Has anyone explored these $1 property opportunities in Italy? Curious what people's experience has been with it. https://www.cnn.com/travel/art...

@Benjamin A Ersing I was just discussing this with my 82 year old Sicilian born father (I'm first generation American). And he said this is nothing new. Here is the bits of how it works. The towns are too far from the ocean or mountains. They're basically towns that provided homes for farmers. Farming becoming less of an industry due to technology. Land that needed 50 people to run now needs 8. If I was buying a vacation home in Italy I want the beach or the Alps. The towns themselves are old and have no infastructure. Most likely no buses never mind a train. No companies for work. Perhaps a pizzaria. When I have visited my parents town we would need to travel outside to dine. You would be better off knocking on neighbors' doors and offer $50 for dinner. The children leave to university and never come back. The old that stay eventually die. Homes need desperate rehab and not being a piason be prepared to pay. If you are retired and wish to have a 2nd home overlooking the country side of Italy and are prepared to spend 100k then by all means. Enjoy La Dolce Vita. Make sure you rent a car, cause there is no Uber.

I haven't. You wanna go halves in one?

Since I invest internationally, I came across those houses a while ago. I studied the opportunity to see if there would be an opportunity for my investors and myself. I came up with the following conclusions: 1) Never forget the saying "When something looks too good to be true, it generally is!". This is a perfect example; 2) The €1 is misleading because, as indicated by @Rahul Ved and @Jennifer Stillman, you'd have to spend between 60 and 100 k to renovate and you'd have today cash for it. Then you have to ask yourself if that's the best use of that amount of cash. Can't I invest that money somewhere else for a higher return? You'll find out that the response is pretty much anywhere else, including your own town; 3) Property prices in Italy have been declining over the last 15 years because of the state of the country's economics, politics and banking system. You'd think that this spells opportunity but, unfortunately, things are getting worse rather than better so there's no light at the end of the tunnel. When there is, I'll be in the first plane to Italy; 4) Notwithstanding the situation in the country as a whole, these houses are located in the worst hit area of the country, which are basically losing all their population because there is no work and nothing to do. As anybody knows, a decreasing population is the death knell for property prices, especially on a grand scale like that; 5) Once you have renovated, how are you gonna get your money back, let alone make a profit? There is no resale market. Who's gonna be buying the property from you, even at a loss? And if you're hoping for some nice rental income, think again. These houses are in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing to do. Who'd want to vacation there? Your only potential buyers or renters would be people who want to have a reclusive life, retirement or holiday; 6) Do you really want to pay high taxes (if you ever make money that is) and deal with the Italian bureaucracy; 7) If Italians who know the places and the ropes of their system can't find a way to make money with these "opportunities" themselves, why someone like me living in Canada be so much smarter than I can do it? Need I say more. @Jennifer Stillman Bad things happen everywhere unfortunately and you don't always know all the details. So, I wouldn't necessarily be put off by what happened to your friend in Spain.

@Don Konipol it is. A lot of the homes are stone, clay tile roofs and believe it or not the curbs are marbile. It's amazing. Take google street view down some of these distant towns and you are shocked. The sidewalks are like 14" wide. Streets are so tight that small cars still need to park half on the sidewalk just so other cars can pass. The most depressing is the amount of garbage piled up due to budget constraints. Remember I'm talking about small rural towns/communities where everyone knows everyone, there are no tourists, this not Lake Como where George likes to sip his tequila with friends. (before you say Tequila isn't Italian, I know but he owns a label) Some of the good things are the cuisine. You will have venders in "ape" cars (think of 3 wheel scooters with a flat-bed in the back) selling fresh products. They will pull over on a corner and just start shouting on a megaphone what they have. Seafood, another vendor will have mellons, another vegetables and yet another selling nuts and seeds ( I kid you not! He makes a living selling walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds and dry chickpeas). Mom and Pop shops that specialize in meats, or my fav the pasta shop. A store that only sells homemade fresh pasta, ravioli, shells etc. And of course a Bar (think american style cafe not a pub) I think Italy should be offering incentives to small start-ups VS selling homes for $1. The issue is work. If a town rolls out the red carpet to let's say 3 or so young startups that have 7-15 employees. This forces new blood in the area. These new workers need a place to live, eat, play, etc. They spend money and enjoy modern conveniences. And they earn a CHECK and use CREDIT CARDS. Money going in AND out is registered. Meaning the government gets paid. Arrivederci

Yes I bought 3 of them with my change from McDonalds. Looking to pick up 3 more next time I get Taco Bell.

I saw a show on this.. they focused on Sicily way out in the boonies roads were poor.. towns dead and dying that's why they are giving the houses away.. all of them MAJOR fixers. they interviewed a few that bought them basically well to do from England France Germany that wanted remote retreats..

@Benjamin A Ersing Most of these properties will be expensive to renovate, about €60-90,000. Some of them will require specialist contractors if they are historical (for example in England, windows in historical homes can cost tens of thousands to replace since they have to maintain their external look). You might want to look at what ready to move in houses cost - might not be much more than the cost of restoration.

After you buy it, good luck with dealing with a contractor. I saw a show on TV where the new landlords were getting robbed blind by contractors. Everyone from the local gov't to the contractors had a BS corrupt excuse of why the job is behind schedule.

A friend in the USA sent me this info and we chatted about it and I passed. For the reasons listed above. I absolutely love vacationing in Italy, Spain, Greece but based on the current economic systems there I am not rushing to invest. In addition to everything listed above, even if you can make a go at a bed and breakfast business and you get customers, you have a risk of some astronomical hard to predict bill cropping up. Granted I heard about this from friends who did something in Spain, invested in the local community with a business then got some EUR 30k fine for some fine print they did wrong-when they were advised by an accountant to do that. The complexity factor scares me off. Having said all that I am keeping an eye on the Dutch couple who renovated a 1 euro house in Sardinia and seem to have full occupancy. They got so much PR from the whole global attention placed on these houses that it seems to be working out well for them (so far). They did spend around $100k from what I understand. If these countries follow the Portuguese path of the golden visa and attract expats and FIRE aficionados I could have another look.

Sure I'll DM you. At the moment I'm more tilted towards USA investments from a portfolio perspective because I have GBP based pension assets that I can't touch until I'm older and I don't want more GBP exposure right now. If only I had done more USA investing when the pound was two to one (I mention this because currency and tax have started to become as critical to my decisions as other factors). if you want exposure to Europe it's probably easier via equities or currencies unless you are keen to learn all the intricacies of the local markets. I mention tax because it's not just the actual tax but finding good advisors for your situation. If you are a US citizen you have to file taxes for any of your foreign holdings and finding good affordable advisors is hard . i have so many expat friends who have advisors and still had to restate US tax returns multiple times. having said all that, complexity can create opportunity as can economic distress. one thing I'm curious about is the opportunity to get cheap land in Europe near cities that are doing ok and have someone grow vegetables intensively for sale into that city. Eg I think there are quasi abandoned towns near Madrid . Last year I was in a town in the south of France with double digit unemployment and probably fifty percent youth unemployment but the most crowded restaurant in town was a salad place . Until I can figure out why salads cost 2x McDonald's I'll do more research on this. If you get land for $10k and can gross $5k of vegetable sales per year it's a good yield. I'd also be interested in this opportunity in the USA. I don't want to do the actual work too much but I want to set up the model possibly. If I can get cheaper salads it also helps my waistline Am on a bus sorry for typos

Italy - $1 property opportunities - reality of the opportunity?Italy - $1 property opportunities

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Italy - $1 property opportunities - reality of the opportunity?

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