The Truth Behind Italy's $1 Homes

Wait, so the $1 houses weren't fully furnished, immaculate manor houses? I'm thunderstruck.

imagine buying an abandoned house for 1 dollar and complain.

seems like the perfect place to move for remote workers, having clean air and beautiful views

It's still a $70k new renovated home in a romantic, quiet town in a country with very pleasant temperatures and good food. Compared to other properties in Europe this seems like a massive steal!

They are literally giving a piece of land for free. The least you can do is spend your own money in building a home. What were they expecting?

I don’t know what people were expecting. The house was $1. Of course it’d be a dump for that price.

The only problem is if you are from the USA you can’t stay more than 90 days without leaving for 90 days before returning without getting a visa and the kicker is you are not allowed to work at all. If Italy would make it easier for home buyers to get citizenship more would come including my wife and I.

I am flabbergasted to see that towns THAT big are getting depopulated. I’m from the north Spain and I have seen my fair share of tiny villages with around 500 residents and I’d understand moving out of those (even though there is little to no abandoned houses here since people love spending their weekend in the countryside) but these are full on CITIES. With historical architecture at that wth!

When they advertised these houses, they gave the details about the conditions. So if people paid 1$ and bought these houses, they knew what they were getting into.

From my perspective and understanding, it's a brilliant move by the local government. You start an international movement by bringing people from all over the world to renovate the worst of parts of the town at no cost to you. Plus, all of these people = more business for the locals and keeping the town alive.

I work at home. as long as there's an internet connection, I'm very tempted to move there. Owning even a small house in a crowded place is a nearly impossible daydream nowadays. people think its downside is renovating cost, but why is that a problem? still cheaper than buying a house and you get to renovate it as you want. I would build a cool book nook with large windows.

My friend has a home in Italy, they basically just bought all the materials themselves for the renovation and moved them by truck from Germany to Italy. There, they hired some German speaking Italians and some Polish workers to do the work. It went pretty well. they also made sure they had all the paperwork done before.

Oh no really? So they aren´t just handing out perfect houses for 1 dollar? Travesty.

$60,000 in renovations sounds like an overestimation. It's still cheaper than most houses in the U.S.

Perfect. A cheap home to make a dream home. Renovation done by local workforces. Brilliant!

This was a very interesting and educational video. Thank you!

"We will call it 1 dollar homes" Because calling them 1 euro homes was so difficult...

Whats amazing is that you would basically be rebuilding a city back up with others and probably make friendships for life that live right next to u. That in itself is a selling point.

My parents are trying to give away my grandma’s house in a little town in Southern of Italy for years! Not many people wants to live in small towns anymore. It’s also a big house with 2 floors and storage rooms. It’s a shame that there are people with no homes and so many abandoned. They even asked the major to donate it to the city, but there are no many to renovate (even though my grandma’s house is in a decent shape nothing like those).

I'd love to hear how things have changed in the last two years given demand for rural, or at least not-urban houses has flourished with work-from-home orders/abilities. Unsure of the Italian government's response to covid was but in Australia we were told to work from home if we could. Even when allowed back to the office, many people didn't, and many who did did so fewer times a week and continued to work from home a lot. Allowed for working from anywhere with internet, and being in an urban vs. commuter town or rural area being much more favourable than previously.