My husband and I moved to a vibrant little Italian town with $1 homes. We were considering buying one but glad we didn't.
Courtesy of Callie Riemann
- My husband and I are in our early 30s and wanted to buy a home in Italy.
- We were both curious and anxious about Italy's one-euro housing program and the towns they were in.
- We're extremely happy with the tiny town we ended up in but glad we didn't buy a home for one euro.
Last year, my husband and I became intrigued by the one-euro houses in Italy.
We wanted to move to Italy for my husband's work, and between the options of renting an apartment for 500 euros, about $525, a month or buying a house for one euro ($1.05), the latter seemed like the more logical deal.
This one-euro housing scheme has been around for years. Certain Italian municipalities offer homes for as low as one euro in towns where much of the younger population has left to attract young families, businesses, and foreigners to re-bolster the town's waning economy.
I'm 30, and my husband is 32, so we were an ideal fit for the program.
In the end, we still bought a home in one of the towns that offers one-euro houses, but we're glad we decided against opting into the program for a few reasons.
There always seemed to be a catch
Courtesy of Callie Riemann
We checked out threads on Quora and Reddit and chatted with people who had bought cheap homes in Italy to get a sense of what to expect.
We also watched media accounts from BBC and Business Insider of people who bought these homes. However, we never went through one ourselves because, after our initial research, it just sounded like too risky an option.
We didn't want to end up like the man who bought one of these homes sight unseen and then found out the house's structure was crumbling or the couple who had to invest 300,000 euros, about $315,000, in renovations.
Plus, as we dug deeper, we discovered that each municipality had its own stipulations for purchasing one of these homes. These could include requiring you to start a business, finish renovations within two to six years, or live in the house for at least six months out of the year.
These legal stipulations just complicate the buying process and are typically only available in Italian, and we don't speak Italian.
We still moved to a town with 1 euro homes; we just didn't buy one
Courtesy of Callie Riemann
The Italian housing market is very inexpensive in the towns that offer these one-euro homes. However, like the homes, the towns also have a poor reputation for being lifeless places. We were pleasantly surprised that the rumors weren't true for our town.
We ended up buying a 3,121 sq. ft. farmhouse, which was more or less move-in-ready, with an acre of land for 29,000 euros, about $30,400.
The home is in Sant'Elia a Pianisi — a small mountain town in Southern Italy between Naples and Rome with a population of only 1,000.
Sant'Elia may be small, but the town is constantly hosting festivals. There are young families, restaurants, shops, schools, a library, and really everything we need to live comfortably.
Plus, during the summer holidays in August, the town's population triples. Family members and people originally from Sant'Elia who have moved away all return for a month of nonstop celebrations.
We also could not have asked for nicer neighbors. Everyone has been so welcoming — bringing us gifts of homemade cheeses and home-grown pomegranates, squashes, and plums.
Because we chose a house that didn't need to be completely gutted, we have the freedom to renovate when and however our budget allows and are already starting off further along than if we'd opted into the one-euro housing program.
I recommend hiring a property lawyer
I honestly think the one-euro housing program can be great for some people as long as they are aware of the stipulations.
What worked for us and what we would recommend is to hire a property lawyer who has experience in international sales.
We hired one for 6,500 euros, about $6,800, who helped us translate documents and navigate the legalities and many steps of the homebuying process.
It was a huge cost in comparison to buying our house, but we think the cost was worth it because the lawyer helped reduce the risks of buying a home in a country where we didn't speak the language.
We're glad we chose our own way toward buying a home in Italy and still ended up in a vibrant community.
Sant'Elia currently has several one-euro houses for sale.