Owning a home is a dream of every single person and to make this a reality we save up a lot of money. Well, there is good news for those who are looking for a house of their own. An Italian village is selling off abandoned houses for just $1.22.
Yes, it’s true. Castropignano, a hill-top community home with just 923 inhabitants and a 14th-century castle is auctioning its abandoned houses in the hope to fight depopulation in the region.
Castropignano
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A hill-top community home to just 923 inhabitants and a 14th-century castle.
There are roughly 100 abandoned buildings in the village.
The village is located 140 miles southeast of Rome with a boasting picturesque landscape and the rural countryside.
The auction is open to all private buyers including Italian, EU or non-EU citizens.
The village is located 140 miles southeast of Rome with a boasting picturesque landscape and the rural countryside is the latest community to offer up its abandoned buildings to welcome a new population.
There are roughly 100 abandoned buildings here and the owners of the properties have given the consent to sell them free of charge or for a nominal fee, which has been set at just $1.22, like other villages running similar schemes.
With this auction the owners are hoping to bring back life to the village by recovering and developing the historic center of Castropignano and the hamlet of Roccaspromonte, where some of the buildings are dangerously ruined, restoring the historic town center, contributing towards the economic growth of the country and supporting the socio-cultural integration.
If you are planning to move to Castropignano and bag one of the properties just for $1.22, then wait! There are some specific criteria that you need to fulfill.
The auction is open to all private buyers including Italian, European Union or non-EU citizens. Businesses can also apply but only if they are registered with the Italian Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Crafts and compliant with social security and welfare contributions and not subject to any bankruptcy procedures.
Those who wish to buy the property have to email the mayor of the town, Mr. Nicola Scapilati, with a detailed plan of how they intend to restyle the home. They must also add what hope to do with it like to turn it into a family home or tourist resort or other business, finally what skills they may need to make it a success.
Once approved, the buyers will have to sign a public deed of purchase within two months and have to bear all the legal fees associated with the purchase. Then they need to apply for planning permission to renovate the property within six months and once permitted, the restoration works must begin within two months.
As a guarantee that the buyer will complete the project, they are required to deposit $2433 with the local government and it will be returned after three years once the project is completed.
This is not the first time Italy has come up with a free property auction since the beginning of 2018, towns and villages across Italy have signed up to the One Euro House Scheme whereby empty houses are put up for auction from one euro in a bid to attract new residents to rural areas suffering from depopulation.
One of the most recent was the town of Salemi in Sicily which also happened to be one of the first places to launch the initiative.
