Over the past few years, a string of eye-poppingly beautiful Italian towns have been selling historic houses for just €1 each. It sounds too good to be true, but in the past year alone you could have bought houses in the picturesque towns of Cinquefrondi, Castropignano and Salemi and still had change from a €5 note. Now another town, Troina in Sicily, is joining the club – and it’s also throwing in some tasty extra incentives for you to embrace la dolce vita.
Troina is a mountainous town in the Nebrodi: Sicily’s biggest national park. Surrounded by cliffs and lakes with incredible views of Mount Etna, it has roots going back 9,000 years, and in 2019 was officially acclaimed as one of the most beautiful towns in Italy.
But, like many remote Italian towns, it has suffered from depopulation in recent years – which is why it’s due to join the club of towns selling houses for knock-down prices.
According to CNN, Troina’s mayor is aiming to bring life back to the settlement’s medieval old town by selling dilapidated houses through the new HouseTroina platform. Around 30 houses are due to be put up for sale for €1 by the end of January, with another 100 to follow.
As with other towns’ schemes, there are some restrictions. Buyers must pay a €5,000 refundable deposit, and there are strict deadlines for renovating the properties. However, Troina is going one further by offering bonus payments of up to €25,000 to help you get the work done. New residents can also skip property and city service taxes for three years.
And if you don’t fancy doing up a crumbling Italian house (though, seriously, what else have you got on right now?) the town is also selling fully renovated properties with discounts of up to €8,000.
So what are you waiting for? Sicily may not enjoy its associations with ‘The Godfather’, but it looks like this particular town is making an offer you can’t refuse.
Oh, and did you know that Italian is officially the world’s sexiest language?