Why are we buying a house in Italy instead of in regional Victoria?

Moving to Italy may seem like an unconventional way to cope with high housing prices in Australia, but that's exactly what Jarred did earlier this year. The 36-year-old man, along with his 29-year-old wife Aurora and their two young children, was searching for a home in regional Victoria, hoping to find a place they could call their own. However, after failing to buy a house in Castlemaine, Victoria, which sold for $50,000 over the asking price, they were inspired to reconsider their plan and move toTuscany, Italy, where Aurora grew up.

In Arezzo

The couple is looking at "really decent" houses priced at $300,000, much less if they decide to go for an apartment. We spoke with Jarred about the decision to give up the Australian dream and look for something elsewhere. Here’s what he said.

• Quote:“We didn’t want to get stuck. We were quite overwhelmed after the failure with the house in Castlemaine. It was just a two-bedroom place, and the most appealing thing was that it was barely affordable. But then it sold for $50,000 over the asking price. We realized that we would have to save for an even larger down payment, my wife would have to work more, and we would be stretching ourselves too thin.”
• Quote:“We have always wanted to live in the countryside, so Castlemaine was on our list, but we couldn’t afford to buy a house there, so we decided, ‘Alright, let’s just take a chance on Italy.’”

The first three months were quite terrible, to be honest. Aurora's mom knew people who had a vacant house that no one was living in. We were grateful for the opportunity not to search for a rental, but a lot had to be done to make that house livable. We faced numerous bureaucratic issues to obtain residency here, and we had some problems with the car we bought while trying to settle the kids - all these difficulties just became part of our everyday life. We didn't foresee this. We knew that the language and the new environment would be challenging, but dealing with such administrative hurdles was tough. It took a lot of time, but now we have started to get back to normal.

So there have been ups and downs. But I'm starting to feel that this is no longer "preparation," but real life. I was surprised by how strong my children turned out to be. It was even hard for my oldest son, who is three years old, to leave his friends, kindergarten, and family. But now we see opportunities, and we see the positive sides.

Goal

It comes down to staying here for at least two years, possibly longer, but we are just trying to figure out what our options are. My wife is exploring various opportunities to teach English, and I will probably do the same at first. We still don't fully understand how much we will earn and what our limits are. Our initial down payment for a house in Australia will go much further here, but we just need more time to understand what will happen with work. We have been looking and have seen that you can buy two or three-bedroom apartments in the city for prices ranging from 80,000 to 100,000 euros (about $115,000 to $145,000) or really nice houses for $350,000. There are places outside the city, huge old stone villas like country houses. There are also properties with ancient stone farmhouses, then apartments that can be bought as separate units or as a whole. Together with friends, we could each spend around $90,000 to buy a large place in the countryside. We just want to find ourselves in a situation where we feel comfortable and can work, but not be overwhelmed by all the other stresses of life.