Lake Como earned its glamorous reputation after George Clooney purchased a lakeside villa there, but actually you don’t need to be a multi-millionaire to own property there.

Search carefully and you could find a new two-bedroom apartment on a modern development for around €250,000, and this would be just an hour’s drive from the airport at Milan and come with stunning lake views.

At 28 miles long, the Y-shaped lake in Lombardy, northern Italy, is surrounded by lush mountains and it’s easy to see why George chose to buy a home there. The property market in the area did slow with the onset of the downturn in 2007, but property prices have not been affected in they way have in other destinations, mainly due to Italy’s controlled development in the Lakes.

James Price, head of international residential development for Knight Frank comments: “Lake Como has fared much in the same way as other prime European markets; the best-located properties remain sought after and largely owners can hold for prices as they are not in need of rapid sales… Prime spots remain lakefront, in particular on the west coast areas in the Cernobbio, Moltrasio and Menaggio stretch and on the eastern side but closer to Como town.”

To understand the full step-by-step process to buying a property in Italy, collect The Overseas Guides Company’s ‘Italy Property Buying Guide’