Dream homes to get your teeth into

There has never been a better time to buy the castle of your dreams, agents say - with gallery.

General view of Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's Castle, in the Carpathian mountains, 200 km (124 miles) north of Bucharest, Romania.

For Karl O'Hanlon, who specialises in renovating old chateaux in the south of France, there is an emotional attachment to every project.

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"It's taking an estate and breathing new life into it," says Mr O'Hanlon. "It's an extraordinary feeling."

And there has never been a better time to live the fantasy of owning an ancient castle or chateau.

Prices for the old fortresses and estates throughout Europe have dropped anywhere from 20 to 50 per cent in the past two years, averaging about €2 million (Dh10.3m) to €5m depending on the state of the property.

There are more in the market as many old families are no longer able to afford the upkeep after the financial crisis, agents say.

"The owners of these properties used to keep and maintain them for years," says Marie-Josephe Mucchielli, the general director of Kalliste Property Managementin Italy. "Now the economic situation has made it difficult for them."

There are always buyers. Even in slow economic times, there are people who want to live in the world of dungeons and turrets.

"Castles always attract the romantic and slightly unusual buyer," says Jamie Macnab, the director of country homes for the Scottish office of Savills, an estate agency.

But castle life is not for everyone. They are often dank and dark with few modern amenities.

The narrow, winding staircases, always rotating clockwise to put the attackers' sword arm at a disadvantage, may have been great for fending off enemies, but they make it difficult to move furniture.

Huge reception halls perfect for entertaining royal visitors can be dusty and foreboding for daily life.

"They are massively inconvenient to live in," says Mr Macnab. "They were built for fortification, not domestic comfort."

Castles are also expensive to maintain. Most are built on sprawling properties and require a full-time staff to handle the day-to-day operations, which may cost more in a year than the price of the property.

Over the years, many of the truly historic properties have fallen into disrepair.

Renovations can be costly, often two to three times the original price of the property, and are lengthy enterprises, often requiring a search for original materials and craftsmen able to handle the specialised work.

"Many of the big properties have not been updated by owners for 20 to 50 years," says Annelise Bosshard, the managing director of AB Real Estate, which focuses on "prestige" properties in Languedoc Roussillon, in the south of France.

Castles and chateaux are generally viewed as an emotional purchase more than a shrewd investment. In many ways, a castle is the ultimate discretionary purchase.

"No one needs a castle," says Mr Macnab, although he admits it is the ultimate status symbol. "A lot are for show and entertaining to show [that their owners have] made it in the world."

Of course, placing a value on a castle can be difficult. Market factors and supply and demand equations go out of the window if a potential buyer falls in love in with a property.

The quality and state of properties vary wildly. Some "castles" are nothing more than piles of stones. Others may look great from the outside, but the interiors may not have been updated in centuries.

Many properties are designated as historic landmarks, making it difficult to do extensive renovations without permission from local councils. Bran Castle in Transylvania, better known as Dracula's Castle, has been on the market for years, with prices quoted at anywhere from €45m to €90m.

The market for castles tends to ebb and flow, agents say. Prices increased as much as 25 per cent from 2000 to 2008. But then the business dropped off, along with the rest of the international property market.

The most paid recently for a castle in Scotland was £15m (Dh87.9m) in 2007 for Seton Castle, where Mary, Queen of Scots, learned to play golf, according to historical documents.

But prices have fallen in the past two years. The biggest transaction in Scotland since then was the £3.2m sale of Midmar, a 16th-century estate in Aberdeenshire. In 2009 it was on the market for £5m.

An 800-year-old Grade I-listed Norman castle in Wales recently sold for £2m.

The market has been perking up in the past few months, agents says. In some cases, buyers are trying to get away from the crime and congestion of the big cities. Large estates are looking like a bargain compared with the high prices for apartments in London and Paris.

"It's a buyer's market," says Ms Bosshard. "It's a slow market at the moment, but it's coming back."

Property agents are seeing new groups of castle shoppers. In Italy, there has been an increase in buyers from China and the Middle East.

They are looking for secluded properties, ready for occupancy, usually on estates of at least 50 hectares.

"They only look for exclusive properties," says Ms Mucchielli. "Usually the bigger the better."

Mr O'Hanlon's company, Domaine & Demeure, has found ready buyers for its properties.

The latest project, Chateau Les Carrasses, is a 19th-century property that Domaine renovated into a boutique hotel. It is due to open this month.

The 28 apartments and villas at Chateau Les Carrasses, priced between €205,000 and €700,000, sold out in six months in 2009 at the height of the financial downturn.

"A lot of our clients have been dreaming about this for 20 years," says Mr O'Hanlon. "We are dream vendors."