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‘Italy’s one-euro homes cost a lot more than one euro – but can be worth it’

While offers of one-euro homes might sound like a simple route to that dream Italian property, reader John Ware warns the real cost will be higher and that there are no shortcuts for anyone hoping to buy a cheap home.

Published: 6 September 2023 17:27 CEST
Updated: 10 September 2023 08:11 CEST

A new batch of homes in Sambuca di Sicilia is going on sale for as little as three euros. Photo: David Tip on Unsplash

Over the years I have bought several properties across various parts of Italy including in Campania, Basilicata, Puglia and Le Marche.

The reality is that all the fees and add-ons mean the real cost of buying these properties is much higher than one euro.

However, here’s my bottom line: I paid an average of just over €1,000 for each property, save for one.

One property near Matera was an estate and the previous owner went bankrupt. Since the property was paid for, I only have to pay taxes, insurance and upkeep on it. It was a great find to turn into a bed and breakfast.

If you are looking to buy then your best bet is to go to the region you want to buy in.

Meet the locals and get to know them. Develop relationships. Get to know the area. And I don’t mean like a tourist, or even someone who wants to spend some extended time there. No, I mean get to know the area like you’ve lived there for 30 years. This takes time and effort.

Then you need to find an avvocato (lawyer) who is well-versed in local real estate.

There are no shortcuts to buying property in Italy. I like to outwork everyone. And trying to wing it with regards to the property laws and regulations is a fool’s errand.

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Your banking situation must be cleared up (get an Italian bank account first) and ensure that whatever the cost of your purchase is — whether it was cheap like mine or you’re buying from a realtor and are loaded — you have extra money on top of the cost of the property.

If you plan to buy a property in Italy, on average whether it’s a one-euro home or anything else, you can expect to pay a premium of 10 to 20 percent to fix it up, renovate it, change it around, cover the ‘hidden fees’, etc.

Sure, sometimes it could be a lot more and sometimes these costs might add up to hardly anything, but people should know that ‘one euro’ properties in Italy are not ‘one euro’ properties, in reality.

Failure to do this leads to delays, and someone swooping in to take your prize away from you.

My total outlay for the properties I mentioned was just shy of €70,000. All seven properties have since been valued at around €2.3million.

Get to know the locals, the language (at least, intermediate level), the local culture and above all, be patient.

Buying a property in Italy takes time and effort, but also analysis, people skills, and the love of the culture and customs of any area, region or country you’re considering.

John Ware, who was born in the US, but has lived in various parts of Italy over the years.

Do you agree with our reader? Share your own opinions in the comments section below, or if you have any tips, insights or views about an aspect of life in Italy that you want to share with other readers then email us at news@thelocal.com

Member comments

Anonymous - 7 September 2023 at 22:42 CEST

Well done. Good, solid advice here.

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'Be bold': What people wish they’d known before moving to Italy

Have you ever thought about moving to Italy? Many who have enjoyed visiting the country on holiday fantasise about a permanent move.

Italy has so much to offer in terms of lifestyle, history, culture and weather. It’s also an incredibly diverse country, so whether you want to live in a bustling city like Rome, a seaside village in Sicily, or high in the Italian Alps, you can find whatever it is you’re dreaming about and more.

That said, Italy is also a very complex country, with many things working differently compared to many other nations around the world.

‘Take bureaucracy step by step’

Ask anyone who has made the move to Italy what the main challenges to living here are and most will say: “bureaucracy”.

Official processes are infamously complicated and slow-moving in Italy and everything from exchanging your driving licence to getting your tessera sanitaria (national health card) can be a frustrating experience.

Acceptance and remembering that things will take time are key.

If you compare your experience to how things are done in your home country, you’ll be even more disheartened, so just be prepared for multiple trips to the comune (city hall) or the local questura (police headquarters), plenty of paperwork and documents (passport, proof of address, tax receipts, bank account statements from your home country, employment contract, etc.) and conflicting information for even the most straightforward tasks.

Fergal Kavanagh, originally from Cork, Ireland, lives in Naples, where he runs his own English language training company. He has lived in Italy for 30 years but remembers the shock of having to navigate Italian bureaucracy when he first moved.

“To sign a contract with my first language-teaching job I had to face the infamous Italian bureaucracy,” he says.

