Italian Homes- Same Price as an Espresso!

Wednesday 27th of November 2019

Italian Homes- Same Price as an Espresso!

Several towns are selling old homes for a dollar, including Zungoli and Bivona. The trend started a decade ago when the mayor of Salemi, a small town in Sicily, came up with the idea of selling abandoned homes from a 1968 earthquake to anyone who would agree to renovate them for just one Euro. 

The $1 house scheme is an increasingly-common ploy to bring people back to Old Italian villages that have lost their populations in the last 100 years. Half a million people left Southern Italy due to growing poverty and financial crisis in early 2000s. 

These homes are definitely cheap- but what’s the other side of it? The abandoned homes need a lot of work, requiring thousands of dollars in restoration and renovation.