Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

PROPERTY

Why this Brit is selling off his idyllic Italian home in a raffle

Italy is one of the few places in Europe where property prices are falling. Writer John Henderson meets one English family who came up with a novel way to beat the market: raffling off their cottage in rural Abruzzo.

Published: 15 March 2019 13:48 CET
Why this Brit is selling off his idyllic Italian home in a raffle
This house in rural Abruzzo could be yours, for the price of a raffle ticket. Photo: Jamie Abbott/Win a House in Italy

Owning a home in rural Italy is as romantic as it sounds. Wake up to sunshine nine months a year, see rolling green hills above pretty, undisturbed meadows. Shop for fresh food every day in open-air markets and walk along millennium-old, cobblestone roads meant only for foot traffic.

Yes, buying a house in Italy is the stuff of dreams. But try selling one.

In the last few years, that has become a nightmare. Italy is one of the few countries in Europe where property prices are going down. According to Istat, Italy’s national statistics institute, last year Italy’s property prices dropped 0.8 percent, the most in Europe next to Sweden’s 2.1. 

READ ALSO: What's wrong with the Italian property market?

Well, one man has found a way to beat the market: a raffle.

Jamie Abbott, originally from Colchester in the UK, is raffling off his three-story house in a village in rural Abruzzo, maybe the most underrated, prettiest, unspoiled region in Italy. He is selling raffle tickets for £50 (about €59) and will hold the draw in October.

A long shot? Maybe, but how often can one buy a €250,000 house – his asking price before the raffle – for €59?

Like so many homeowners in Italy, Abbott has become a victim of the housing crash. Somewhere between the time writer Frances Mayes made a house in Italy hot property with Under the Tuscan Sun in 1996 to Italy’s current recession, a house in Italy went from cool to ice cold.

“The property market is so bad that even for a gorgeous house like [this]…” Abbott said by phone this week.

“People loved the house because in this particular area it’s almost impossible to find a detached house with a garden near the historical centre of the village. So it was getting a lot of interest, but people just weren’t going any further than that.”

FOR MEMBERS: How to buy a house in Italy


This house could be yours. Photo: Win a House in Italy/Facebook

The house is 120 square metres with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It features curved brick and stone ceilings and vines stretching over the door frames. It has great views of the surrounding countryside, situated near the southern Gran Sasso mountains and just under 8,400-foot Monte Prena.

It’s located at 850 metres in the village of Carapelle Calvisio, just 18 miles from the Abruzzo capital of L’Aquila on the edge of the Gran Sasso National Park. With only 90 inhabitants, Carapelle Calvisio wears the crown as the smallest town in Abruzzo. The former Roman village is known for its truffles and is so picturesque it was used as the setting for Ladyhawke, a 1985 medieval fantasy film starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Broderick.

Abbott and his wife Lea went all out to make this raffle happen. He hired a specialist to put together a website and is spreading the word by strategically leaking publicity on Facebook group pages and travel websites. They have a Facebook page and Instagram account.

READ MORE: Finding a home in the Italian countryside: a survivors' guide

The terrace. Photo: Win a House in Italy/Facebook

Financially, it makes sense. Abbott has 6,000 tickets available. If he sells all of them for £50 each, it will earn £300,000 (about €351,000). That’s more than the property is worth. He is also raffling a second prize of £10,000 (€11,700) with five third prizes of food and wine hampers. First prize also includes all notary costs, car rental and flights from anywhere in Europe.

Since the raffle launched last April, they’ve sold just under 3,000 tickets and must reach 4,000 to cover costs.

“We’re just being as open and transparent as possible,” Abbott said. “We want to give the raffle authenticity to make it personal.”

READ ALSO: 

House raffles have been popular in the UK for years, but in desperate Italy they’ve gone past raffles and are practically giving away houses. Last year the dying village of Sambuca, Sicily, announced it would sell houses for €1. Two catches: buyers had to commit €15,000 for renovations and put up a security deposit of €5,000.

It didn’t put off many. Tens of thousands responded, including US lawyers who wanted to do business and a Dubai woman who wanted to buy dozens of houses. The local mayor had to put up the town’s first stop sign, in the form of Non più! ('No more!').

In 2017 another mayor in Bormida, Liguria, posted an announcement of €2,000 bonuses for anyone relocating there. After 17,000 applications buried his office, he quickly removed the proposal, saying it was only an idea to the regional government. In January 2018 the town of Ollolai in Sardinia sold 200 uninhabited houses for a euro each. Gangi in Sicily has sold homes for €1 euro since 2014.

