and 250 will run the estate after completion. All facilities are open to the public to ensure that the scheme does not end up like some gated communities. Already a reopened restaurant at its eastern end is attracting Tuscans.

It is a “green” development too – 70 per cent of electricity needs will be met by generators using the estate’s own biomass fuel. “Grey” water will be recycled to flush toilets and water the golf course. Locally sourced materials, including limestone, marble, timber and terracotta, will be used to ensure that the architecture remains in keeping with the regional vernacular and keep transport emissions low.

A computer-generated image of how a renovated Castelfalfi farmhouse will look

The transformation of this former working village continues a trend for the internationalisation of the Tuscan countryside that began in the 1960s when Britons started to buy and restore abandoned farmhouses. Today, most Tuscan farmhouses are lived in by foreigners, says Rupert Fawcett, head of Knight Frank’s Italian operation. The proportion of foreign owners is likely to grow, because developers continue to offer renovated farmhouses that are proving more popular than wrecks that need renovation.

New schemes include Tenuta La Bagnaia, near Siena, which is being marketed by Knight Frank. Planning permission has been granted for 40 villas and apartments set around an 18-hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones. A hotel and spa are planned for the 1,100-hectare resort with freehold villa prices from €600,000 to €3.75m. Most developments are small-scale, from five to 20 homes. At Le Mandolate, near Lucca, a farmhouse has been converted into six holiday apartments, on sale (also with Knight Frank) from €230,000 for a 60 sq metre freehold home.

Fawcett says inquiries for Tuscan homes have grown in 2011, easing the pressure for price cuts. Prospects for Tuscany’s property market appear buoyant longer-term, because there is a finite number of farmhouses that can be renovated and strict planning controls ensure that a new structure can be erected in the countryside only when a redundant building is knocked down. This constraint on supply ought – eventually – to feed through to higher prices.

Richard Warren was a guest of TUI

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BUYING GUIDE

Pros

● Tuscany is the home of the Italian renaissance

● Flights from many destinations to Tuscany

Cons

● Temperatures up to a maximum 40C in summer and below zero in winter

● Property purchase is costly and complex

● Crowded tourist attractions in summer

What you can buy for ...

€100,000: a two-bedroom stone cottage with terrace in the village

€1m: a restored five-bedroom villa and 4.5 hectares of land

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DETAILS

● Toscana Resort Castelfalfi

www.castelfalfi.it

tel: +39 0571 890 170

● Knight Frank

www.knightfrank.com

tel: +44 (0)20 7629 8171