Capo Boi's activity

Hello sagraiasolar. Forget about your fund, thats the bank simply taking some collateral. Are you saying that you paid €32,000 for no electricity charges with the excess revenue generated going to the bank. If so, what do you estimate your electricity costs would have been. At the end of 15 years you still owe the bank €32,000? Or am I missing something. Also I was'nt talking about falling retail electricity prices. I was talking above the payment you receive for the electricity you generate. CB

Hello sprostoni, Just re-read my post and looks a bit sharp. Apologies sagraiasolar. I'm not having a go at you in particular and wish your business well. I just feel that much of the information presented on pv installations is either incomplete or selective. I'm guessing but 4.6kw of panels must cost slightly over €20,000. If they generate an income of €2,500 then the payback time is over 12 years. Add in bank financing, fund charges etc and the payback time increases substantially. I have nothing whatsoever against pv. I can see the environmental benefit and that is to be applauded. But in Germany, for example, which has long been at the forefront of take-up, generation prices have halved in recent years and due to decrease further. In Italy as in the rest of Europe, generation prices are also falling. The real winners are ultimately the manufacturers and the banks. Its possible for a bank to generate up to 10% pa in charges, interest rates etc for what in reality is a fairly low risk product for them. Its actually the buyer that bears the real risks. Until pv panel prices actually really fall (a bit like plasma and lcd tv's now), the risk reward ratio remains with the consumer.

"I hope this will move you nearer to the reality than the sales hype does." So no sales hype here then..... How much do you actually owe the bank? How many years to pay back the loan? 10 year Italian govie bonds currently yield 4.4%. (before tax). Good luck in getting 5% on your fund. What happens if you build in 0% growth (or as in Ireland, in some funds down by 40%). What is the current surrender value on your fund? What depreciation rate are you using on the pv's? What happens if electricity prices actually fall? (now lower than two years ago)? In my mind the maths only work (and its marginal) if you can deduct from Italian tax payments. But as always, stand to be corrected. 

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Sorry, bad comment. Have deleted.

I think Ram consistently offers the best advice on this forum. In my opinion, always seek out only registered local legal agents. This goes for whatever region of Italy that you are thinking of buying in. Perhaps someone will be able to explain to me what a UK property middleman can actually add to the buying process? True story. I did a major international property exhibition in London a few years back. Purely in the capacity of helping out a friend (naturally for free...he's my friend) who as a registered agent was marketing his company and his properties. I think we were maybe approached by about ten different UK based Italian property finders all saying or implying "can we have your properties to market. We can market at a different (higher?) price into the UK and share commission or split gains". Needless to say, we declined every offer.

atessa, obviously not knowing your comune or any particular regulations that may be in in place in your region, I would just like to say that on a first impression your roofing quote seems pretty reasonable to me. €130 per m2 for the work that you detailed does not look wrong to me.

We use Caxton. Not sure they provide the very best rates but they are FSA authorised. It may be difficult for you, however, as a US citizen to open a currency account with a European broker. I'm not sure about this though. Maybe your best bet is to use a US regulated broker. I really don't know. Thinking about it, maybe you should check out euro accounts with the likes of BoA, or Citi etc. The real point I was trying to make was if you are not euro based, currency fluctuations and not house price movements could be the biggest factor in how well you do.

The key difference is "registered" by the FSA and "authorised" by the FSA. Registered companies have no obligation to segregate client funds from general company funds whereas authorised companies do. In the event of the collapse of an authorised company segregated client funds should therefore be safe. Well thats the theory. Unfortunately the demise of Crown Currency has thrown up this "loophole" that most people were unaware of and again the FSA does not come out in a good light. Also, in cases of fraud or malpractise as things stand at the moment its unlikely that even for an "authorised" firm, customers would be able to draw on the FSA's compensation fund. Regulation, in the whole industry, in my opinion needs to be clarified and tightened up.