Do you ever dream of a life sipping prosecco from your balcony overlooking Tuscan hills, or idly walking down the road from your coastal cottage in Sicily for a sunset swim?
Owning your own Tuscan villa or Sicilian beach house might not be as difficult as you imagine or, at least, not as expensive.
For Mark Kopun it cost less than a coffee - $1.62 to be exact.
The 32-year-old from Adelaide recently picked up a three-story building in the city centre of Mussomeli, Sicily, for just one euro.
“Two years ago I sold everything in Australia: my house, my car. I got rid of all my possessions and went traveling to Europe,” Kopun tells SBS Italian.
“I was away for about one year when my cousin rang me from Australia. He had read an article on CNN, saying they were giving away houses in Sicily… I thought, wow this might be real!”
Source: Credits Maurizio Di Maria
It sounded too good to be true, but Kopun had nothing to lose and luckily the Mussomeli's city administration made things easy.
“We immediately tried to intercept people abroad, through a website in English called case1euro.it," explains Mussomeli's city planning commissioner, Toti Nigrelli.
When Kopun called the number he found on the website, Mr Nigrelli was on the other end.
“As soon as I hung up the phone I went on the internet and booked the flight straight to Catania - it was only 50 euros return,” Mr Kopun said.
Mussomeli is a small town of about 10,000 people in the heart of Sicily, near the UNESCO listed Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. It takes its name from ancient latin, Mons Mellis, that translates to 'Hill of Honey' and the town does not betray the premises, Kopun says.
“Driving in, the country roads are very windy," he says. "There are beautiful hills, I just remember fruit trees everywhere: oranges, lemons… It was very, very beautiful. It has so much character.”
“It was a fantastic investment opportunity. I have sold and bought properties in Australia many times, I have had big, big home loans and I always owed the bank money. The investment was my initial thought, but when I got there I fell in love with the place and the people.”
Mark Kopun in Mussomeli Source: Courtesy of Mark Kopun
But, there is a catch. While the Mussomeli properties are offered for one euro, buyers are expected to restore the property, which obviously comes with its own costs, but can still be quite the bargain.
Today, Kopun is back in Adelaide working to save money and restore his new property. The renovation of the building will cost roughly 20,000 or 30,000 euros, he estimates.
“I want to start a small coffee place or a juice bar, with small food, on the ground floor. I am studying health and nutrition so I want to start a healthy food café and live there six months a year.”
The investment was my initial thought, but when I got there I fell in love with the place and the people.
"Foreign investors come here in search of tranquility, to feel the real Sicily," Nigrelli says. "A life where you say hi to the old lady at the window and see people drinking coffee with and table and chairs on the street."
“The only constraint we set [on selling the properties so cheap] is the renovation of the building - that must take place within three years from the purchase. The investment varies from 20,000 euros to 200,000 or 300,000 euros, depending on the size and the condition of the property."
“We sold a 700 square metre building, a house with a big garden and a garage, to a Belgian investor. In that case, they knew the investment would be higher.”
In addition to Mr Kopun from Adelaide, a large group of buyers from Belgium, the Netherlands, France, the UK and the USA investors have already bought a little slice of Italy. Around 100 houses have been sold in Mussomeli.
Il castello di Mussoneli Source: Flickr
And Mussomeli is not the only town in Italy where houses are sold for one euro.
Since the 1950s Italian people have migrated steadily to bigger cities, abandoning the small rural towns, so a number of municipal administrations have started giving away their houses for a symbolic donation to attract tourism, restart the economy, preserve heritage architecture and, above all, avoid depopulation.
"Today Mussomeli is a little international enclave," says Nigrelli. "You go to a bar, in a restaurant, and you find people who do not speak Italian. Besides, it has been a very important capital injection... Today the municipality has 10,000 people, but it could host 40,000.”
Mussomeli, Sicilia Source: Credits Maurizio Di Maria
