€1 House in Italy Update January 2023

There is plenty of news we would like to share from the €1 house space

It has been widely reported that there are 75 schemes available in Italy but with our research this week we would indicate there are around 32 towns/villages/communes in Italy that are currently part of the €1 house scheme. Or a “house for less than the price of an espresso” as many journalists have started to describe the scheme.

The highest number of towns purportedly participating are in Sicily where circa 14 have announced they are included. However, this perhaps is a distorted view of the current landscape.

We regularly check with communes on their status in the scheme and many/most currently have no €1 houses available.

There are a few reasons for this:

1. They have allocated all their current available houses to potential buyers.

2. They are finding it very difficult to “track down” the actual owners of derelict properties in their town/commune. Often this is due to several owners that have inherited the houses. Also, they need consent to transfer ownership to the commune or the potential new owner.

3. They are not getting any feedback or any communication from the owners of the properties, so they cannot offer these under the €1 schemes.

4. Some communes that have announced they are participating in the €1 house scheme just don’t have the resources/manpower required to organise or facilitate the transfers of properties to potential buyers.

5. Some communes have now decided not to actively participate in the scheme going forward.

So we have a “log-jam” on the supply side – there simply aren’t houses becoming available right now.

But demand is at an all-time high particularly due to the UK’s BBC programme Amanda and Alan’s Italian Job. This is a new eight-part series featuring British stars Amanda Holden and Alan Carr, best friends who spent last summer renovating two €1 apartments into a luxury holiday home in the Sicilian town of Salemi. Take a look.

As we have explained on many occasions – getting a €1 house is all about patience & time!

We are confident there will be more €1 houses becoming available in 2023 for lots of reasons:

There are literally tens of thousands of derelict buildings in Italy – this includes houses, apartments and other buildings such as barns and other agricultural buildings.

There are many Italian citizens that have inherited buildings that they didn’t or don’t want because they are liable for annual property taxes – IMU (formerly ICI). In general, this is about 1.06% of the cadastral value revalued. There are also other taxes that the inherited owner may be liable for, an example could be “municipio” which covers services provided by the town hall.

So if the only way you can avoid being liable for ongoing annual property taxes is to “give the property” away then this will be a solution that many will consider.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to predict when more €1 houses in Italy will become available, we just need to stay in regular contact with the communes to find out when they have new allocations of houses that will be available.

EUROPE PROPERTIES TEAM