MOST READ TRAVEL
A week ago, France was offering to pay people to come and live in (and renovate) historic homes in the Hauts-de-France region. If you missed out on that opportunity, Italy is taking a cue from its European neighbor and selling homes for $1.12 (or €1).
There are 500 homes that are up for the sale, according to The Daily Mail, and anyone who snags one of the homes must renovate it within three years of purchase. Anyone who signs into the deal will, of course, be spending more than $1.12, but they’ll still be catching a mighty bargain.
The first catch: If they can’t make that deadline, then the homeowner will lose deposit put down on the home (in addition to the buying price of $1.12). Reportedly, that deposit sits around $8,000. There are also admin fees associated with the homes, ranging between $4,000 and $6,750. Then there’s the cost of actually renovating the homes. While it varies among the different buildings, it’s been estimated that it’ll cost around $107 per square foot of space to renovate the home.
So why is it worth it to uproot your life for an opportunity like this? One thing: The homes are all located in Mussomeli, a town in scenic southern Sicily. There’s even a castle in the area, so you can live out your ideal life spending your days frolicking through green fields and drinking all of the wine.
If this sounds like something you need in your life, there’s a website that lists out all of the homes for sale. It also seems like the project homes will be part of a television series, according to a pop-up ad on the website. Either way, renovating a home in Sicily sounds less like work and more like a daydream to us—think, Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun.