“I remember mornings spent queuing at the questura, often to be sent home because of one missing signature. Most administrators are inflexible and once something is in the system it cannot be changed.

“I am officially from ‘Corlaigh’ due to someone’s mistype in the move from handwritten documents to digital. No amount of arguing could change their minds.”

Despite being far from easy to navigate though, Italian bureaucracy can be successfully dealt with.

“Take it step by step; it will get done sooner or later!” Fergal says.

“Also, if you know you’re right, stand your ground and ask to speak to the director – this has solved a few obstacles for me.”

Opening a bank account can be ‘daunting’

Originally from New York, Jaclyn DeGiorgio is a journalist and podcaster who lives in Milan.

Having visited Italy many times to explore her Italian heritage, she took the plunge and moved here. She was aware of the challenges associated with a permanent move to Italy but was still surprised by some of the obstacles.

Costumers leave a branch of Italy's Unicredit bank in downtown Rome

Opening a bank account can be a daunting task for international residents in Italy. Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP

“Little things that I didn’t think would be daunting were, like opening a bank account,” she says.

“I can open one online in the US if I wanted to, and I have foreign friends who have walked into a bank in New York and walked out a few minutes later with an American bank account. Here, I had visited so many banks and they all told me ‘no’.

“A friend eventually came with me to mediate, and we were there for hours, so much so that we had to leave at 1pm when they closed for lunch and return when they reopened in the afternoon.”

Becoming self-employed can be ‘unnecessarily stressful’

There are various options for self-employed people and freelancers in Italy, including an attractive flat tax.

Self-employed people in Italy need to open a Partita IVA (VAT number), which can be done in person at the tax office (Agenzie delle Entrate) or online in some cases. The process, however, can be far from easy.

“Opening a Partita IVA was unnecessarily stressful,” Jaclyn says.

“I was getting back and forth from so many commercialisti [accountants], but eventually a friend of mine put me in touch with her American husband’s commercialista. He has several American clients, and he opened one for me the next day.”

A good accountant is an invaluable support in Italy, and they have varying degrees of competency, so ask around and get a recommendation from fellow expats for an accountant who speaks English and has experience of handling foreign clients.

For remote workers, or people who are working for companies based outside of Italy, there is a Digital Nomad Visa programme that can make things much easier.

In any case however, if you are planning to live and work in Italy, you’ll need to get a tax number (codice fiscale) and register your residency with Italy’s Anagrafe registry.

Some embassies can process your codice fiscale for you before you leave your home country so check with them if they can help make things smoother for you.

Expect low salaries

If you are going to work in Italy, be prepared to adjust your salary expectations.

“People had told me that salaries were low, but I didn’t expect them to be as low as they are in some sectors,” says Jaclyn.

A man works on a laptop

Registering for self-employment in Italy can be a though bureaucratic hurdle. Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

“In general, there are a handful of fields for which a decent salary is guaranteed, like entertainment, law, and finance/investment banking, or roles as business executives. So, I always wondered how people who aren’t in those fields make do here.

“But I eventually learned most of the businesses in Italy (80 percent) are family-owned and have few, if any, non-familial employees.

“I think being an intrepid pioneer is the best way to make a living here, especially if you don’t have a safety net. I would have been bolder and more enterprising from the onset.”

Knowing Italian can give you a ‘stellar start’

If you can do one thing to help make your move to Italy easier, it is to learn the language: though things are improving, Italians tend to not speak English as well as people in many other European countries do.

Speaking Italian will help you in your daily tasks as well as help you integrate and make new friends. There are very cheap language lessons available from the city hall (comune), which can give you a good basis.

Italians are very friendly and appreciate any effort you make to speak to them in their own language.

Irishwoman Caoimhe Speakman has lived in Modena for 18 years and works as an English teacher. She says investing in Italian lessons is money well spent.

“I came to a language school in Florence for a week at the age of 20 and then at 22, I spent two months at the Università Per Stranieri in Perugia (I had 25 hours of lessons every week for 8 weeks).

“So those two months gave me 200 hours of lessons. And that gave me a stellar start to my time here.”

Moving to Italy may seem like a daunting task, but it is very much worth the effort.

Share your own advice, experience or questions on life in Italy in the comments section below.

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