Sounds desperate? It is. This is the Italian real estate market’s equivalent to global warming. Italian authorities predict half of Italy’s smallest towns will become deserted in the coming decades.


A view of the village from Abbott's house. Photo: Jamie Abbott/Win a House in Italy

Abbott is aware of the skepticism. “People are like, 'It must be a scam, because it’s too good to be true',” he said. “We’ve published this on many group pages, like Facebook. But before they even look at the site they instantly come back with a cry of ‘Scam! Be careful’. I personally reply to every single one of those saying 'Actually, it’s not'. We’re trying to be open and transparent. Fifty percent come back and go, ‘OK, my apologies. My bad. Because I didn’t read it.’”

He set the price at £50 to ensure people are willing to make the commitment. Unlike the €1 homes in Sicily, this home needs no renovation. In fact, because the national park is between the house and L’Aquila, and its foundation is natural rock, the house suffered no damage during the 2009 earthquake that destroyed much of L’Aquila and killed 308 people in the area.

READ ALSO: A long history of destructive earthquakes in Italy

Unfortunately, even so, not many want to buy in regions where people get buried in their own homes. Combine that with a general downturn in the foreign market to buy second homes in Europe and you see what Abbott is facing.

I asked him, so why sell at all? He has an online Italian antique business and wanted to sell the house to start another project. He currently rents it out as an AirBnB and lives in the nearby village of Caporciano.


One of the house's curving ceilings. Photo: Win a House in Italy/Facebook

He does not want to leave Abruzzo. We both agree it’s one of Italy’s best-kept secrets. He first discovered it about 15 years ago when he rode an old Italian Vespa from London through France, Spain, Corsica and Sardinia onto the Italian mainland and then to Abruzzo, the region just east of Rome’s Lazio.

He fell in love with Abruzzo and bought the house in Caporciano. His parents followed him and bought a small apartment as well. Three years later, they bought the house they’re raffling.

“There’s so much to do here,” he said. “It’s like going to Tuscany but it’s completely undiscovered. You feel you’ve got something to discover and explore. It’s not overrun with tourists, even in the height of high season in August.

“You can hike on your own. There are lakes. You can ski in the morning, you can swim in the afternoon in the sea. You’ve got massive diversity of landscapes and within half hour of the house there are four national parks, one of which the house is literally on the doorstep.”

Ticket sales end on September 30th and the raffle will be held sometime in October, depending on the notary. For more information, see the website. 

John Henderson is an American writer living in Rome. This is an edited version of an article that was originally published on his blog, Dog-Eared Passport. Find more of his stories here.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

PROPERTY

Five pitfalls to watch out for when buying an old house in Italy

Tempted to snap up a little slice of Italy at a bargain price? The older the house, the more potential issues you'll need to be aware of.

Published: 29 March 2024 10:17 CET
Updated: 29 March 2024 12:03 CET
Five pitfalls to watch out for when buying an old house in Italy

Italians themselves may have very little interest in buying or fixing up Italy’s many unwanted old houses, but international visitors are often swept away by the charm of these rustic buildings in romantic settings.

It’s easy to see why. The quirky structures, period details, and picturesque surroundings – not to mention low asking prices – inspire countless people worldwide every year to investigate buying an Italian home of their own, often as an investment or retirement property.

MAP: Where in Italy can you buy homes for one euro?

International interest in cheap Italian property has only intensified in recent years, with dozens of idyllic villages advertising ‘one euro’ homes and other low-cost property offers aimed specifically at foreigners.

Savvy buyers are aware that non è tutto oro quel che luccica (all that glitters is not gold), and quickly realise that these long-neglected buildings really cost somewhat more than one euro to buy and renovate. Still, some of The Local’s readers tell us these offers are worth taking advantage of.

But whether you’re looking at spending a couple of thousand euros or much more on your dream Italian property, there’s always a lot to consider – including some issues that you’re unlikely to experience when buying a home in your home country.

These unexpected issues can turn the Italian dream into a bit of a nightmare, and sometimes lead to buyers having to abandon a purchase, losing money in the process.

But if you’re aware of potential pitfalls in advance, you’re far more likely to be able to complete the purchase process with no major problems at all.

Property taxes and fees

Of course you’ll be expecting tax as part of the property purchase process, but Italian property taxes are particularly steep.

Experts say the total cost of buying in Italy will add approximately ten percent to the purchase price, and advise prospective buyers to budget accordingly.

There’s stamp duty, which is between two and nine percent of the cadastral value (valore catastale) of the property, with a minimum threshold of €1,000 even on the cheapest homes. Plus VAT at four or ten percent, land registry tax, and, if applicable, mortgage tax.

