Hi, y’all! We are from Texas, USA. We keep finding articles on Internet showing Italian real estate being sold for mere 1 Euro as such https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/cinquefrondi-italy-one-euro-houses .
Does anyone know what’s the catch? This forum seems as decent community and I hope to get some honest answers as we are planning to buy some real estate property and eventually move to Italy when all the covid madness will come to the end.

Madelene and Joe

Yes, there some villages that are doing that. However, there are few cons:
— all houses are in state of despair and it will cost small (or big) fortune to fix them and you have to fix them otherwise it’ll be taken from you.
— you have to live in them after you fixed it for a few years before you can sell them.
— you still need to pay notary fees which are usually between 3000 and 5000 euros (incl purchase tax)
— you won’t be able to sell house for few years.. and, if you do, no way you’ll get all your money back
and last but not least, all these properties in very remote locations, that’s why they are falling apart as no one wants to live there (no work, nothing interesting around, no sea etc)

Obviously, it’s for everyone’s to decide but I would steer clear of those options  



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 01/21/21 12:36AM.

mozg wrote:

Yes, there some villages that are doing that. However, there are few cons:
— all houses are in state of despair and it will cost small (or big) fortune to fix them and you have to fix them otherwise
it’ll be taken from you.
— you have to live in them after you fixed it for a few years before you can sell them.
— you still need to pay notary fees which are usually between 3000 and 5000 euros
(incl purchase tax)
— you won’t be able to sell house for few years.. and, if you do, no way you’ll get all your money back
and last but not least, all these properties in very remote locations,
that’s why they are falling apart as no one wants to live there (no work, nothing interesting around, no sea etc)

Obviously, it’s for everyone’s to decide but I would steer clear of those options




Edited 1 times. Last edit at 01/20/21 09:36PM.

Thank you for the thorough reply. Id does make sense.

Yes, this is terrible idea unless you want a half broken house in the town in the middle of nowhere with 20 local residents with average age of 90 y.o. LOL

In order for investments to be correct, you need to look at the popularity of the city. I heard that there is a BBC project coming up soon to renovate a €1 house in Sicily. Thanks to the popularity and increased demand from tourists, you can return your costs. But I am personally confused by the Italian bureaucracy and the need to obtain 10s permits. I am currently actively researching this project. I’ll get back with the news

I wouldn’t go down this road, so many hidden things involved.