What's inside $1 houses in Italy?

Sharing her story with Business Insider , Ms. Rubia Daniels (California, USA) said she was very surprised the first time she heard about cheap houses in Italy.

To verify this, she went to Europe herself and "closed the deal" on 3 houses in a small town in Sicily in mid-2019. Notably, Ms. Daniels only spent about 3.3 USD to own all 3 apartments.

Rubia Daniels is renovating the house after buying it. Photo: Rubia Daniels.

Buy a house cheap as if given away

Commenting on her three homes, Ms. Daniels said that the Italian suburban towns reminded her of her childhood home in the suburbs of Brasilia, Brazil. However, what surprised her was how warmly the residents welcomed her. Not only did she love the town’s rich history, Daniels was also excited about the idea of ​​renovating abandoned houses.

“This is good for the environment. We need to stop building and start repairing what we already have,” she said.

Daniels now has different plans for her three homes: one to be converted into an art gallery, one to live in, and one to be used as a community health facility.

The renovation began in 2019 but was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so Daniels is currently traveling back and forth between the US and Italy to complete the home's design.

Current status of the house before and after renovation. Photo: BI.

"Desire" for buyers

In fact, Ms. Daniels is not the only one buying cheap homes as part of a campaign to revive Italy's deserted towns.

Urbanization has led to depopulation in rural areas while cities have become overcrowded due to high population density.

In 2021, nine villages in the south of the country offered to pay Millennials $33,000 to move in on the condition that they help repopulate the towns. And what they all have in common is that they have fewer than 2,000 residents, so if no action is taken, they could become “ghost towns.”

Previously, another province called Calabria also attracted attention when it sold 12 houses for $ 1.14 in the village of Cinquefrondi with the aim of repopulating. In 2019, the town of Cammarata (Cammarata province) even gave away free houses to anyone who wanted to live there. According to Mr. Vincenzo Giambrone - the head of the town, this is part of the effort to prevent the place from "falling into ruins".

You don’t even have to go far to buy a $1 house, the town of Maenza, just outside Rome, has about 100 houses for sale for the same price. According to CNN , these houses were built in the 1700s and have been abandoned for years, so they need people to live in them to restore the town’s appearance.

Some $1 houses in Italy. Photo: BI.

However, living in a $1 house is not easy.

As noted by Business Insider , most of the houses with such prices are in a state of disrepair and often need a large amount of renovation. So, even if you only spend $1 to buy a house, you may have to spend thousands of dollars more on renovations if you want to move here.

BI reporter Tom Murray then toured several $1 homes and found that unfurnished ones were easier to renovate than furnished ones. “They looked like something out of a horror movie,” Murray said.

However, if you are lucky, you can still own a "bargain" which is a house with a solid structure and not too damaged.

The Murray towns make up for their lack of sophistication with friendly people, great food and pleasant weather. The residents of Sambuca have even started learning English to help boost tourism, so you can definitely communicate with them.

Images of some houses after renovation. Photo: BI.

Business Insider reporter expressed optimism about the future of these small towns, "maybe the day these towns are filled with Americans, British, Russians... will not be far away".

However, Mr. Murray also advised those who want to buy a house to grasp information about the real estate condition and have a reasonable renovation plan before buying.

(Source: Zing News)

Useful
Emotion
Creative
Unique

Source: https://vtc.vn/co-gi-ben-trong-nhung-can-nha-gia-1-usd-o-italy-ar783950.html