Can you buy a house in Italy for €1?
Buying a doer-upper in Italy for the price of an espresso is a mouth-watering idea.
Begun in 2008, the country’s “Case 1 Euro” or “one euro house” scheme was the idea of a Sicilian mayor as a solution to the issue of a growing number of empty houses in his town of Salemi. Since then the scheme has attracted around 1,200 buyers, with around a third of them renovating a Sicilian townhouse like Amanda Holden and Alan Carr in their popular BBC series.
But can you still do it, how does it work and what are the big drawbacks?
Yes, the schemes do still exist, and it’s a case of either approaching the local municipalities – about 70 are offering houses this way - or one of the agents who specialise in sourcing and hand-holding foreign buyers through the process. Portals also list them. Of course this hand-holding service comes at a cost, so you have to look way beyond the €1 fee. There is often a waiting list for €1 properties too, even an auction.
Look beyond the €1 headline
First up there’s a security deposit of €3,000-5,000 that is payable to the local municipality. This bond is returnable when you have renovated within three years, as is the key condition of the deal. There’s a 65% completion rate, according to a local agent.
Also part of the buying costs are notary fees from €1,500 and legal fees from €2,000. You will need to add in travelling costs to view the property, and any professional advice (surveyor) you might use in the process.
Then there are the renovation costs, which will be at least €30,000, but many actually do go up to €50,000 or even €90,000 if it’s a larger property, or you go super high-spec. Basic renovation might be around €1,500 per square metre. For a 40 square metre village house this is €60,000.
This means that realistically your €1 home will probably cost €40,000 minimum. Now that is still not a lot for a charming stone house in the Italian sun, but with that sum in mind there are alternatives, especially if you do not want to wait several months or even years to be able to complete your property.
Alternative bargains
Consider that you could spend more than €1 on a home but only €10,000 or so on renovation and suffer a lot less stress! There are houses in nice hilltop villages in Sicily that are partially renovated or in better condition that you can buy for €30,000. Pollina is one place to look.
Other great locations to look are Calabria and Abruzzo. In these locations you will find homes that are not fixer-uppers, they might just need some cosmetic updating rather than a restoration of alarming scale. In Abruzzo, you can find a three-bedroom townhouse for €24,000, or in Calabria, a turnkey three-bedroom apartment for €25,500. Northern Tuscany might also yield some properties for less than €50,000.
Also bear in mind that if you buy in towns or villages of less than 30,000 inhabitants in the southern half of Italy you may well be able to apply for the 7% flat tax regime, if you decide to move there full time.
If you are renovating, you may be able to offset some of the costs by government 36-50% tax deduction schemes for renovation works (some for primary residency, others for energy-efficiency improvements) – do your research. The scheme’s success at attracting investors to depopulated villages they would not even have considered has spawned efforts in other countries to do the same but do any of the alternatives measure up?
Whilst Italy’s scheme has primarily drawn foreign buyers, some other initiatives incentivise local people to revive struggling areas – or to attract their own nationals back to their homeland.
search for properties in italy
Want information on how to buy or move to Italy?
Join us at A Place in the Sun Live in Birmingham next week! We'll be at the NEC from the 18th - 20th September where you can meet property experts from Italy who can answer any questions you may have.
