Interest in buying property in southern Italy has soared thanks to the amount of good press the area has received in recent times, according to a foreign property website.

Spokesperson for Propertyshowrooms.com Andy Welland said that the location that most investors were concentrating on within the area was Calabria, which had the added advantage of regular flights from the UK with low-cost airline Ryanair.

Barclays Bank was now offering up to 80 per cent mortgages for UK buyers of Italian property, he explained, with Ryanair also looking to extend its services in the summer months.

However, Mr Welland warned investors to get in quickly as prices in the region were set to rise "very, very quickly", with costs set to reach a similar level to the Spanish property market within the next two to three years.

Although offering relatively high property prices for investors, director of property publication Amberlamb Rhiannon Williamson recently commended the Spanish homes market for the "evergreen" opportunities and excellent fundamentals it offered buyers.

However, Mr Welland advised potential buyers in south Italy to make sure that due diligence had been carried out on any investment property.

He said: "[It's] a really, really good market, but it doesn't matter where it is, whether it's Italy, Morocco, Brazil…make sure that either yourself or the agent you’re dealing with can get you all the due diligence that you require."