You can also expect to pay between one and five percent of the purchase price as a fee to the estate agent. In Italy agents work for both the buyer and seller – and collect compensation from both parties once the deal is done.

Then you’ll likely need a couple of thousand euros for the notary, plus a similar fee for any other agents you use, such as a mortgage broker, plus legal fees if a lawyer is involved.

See more about the ‘hidden’ costs of buying property as a foreigner in Italy.

Bickering relatives

It may sound unbelievable to non-Italians, but it’s not unusual to find that even the smallest old properties, or parts of them, are legally divided up between dozens of family members due to Italy’s inheritance rules.

One buyer The Local spoke to found herself having to deal with 22 people, all relatives, who each turned out to own a share of a small property she was buying in Mussomeli, Sicily; one of the first places in the country to sell off old properties for a euro.

Toti Nigrelli, the mayor of Mussomeli, said “having to negotiate the sale with multiple owners” was normal.

While this buyer impressively managed to negotiate the deal with all 22 parties, in many cases similar sales fall through because relatives – distant cousins, great-aunts, long-lost nephews – are often not on good terms, disagree over the sale, or can’t be traced.

At the very least, you will need to check the property’s records carefully to make sure there are no surprises in store – such as long-lost relatives who might turn up to claim the property back after you’ve bought it.

A trullo house before renovation in Cisternino, Puglia. AFP PHOTO / GIUSEPPE CACACE

Illegal builds

Another thing that often astounds foreigners who buy property in Italy is the enormous number of illegal builds – homes that were built entirely without permits – on the market as well as the even greater number of houses featuring modifications which were never officially approved or recorded.

Illegal housebuilding in Italy is often thought of as a decades-old issue, but recent data shows that, in 2021, 15 houses were built illegally for ever 100 authorised. Illegal building is twice as common in the south of the country as in the north, and thousands of cases are detected every year – though few people are ever prosecuted.

If you buy a house with undeclared modifications, the buyer is usually held responsible for paying to regularise the paperwork with the town hall. If you catch this issue early enough – and not all sellers or estate agents will inform you about them – you may be able to negotiate for the seller to cover these costs before you make an agreement.

If however you end up unknowingly buying a house built without the correct permissions, or if you never regularise any unauthorised changes, the property will likely prove very difficult to sell on.

This is one of many reasons why buyers need to carefully check the catasto (land registry or cadastral records) of a property themselves, and have a notary check everything is in order.

Conservation rules

When you initially view and fall in love with that charming stone house in the historic centre of a gorgeous Italian hilltop town, rules and regulations are probably not the first thing on your mind.

But it pays to know that old homes featuring frescoes, loggias or ancient stone cellars, as appealing as they are, are often protected by Italy’s cultural heritage authority – meaning more red tape for their owners.

One reader was forced to give up her dream of buying a portion of a two-floor 1700s building in the village of Civita Castellana, Lazio, because it needed renovation work to make it livable – but the frescoed walls, decorated fireplaces and elegant stonework entrance were vincolati (under restrictions) due to Italy’s historic conservation rules.

READ ALSO: Tuscany or Basilicata? How Italy’s international property market is changing

In many cases, this means renovation work can’t be carried out at all, or will be subject to reams of paperwork and close monitoring from authorities known as the sovraintendenza belle arti. To make things trickier, rules can also vary by local authority.

If you think a property you’re interested in might be subject to these rules, it’s always wise to consult the local sovraintendenza at an early stage. And of course, you’ll want to get hold of the records of the property from the catasto (land registry).

Resale prices

The high taxes and costs involved in buying and selling a property in Italy are often said to be one reason why, for most Italians, the concept of climbing the property ladder doesn’t really exist in the way it does in some countries.

Italy’s property market is unusual in Europe in that house prices on average are relatively stagnant. With the exception of some types of property – such as new-build apartments and luxury homes – overall prices have risen little over the past decade.

This is partly because the Italian market is weighed down by a large volume of old, neglected properties in need of major work – hence schemes like the one-euro sales and the (formerly popular but now-unavailable) 110 percent ‘superbonus’ for renovations.

But overall, if your main motivation for buying an old Italian home and renovating it is profit, you’ll need to consider that the resale potential may not be what you’d hope. The exceptions to this are at the pricier end of the market, in most major city centres, and in tourist hotspots.

See more in The Local’s Italian property section.

Do you have any more tips on buying a property in Italy? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

SHOW COMMENTS