For the determined buyer with a strong vision and good home improvement skills, the fire sale of crumbling Italian houses for a little over a dollar each has been a gift. The rest of us, unable even to install a simple shelf, can only look on in envy.
Until now. Several villages are now offering houses that are ready to move into. The price is a little higher — starting at €10,000, or $12,000 — but that gets you a place you can call your own without having to worry about adding a new roof or walls.
Carrega Ligure in northern Italy and Latronico in the deep south have created online platforms where buyers can view photos, maps and details of old abandoned buildings on sale and get directly in touch with the owner.
The tiny mountain hamlet of Carrega Ligure, currently home to barely 90 residents, straddles the regions of Piedmont, Liguria and Emilia Romagna. It’s selling super cheap homes that are ready to occupy, alongside partly redone and dilapidated homes totally in need of a restyle.
Rentals are also advertised.
Located on the Apennine mountains, the surrounding municipality extends for 56 square kilometers (22 square miles) and is scattered across 15 inhabited districts and two ghost hamlets.
Farming and shepherding families abandoned their houses long ago to emigrate abroad or to relocate in large cities. In one district there are just two residents and one is a ghost hamlet.
Don’t expect any social buzz. There’s absolutely…
