Founded in the late 1300s, the town of Mussomeli, home to around 11,000 souls, sits high in the hills of central Sicily, around an hour from the island’s southern coast. Exploring the series of enchanting, narrow streets and laneways leads to hidden photogenic sites such as ancient stone churches replete with sacred artworks, a clock tower, and, most famously, the Manfredonico Chiaramontano Castle—known as Mussomeli Castle—which rises proudly from atop a massive rocky monolith. From a distance, the dense, medieval terracotta architecture appears to be almost tumbling down its hillside.
It’s a region renown for its cheese, its wine, its ricotta, and its olive oil. According to the website realtor.com, houses on the island—the largest in the Mediterranean—typically range from $400,000 to $4 million, but incredibly Mussomeli is selling homes for less than the price of a coffee: one euro to be exact, which is just shy of two New Zealand dollars.
“In the last 40 years people, especially young people, left the countryside to find work in bigger cities, and those small villages like Mussomeli became abandoned all over Italy,” Stefan Neuhaus, an expert in Italian real estate, tells CNBC. “One of the ideas to revitalize these places is this offer to attract international clients to buy, invest and spend their holidays there.”
The project, called ‘Case 1 Euro’, was established by the Municipality of Mussomeli and is being welcomed by the locals.
“They know that we are helping to breathe life back into this town,” says Danny McCubbin, a 56-year-old Australian digital consultant, who made the move before the Brexit restrictions took hold, having lived in London for the best part of two decades. Having been sent numerous articles by friends from around the world, he wanted to “find out if it really was too good to be true”.
As it turns out, it wasn’t—though there are some stipulations.
After laying down a refundable security deposit of around $8,500, buyers must agree to renovate their homes, at a cost of $170 to $1,299 per square metre. Homes advertised range from 11 to 190 square metres, meaning the largest house would cost around $226,000 to fix up—a steal when compared to Auckland prices! Renovations must begin within a year of purchase and be completed within three years otherwise run the risk of forfeit. Buyers must also agree to keep the original façade of their new home and spend a certain amount of time each year there.
McCubbin says that potential investors must be prepared to put in the hard yards in order to view as many properties as they can—he viewed more than 20 before settling on one—and that it’s not something that can be done remotely. But, he tells Ladbible, he’s never looked back. Though the people of Sicily, he says, may have struggled for such a long time, in Mussomeli “there’s a great sense of community”.
Find out more at case1euro.it
Words by Jamie Christian Desplaces
