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PROPERTY

Will this town in southern Italy really pay your rent if you move there?

As one depopulated Italian town offers to contribute towards new residents' rent or the purchase of a home, we ask if the offer is too good to be true.

Published: 19 February 2020 12:11 CET
Will this town in southern Italy really pay your rent if you move there?
The town of Teora, Avellino. Photo courtesy of Enzo Ciccone/Facebook

We've all heard about how small Italian villages – and even one city – are selling off unloved old houses for a euro in a bid to attract new residents.

But now one town in southern Italy has come up with what it says is a better way of countering the problem of depopulation.

READ ALSO: These are all the Italian towns offering houses for one euro

While the €1 home deals have been a success across Italy, with buyers from far and wide committing to investing in extensive renovation works, there are concerns that buyers are just snapping up cheap holiday homes, which will then be left empty for much of the year – doing little to solve the town's problems.

The location of Teora. Screenshot: Google Maps

The town of Teora, in the Campania region, is instead offering a contribution towards the cost of either renting or buying a house in the town.

Set in the wild, inland province of Irpinia, Teora in is about a two-hour drive from the Amalfi Coast or the city of Naples.

Teora. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Teoravventura

Many residents left Teora following a devastating earthquake in 1980, and the population is now down to just 1,500.

Teora's local council has offered a contribution of 150 euros per month towards the rent for two years, or a one-time payment of 5,000 euros towards buying a home.

The average local rent in Teora is already very low, at around 200 euros per month for a house, and reports in CNN and other outlets say new residents may need to pay just 50 euros monthly for the rent on their new home.

The average cost of monthly rent in Italy is around 600 euros.

READ ALSO: 

Mayor Stefano Farina told CNN: “I don't believe in selling empty houses for €1, that doesn't incentivise people to stay in town.”

“They just come a few months a year as holidaymakers. That's not the solution. But taking up residency and enrolling kids at the local school, that does breathe new life.”

To make sure that doesn't happen in Teora, people benefitting from the scheme will need to take up residency in Teora for at least three years, and the offer is only open to people with one or more children.

While many one euro homes need serious renovations, the homes in Teora are said to have been recently rebuilt following the earthquake.

Residential buildings in Teora. Photo: Michele Notaro/Comune di Teora

The town has also said it would waive school meal fees and taxes on local services for new residents.

And the offer is open to non-Italians who are prepared to make the move.

“So far two Italian families have settled down and one from Brazil with Italian roots,” Farina said.

The initiative got a mostly positive reaction from the town's residents on a local Facebook group, though one criicised the idea as “ridiculous” and said the money should go to investing in local small businesses instead.

For more information, please contact the municipality of Teora through the official website.  Please note The Local cannot help you apply for this scheme. But do let us know if you decide to move!

 

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MOVING TO ITALY

‘€150 rent a month’: Why you don’t always need to buy when you move to Italy

Buying a house is often the most common route for foreigners choosing to retire in Italy, but renting can be a far better fit for some. Here's how one British retiree left a hefty mortgage behind to rent a rural cottage for €150 a month.

Published: 19 September 2024 13:39 CEST
'€150 rent a month': Why you don't always need to buy when you move to Italy

Retiring and moving to Italy at a certain age isn’t an easy job, particularly if one has to first get rid of a burdensome mortgage. 

But Tim Wood, a 72-year-old British retiree who used to work as an interior designer, in 2016 managed to sell his house in Brighton, pay off the remaining part of his mortgage and move to southern Italy. 

But instead of buying a cheap dwelling as most expats do, he settled for an extremely low rent. 

“I was just so scared of buying another home, even if it might have been mortgage-free and extremely cheap. I wanted to live without any financial weight on my shoulders. I now pay just €150 per month to rent a 4-bedroom rural cottage in Abruzzo”, Wood tells The Local. 

‘Abruzzo popped up after I researched cost of living throughout Italy’

Renting was also a much easier option than buying, because he wanted to avoid the paper work, the bureaucracy and procedures involved in purchasing and eventually having to restyle a house. 

After selling his UK house, Wood moved to the countryside near the coastal town of Vasto, on the Adriatic sea. 

“I did some online search on which were the cheapest regions to live in Italy, reading articles about national statistics on cost of living and life quality, and Abruzzo popped up”, says Wood. 

READ ALSO: What you need to know about navigating Italian rental contracts

Wood, who after losing his wife in 2015 decided to change life, said relying on advice from distant relatives of his who had already moved to the region a few years earlier proved crucial.

“They suggested I picked a place near the sea, for great summer dips, but at the same time far from the touristy areas and relatively quiet. That’s why I chose Vasto’s pristine rural surroundings,” he says.

‘Get a feel for the place before you move’

Being close to trains that cross Italy and even connect to Europe is vital if one has forsaken driving a car like he has, he says.

Wood advises anyone eager to follow on his steps to never rent or buy property if they haven’t seen it first hand, not just online.

Get advice from friends or other people who have made similar moves, he adds.

The old fishermens huts at Vasto marina. Photo: Tim Wood

“Prior to making the big leap I decided to take a two-week holiday in Vasto and tour the surrounding areas of Abruzzo. It’s important to get a feel of the place not as a tourist but as a local, meeting people, hanging out at the bar till nightfall, getting a haircut at the barber’s and listening to the gossip at the butcher’s shop, even if you hardly speak Italian,” he says.

The warm weather year-round in Vasto was also a major perk, as in some mountain spots in Abruzzo it can be as cold as in England in winter, he says. 

Wood lives off a small pension, plus the remaining revenues from the sale of his UK home. He says he spends around €150 a month for food and locally-sourced fresh produce. 

He’s so glad to be finally living the idyll after what he called a “nightmare” in the UK.

‘Make sure you’re not a victim of a scam’

Almost 24 years ago Wood purchased a two-bedroom apartment in Brighton for £400,000, with a downpayment of £250,000, and had been paying a £500 monthly mortgage since then.

“It was a nightmare. When I retired I realised I no longer wanted to live to pay a mortgage so I decided to move to Italy before post-Brexit new travel rules kicked in.”

Wood put his home on sale and managed to get £550,000. He now lives on a UK yearly pension of £8,000, which he says is more than he will ever need in Vasto. 

He was granted Italian residency in 2017, when the UK was still part of the European Union and Brits did not face the hurdles of today in traveling and relocating to Europe. 

One key tip he shares is to do a lot of prep research. Prior to relocating, he surfed the web to get an idea of what rentals were like in the area and also wanted to make sure he was not going to be a scam victim. 

So during his vacation there, he selected 10 properties, and booked a one-day tour with four local agencies to see them all before he picked the cottage. 

“Online photos don’t work, one needs to see the building and when I stepped into that farmhouse, I felt a special vibe”, says Wood. 

He also recommends meeting the local owners if possible, and starting with them a friendly relationship from the beginning in case there are bumps along the road, like the sewage system breaks down or a tree collapses on the front porch. 

READ ALSO: Italian rental scams: ‘As soon as we handed over the money, we kissed it goodbye’

The cottage was fully furbished, distant only two kilometres from Vasto’s historic quarter. And the icing on the cake was that it came with a 2-acre patch of land, olive trees and vineyard. 

“Locals have been making a premium extra-virgin olive oil here for centuries and I just found these trees in my garden. I now have farmers teaching me how to collect the olives and take them to the press.”

Cost of living and high quality of life are plus points. 

Family-run taverns in the countryside are very cheap and he can afford to eat out almost every night being alone. A meal is just €15, including a glass of wine. 

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