How to buy (and renovate) the Italian home of your dreams for less than €100,000

The promise of buying property on the cheap attracts masses of potential buyers. The "Homes for One Euro" campaign was a calibrated marketing campaign that strung together the unenviable idea that we could buy our own Italian renovation project for the price of an espresso. This was followed by prime time TV shows. We admired the restoration of two apartments in the medieval Sicilian town of Salemi, featured on the BBC program "The Italian Job," or the project of "The Sopranos" actress Lorraine Bracco in Sambuca on "My Big Italian Adventure. "

But while the one-euro campaign has grabbed headlines, many shoppers are still spending a little more for its Italian benefits. "It's a great slogan, of course,'''but in every village, in addition to the €1 homes, there are higher priced homes with lower renovation costs,' says Maurizio Berti, owner of property advice website Case a 1 Euro. "We have had buyers who were able to spend less than €10,000 (£8,660) on a property and its renovation costs were below the €90,000 a 1 Euro buyer would normally spend." His company helps plan trips to villages and arranges meetings with local mayors and project managers - things that foreign buyers who don't speak Italian can have difficulty with.

Homes for 1 euro are usually sold by local government, not real estate agencies, with the bureaucracy involved in dealing with''by public authorities, in a different language. You need to renovate the property for two to four years and pay a 'guarantee fee' of between €2,000 and €5,000 at the beginning (terms vary depending on location).

Shirley Engelmayer:

Shirley Engelmayer, a 70-year-old business owner from Minneapolis, in the United States, is keen on the concept of €1 homes in 2019. Instead of renovating a €1 home, Shirley and Steve Engelmayer decided to buy a town house in Sicily that required less work. After several visits to Sambuca, Sicily - one of the most famous villages in the program, including Salemi, Mussomeli and Gangi - she was won over by the "beautiful, gracious culture" of the Sicilians and decided to buy a house there. She says: "There were waiting lists for €1 houses, and''Some were even coming up for auction, and I realized I couldn't be on the island often enough to oversee the renovations.' "Then I had an epiphany when an agent said to me, '\''you're in an old village, so do you still need an old house?'\' I decided no." Together with her husband, they bought a three-bedroom, four-storey town house built in 1975 for 45,000 euros last year. Cosmetic repairs and new heating cost another 12,000 euros. "It's wonderful, the locals welcome us and we dance at their parties," she says. "I still know other Americans in our WhatsApp group for €1 who need real estate. We visit them twice a year while we are both still working. "

She is far from the only one looking for cheap real estate in Italy,''Although many buyers are willing to pay a little more than €1.

Valerio Gruessner:

According to Property in Sicily estate agent Valerio Gruessner, getting low taxes has become popular in Italy since the beginning of 2023, which is also attracting foreign buyers: in''ahomeinitaly.com, a real estate consultant for foreign buyers in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. 'The 90/10 ratio between British buyers and Americans has changed completely. It's still a popular area for Brits looking for a vacation home. 100,000 euros can be spent wisely, Abruzzo has many towns with populations of less than 20,000 and buyers have easy access to the Adriatic coast and mountains. Clients of ahomeinitaly.com are often attracted to buying property in the Abruzzo region because of its authenticity and proximity to the sea. Historic villages in the green hills of Valle Pelini, close to good transportation links such as the rail line toRome, are particularly popular, especially Pacentro, Riano and Vittorito,''Says Mr. Benton. 'You can easily find a house to renovate for €20,000 or a dwelling fit for habitation for €50,000.' He says that once renovated, these village homes can be rented out on AirBnb for between €70 and €100 a night. After a failed attempt to move to France in 2016, Ruth and Nick from Somerset are in the process of buying a two-bedroom house in Vittorito for €60,000. These retirees, both 62, intend to use it as a holiday home and then possibly move permanently. "We didn't even know where Abruzzo was, but we went there by car last year and thought how beautiful and undiscovered the place was and that there weren't many tourists," says Ruth. 'I think that's reflected in the prices. The house we're buying,''fully habitable, although it has been empty for two years'.