Moving to that rustic little house in the sunny Italian countryside might once have been a pipe dream. Then the €1 home scheme came along – and nowadays, there are more small towns than ever offering up the chance to live out your dolce vita dreams for less than the price of a cappuccino.
Now another batch of super-cheap houses has just been announced, this time in Penne, a town in Italy’s central Abruzzo region. The town is gorgeous – it features on the official list of I Borghi più belli d’Italia, an association of Italy’s most beautiful small towns – and has bags of charm and culture. It’s also only an hour away from the Adriatic coast by car.
Despite the area’s history, the town has a dwindling population. Locals have been moving away for better job opportunities since the Second World War, and Penne’s mayor Gilberto Petrucci says it’s on the brink of becoming a ‘ghost town’.
Six properties have been sold at slashed prices over the last couple of years, and the town is clearly keen to attract more people, as more €1 homes will become available in the next couple of weeks. According to CNN, up to 40 properties in the town could be looking for new owners.
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The buildings up for grabs are located in the town’s historic centre, some dating back to mediaeval times, others having been built in the early 1900s, and they’re up to three storeys tall.
An tempting detail about Penne’s scheme is that no deposit is needed to secure your property. While other €1 programmes often require a €2,000-5,000 fee to guarantee renovations are made (which is then returned when they are done), Petrucci says the ‘only requirement is that buyers commit to restyling these houses in three years.’
And you don’t even have to do that all by yourself – the town has ‘a team of architects and experts who may advise and support the renovation works, finding builders and surveyors, showing buyers through renderings of what their home will look like once fixed and advising throughout the renovation stages,’ says Petrucci.
If there’s a surplus of applicants, buyers will be chosen based on how good – and fast – their renovation proposals are. There are also liveable properties up for sale for as little as €40,000.
So, if you’re intrigued and keen to start a renovation project of your own in Penne, watch this space for more details. Meanwhile, here are our favourite towns and villages in Italy.
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