Puglia Property Sales

Restoring Trulli

Prestige Puglia

Italia Nuova

A restored trullo property will be unique and full of character, but it is important to realise that restoring a trullo is reliant on master craftsmanship, and even with favourable labour rates in Puglia prospective buyers should be aware of the costs and procedures in renovating trulli.

As a rough guide, for a smallish to medium size trullo property you might expect restoration costs to be about the same as or somewhat more than the original unrestored property purchase price. The good news is that the property's value should have increased by more than the restoration costs, making restoration a sound investment.

If a property is described as for restoration you might expect this to mean complete renovation. Firstly, renewal of its internal and external stonework. The degree of this will of course vary from property to property, but you might find that renovation of the exterior of a trullo cone may require what seems like a complete removal of the exterior stones and rebuilding. This is a master mason job if you want to preserve the handbuilt quality of the original. Each stone will be shaped and chiseled to fit the unique size and angle of the cone.

Internally the amount of work required will depend on the quality of the stonework revealed after removal of an old layer of plasterwork.

There are two basic options for the interior - either you can leave the internal stoneworked revealed in its original and repaired beauty, newly repointed, or you can plaster over the interior, and paint in the traditional white. An alternative is to plaster over most of the interior stonework but leave revealed stonework in significant structural parts of the interior, eg alcove arches.

With a small group of trulli you may be in need of extension to the original property to build an adequate new hous.

Often rural trulli have existing annexes or separate buildings, for example for animals. Even if these have fallen down, providing they are recorded on the registered plans for the property you should be able to build on these areas and incorporate them into the new house.

Permission for extension, ie new-build addon to an existing property, will depend on the commune in which the property is registered. Sometimes this will be a nominal "room" to allow for eg a new modern bathroom. Or it may be a fixed square meterage, or a proportion eg 20% of the registered existing square metres of the property, or it may depend on the amount of land purchased with the property.

In all cases it pays at the purchase enquiry stage to ask just what the extension possibilities are. You can of course adopt the Italian option of build first, apply for "amnesty" later on planning permission, but at least you need to be clear what the official policies are.

In general it should be possible to build extensions "in character" - which means that at a minimum there may be requirements to build in stone, not necessarily in trullo-style, which is expensive unless you resort to machine-cut stone - often is wildly out of character with the original.

A property for restoration will usually require connection to the mains electricity. This is a standard procedure, the cost will vary depending on the location of the nearest electricity supply. you need allow a minimum of 1000 euro for this.

Most rural properties rely on underground tank storage for water. In the wet season these are often supplied by roof drainage collection systems. In summer the standard top-up is by tanker delivery. It is unusual to have mains water supply unless in a town or along an aquaduct line, or a private agricultural supply pipeline.

An old property may have no facility for waste water etc disposal, or may have a "pozzo nero" waste tank disposal system. In the first case certainly, and optionally in the second, you may install a modern biological septic tank.

For gas, again, expect no piped gas outside a town. Heaters and cookers etc may be fuelled by GLP from 10 or 15kg gas canister "bombola", widely available. For higher gas usage, eg a central-heating system, it will be more economic perhaps to install a large gas tank, whether underground or fenced above-ground, and have this replenished as necessary by tanker delivery.

We would recommend for a trulli restoration project you employ the services of a geometra, or an architect for larger projects.

In Italy a geometra is a professional who can combine the services of an architect, property and quantity surveyor, accountant regarding property matters, lawyer regarding property purchase and planning permission, and project manager for works.

By employing a geometra to achieve a restoration project you can probably get the best value solution, and the protection of the Italian law in having the geometra responsible for all aspects of the completion, including public liability as well as fulfilment of contactual obligations. Your contract will be with the geometra for the whole project, and you can be confident you will avoid the worry and complications which otherwise would result from managing and overseeing the restoration yourself.