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Got a buck? Or, rather, a Euro? That could get you a home in scenic Sambuca de Sicilia, Italy.
The town on the island of Sicily is selling off 17 properties there for as little as €1 to help attract people to a community experiencing depopulation, according to the New York Post. Of course, there’s a catch.
New owners are obligated to invest at least $17,000 into improvements of the property within the first three years of owning it, and from the looks of it, these properties could use a little TLC. Photos of the sites on the town’s website show homes in various states of disrepair, including some that look to have structural issues.
You’ll have to hurry too. After news of the program broke, the town has received “tens of thousands” of inquiries from people for the homes, according to CNN.
There are cities and towns around the U.S. that have similar models. Towns like Curtis, Nebraska and Marne, Iowa will gift people land if they build a home atop it.
Sambuca di Sicilia isn’t the first Italian town to come up with such a scheme either. The town of Ollolai on the nearby island of Sardinia started selling a stock of 200 homes for a single Euro earlier this year.
Sambuca di Sicilia’s deputy mayor, Giuseppe Cacioppo says his town’s program is different. The town itself owns all of the €1 homes, which he says will make transactions easier than other towns that have programs “merely for propaganda.”
“We’re not intermediaries who liaise between old and new owners,” he said. “You want that house, you’ll get it in no time.”
The town is about 42 miles south of the city of Palermo and about 21 miles from the coast by road. [NYP] – Dennis Lynch
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