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03rd Apr 2024

You can now buy a house in Italy for less than the price of a coffee

JOE

Imagine working from home – but from Italy

If you are going a little stir-crazy looking out your window at the same view that you have been looking at for 14 months now, you are no doubt not alone. Working from home, staying at home, staycationing at home – I think it is safe to say we are all dreaming of getting away somewhere at this stage.

So how does a little holiday home on in the midst of the Italian countryside sound? Like heaven? I know.

And right now, you can actually pick one up for less than the price of your daily takeaway latte.

In the Italian town of Patricia in central Italy, desolate homes are being sold for just one euro – the equivalent of just 86p.

It’s not the first time an opportunity like this has come up in Italy – Sicily’s Mussomeli and the Campania region’s Zungoli have both found success by selling homes off for pennies.

However, per CNN, Patricia is struggling to sell its homes despite the cheap price tags, as in order to move in you need to acquire permission from the people who own the properties. This is a tad tricky, though, seeing as many vacated their homes in the early 1900s.

“We first need the availability of owners, or their heirs, in disposing of their old houses,” Lucio Fiordaliso, mayor of the village, said. “Only then can we place these properties up for sale with their consent, which makes the process very complicated. Almost impossible.”

The village, located in the mountainous Lazio region, is home to 3000 people, and of the two homes that have been sold for one euro so far, both of these have been owned by those who live locally.

“The disposal of potential one euro homes faced a deadlock as most relatives sharing the same property were at odds with one another for personal reasons or couldn’t agree on the sale, some hardly spoke or knew each other, others lived in distant cities and even abroad,” Fiordaliso added.

He explained that trying to find the owners of the deserted properties was like “looking for a needle in a haystack.” 

Related links:

You can now buy a house in Sicily for less than the price of a coffee

Featured image credit: Beatrice/Wikimedia Commons