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READER INSIGHTS

‘Italy’s one-euro homes cost a lot more than one euro – but can be worth it’

While offers of one-euro homes might sound like a simple route to that dream Italian property, reader John Ware warns the real cost will be higher and that there are no shortcuts for anyone hoping to buy a cheap home.

Published: 6 September 2023 17:27 CEST
Updated: 10 September 2023 08:11 CEST
'Italy's one-euro homes cost a lot more than one euro - but can be worth it'
'One-euro' homes in Italy will definitely cost a lot more than that, but they can still be worth it says reader John Ware. Photo: David Tip on Unsplash

Over the years I have bought several properties across various parts of Italy including in Campania, Basilicata, Puglia and Le Marche.

The reality is that all the fees and add-ons mean the real cost of buying these properties is much higher than one euro.

However, here’s my bottom line: I paid an average of just over €1,000 for each property, save for one.

One property near Matera was an estate and the previous owner went bankrupt. Since the property was paid for, I only have to pay taxes, insurance and upkeep on it. It was a great find to turn into a bed and breakfast.

If you are looking to buy then your best bet is to go to the region you want to buy in.

Meet the locals and get to know them. Develop relationships. Get to know the area. And I don’t mean like a tourist, or even someone who wants to spend some extended time there. No, I mean get to know the area like you’ve lived there for 30 years. This takes time and effort.

Then you need to find an avvocato (lawyer) who is well-versed in local real estate.

There are no shortcuts to buying property in Italy. I like to outwork everyone. And trying to wing it with regards to the property laws and regulations is a fool’s errand.

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Your banking situation must be cleared up (get an Italian bank account first) and ensure that whatever the cost of your purchase is — whether it was cheap like mine or you’re buying from a realtor and are loaded — you have extra money on top of the cost of the property.

If you plan to buy a property in Italy, on average whether it’s a one-euro home or anything else, you can expect to pay a premium of 10 to 20 percent to fix it up, renovate it, change it around, cover the ‘hidden fees’, etc.

Sure, sometimes it could be a lot more and sometimes these costs might add up to hardly anything, but people should know that ‘one euro’ properties in Italy are not ‘one euro’ properties, in reality.

READ ALSO: ‘We bought the cheapest house in Piedmont and live mortgage free’

Failure to do this leads to delays, and someone swooping in to take your prize away from you.

My total outlay for the properties I mentioned was just shy of €70,000. All seven properties have since been valued at around €2.3million.

Get to know the locals, the language (at least, intermediate level), the local culture and above all, be patient.

Buying a property in Italy takes time and effort, but also analysis, people skills, and the love of the culture and customs of any area, region or country you’re considering.

John Ware, who was born in the US, but has lived in various parts of Italy over the years.

Do you agree with our reader? Share your own opinions in the comments section below, or if you have any tips, insights or views about an aspect of life in Italy that you want to share with other readers then email us at [email protected]

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MOVING TO ITALY

Readers recommend: Eight books you must read to understand Italy

After we published our own recommendations of some of the best books to read for those considering a move to Italy, The Local's readers weighed in with suggestions of your own.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:24 CEST
Readers recommend: Eight books you must read to understand Italy

In our previous guide to some of the best books to read before moving to Italy, we asked our readers to get in touch with your recommendations.

A number of you responded with your favourite reads about Italy; here’s what you suggested:

Ciao Bella – Six Take Italy

An anonymous reader describes this as “a delightful book about an Australian radio presenter who takes her husband and four children Bologna for a year which turns into two years (one being Covid).”

Kate Langbroek’s comic memoir “had me laughing and crying,” they write.

A Small Place in Italy

An apt choice for those considering their own rural Italian renovation project, Sam Cross recommends this book by British writer Eric Newby about buying, remodelling and moving into a cottage in the Tuscan countryside.

Cross also recommends Newby’s earlier work, ‘Love and War in the Appennines’, about his time as a British prisoner of war captured in Italy by the Germans in WWII.

READ ALSO: Eight of the best books to read before moving to Italy

Here, the author tells of his escape assisted by local partisans, “including a girl, Wanda, who became his future wife. A beautiful story,” says Cross.

The Italians

The Italians is written by veteran Italy correspondent John Hooper, who formerly wrote for the Guardian and is now the Economist’s Italy and Vatican reporter.

From politics to family traditions and the Mafia, the book tackles a range of aspects of Italian history and culture without getting lost in the weeds.

Simone in Rome describes it as “the best single volume on Italian customs and culture there is”.

READ ALSO: Nine things to expect if you move to rural Italy

Venice

It may be more than six decades old, but Jan Morris’s Venice is still considered one of the definitive English-language works on the lagoon city.

Book, Venice, library

A woman reads a book in Venice’s famous Acqua Alta library. Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Though a work of non-fiction, the book has been compared to Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited for its nostalgic, evocative tone.

“A personal view, beautifully written,” recommends reader Mary Austern.

Thin Paths

Described as a mix of travel book and memoir, Thin Paths is written by Julia Blackburn, who moved with her husband into a small house in the hills of Liguria in 1999.

Despite arriving with no Italian, over time she befriended her elderly neighbours, who took her into their confidence and shared stories of the village’s history under the control of a tyrannical landowner and the outbreak of World War II.

“Write it down for us,” they told her, “because otherwise it will all be lost.”

READ ALSO: Six things foreigners should expect if they live in Rome

In Other Words

If you’re currently learning Italian, consider Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri’s In Other Words / In Altre Parole, which discusses the writer’s journey towards mastery of Italian through full immersion.

Reader Brett says, “The book is written in both Italian and English, presented on opposite pages, so it’s also a nice learning tool!”

Lahiri has since written Racconti Romani, or Roman Tales, a series of short stories set in and around Rome riffing off Alberto Moravia’s 1954 short story collection of the same name.

A Rosie Life in Italy

Ginger Hamilton says she would “highly recommend the ‘A Rosie Life in Italy’ series by Rosie Meleady.”

It’s “the delightfully written true story of an Irish couple’s move to Italy, purchase of a home, the process of rehabbing it, and their life near Lago di Trasimeno.”

The Dark Heart of Italy

Reader William describes The Dark Heart of Italy by Tobias Jones as an “excellent” book.

The product of a three-year journey across the Italy, Jones takes on the darker side of Italian culture, from organised crime to excessive bureaucracy.

Though it was published in 2003, Dark Heart stands the test of time: “twenty-odd years old but the essential truth of it hasn’t changed,” William writes.

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