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'Live like a duke' in an ancient Italian castle that costs the same as a luxury flat in Hong Kong

By Lam Ka-sing

/ SCMP |

July 14, 2021 9:53 AM SGT

SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - They say a man's home is his castle ... and for some, that is literally the case. An ancient Italian castle set in a vast estate amid rolling hills just north of Rome will come up for auction in October. (See also: Goldman joins ranks of Centaline, Cushman and Morgan Stanley in forecasting rise in Hong Kong home prices this year)

With a reserve price of €15 million ($24 million/HK$137.42 million), the ancient Castle of Parrano is likely to go for roughly the same as a 2,000-square-foot luxury flat in Hong Kong.

The castle itself, measuring almost 52,000 square feet, is the centrepiece of a sprawling 2,700-acre estate in the Italian Province of Terni, about an hour and a half's drive from Rome.

"For the price of a Hong Kong apartment, you can live like a duke in the Italian countryside. You can have five bedrooms in your own castle, farmland growing grapes and olives, multiple swimming pools and a sculpture garden," said Georg Chmiel, portal Juwai IQI's co-founder and group executive chairman. "There is no comparison to even the largest of Hong Kong apartments."

However, the eventual buyer may well not choose to occupy the property themselves.

The fully refurbished Castle of Parrano, measuring 4,809 square metres (51,699 square feet) has 26 master suites and a spa centre. There is potential to build a 130-room hotel on the surrounding land, with 75 additional units converted from the 23 farmhouses that are included, according to Christie & Co, which is marketing the property on behalf of Bayview Italia.

"The recent pandemic has made people more health-conscious and focused on leisure destinations with an abundance of outdoor space and offerings, so we anticipate wide-ranging interest from investors for this unique opportunity, in such a picturesque and historic location," said Carine Bonnejean, managing director of hotels at Christie & Co.

The reserve price compares with a flat measuring 1,974-square-feet at The Masterpiece in Tsim Sha Tsui, which changed hands for HK$138 million a year ago.

Parrano is located between Rome and Florence and home to around 500 people.

In general, the market for castles and estates like this one is "thin" with only a handful of potential buyers and a small number of transactions, said Chmiel. That is why prices can fluctuate significantly based on demand, and properties can remain on the market for years.

He described the market as "cutthroat" with a vast range of properties giving potential buyers negotiating power.

Mainland Chinese demand for castles and super-deluxe estates peaked in 2017. In the three years prior to that, the Chinese were the biggest overseas buyers of European castles and vineyards.

Transactions have fallen by more than half since then, mostly because of the tightening of capital controls making it more difficult for people to invest large sums abroad.

Chmiel expected mainland Chinese and Hong Kong demand for overseas second homes in golden visa destinations to increase in the next 18 months. He also foresees an increase of some 20 per cent in enquiries for castles and similar properties in Europe through the rest of the year.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2021 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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