A woman who took a chance on buying a property in the €1 scheme in Italy ended up spending thousands to transform it into her €450,000 (£384,000) dream home.
Meredith Tabbone, 45, decided to bid on a one euro house on a ‘whim’, after her friend sent her an article about the scheme.
The European house scheme means people across the world can buy homes for a single euro (around 85p), which is a far cry from the £724,780 average sold price for a property in London according to Zoopla.
It’s not just the birthplace of pasta and pizza where the scheme is available; homes in France and Croatia have previously been put on the market for €1 or less.
However there’s a catch – the buildings are usually in desperate need of TLC and are never in a pristine condition, so if you’re on the lookout for a fixer-upper, this scheme could be right up your street.
Meredith, who is originally from Chicago, isn’t afraid of a project. Bids for the building in Sambuca di Sicilia, Sicily, started at just a euro when it went up for auction in January 2019, but she decided to throw in an offer of €5,100 (£4,400).
Originally built in the 1600s, the disused building had no electricity or running water and a roof thick with asbestos.
‘The house was in very bad condition – but in many ways, it was everything I expected it to be and more. It had so much charm. It had such interesting architectural detail. You could really see the history coming through the walls.
‘At first, the plan was just to turn it into a small getaway house. While we originally just wanted it as a tiny getaway but we’ve turned it into a dream home.’
Before finding her dream home, Meredith started researching how to get Italian citizenship in 2016 and discovered her dad Michael’s great-grandfather, Fillippo Tabbone, came from Sambuca di Sicilia –a small village in Sicily.
Three years later, she heard councils in rural Sicily were auctioning off abandoned houses with a €1 starting bid in a bid to regenerate the village.
But despite its very obvious flaws, Meredith, a financial advisor, saw its potential. After being told she got the €1 home in May 2019, she also bought the house next door for €31,700 (£27,000) in a private sale and knocked through to create a four bedroom, five bathroom home in August 2020.
She then spent €450,000 (£384,000) over the next five years creating her dream holiday home, decked out with an outdoor kitchen , spa and outdoor party room.
The homeowner spent £661 to remove the roof of the €1 home, which was only 750 square feet. Combined with the home next door, Meredith now has a 3,000 square foot holiday home.
After five years of hard work, Meredith’s holiday home was finally completed in April 2024 and she plans to spend four months a year in Italy.
And the renovations in Italy have been so successful she’s also bought two guest houses in the same village for €31,700 (£28,000) in total, but they’ll also need repair.
She also bought a disused building for €68,000 (£58,000), which she’s turning into an art gallery and apartment for artists to stay in.
Why are Italy and France selling houses for €1?
There’s a reason European countries are selling off houses for so little.
In Saint-Amand-Montrond, a commune in France, it’s because the town is trying to attract more permanent residents. At present, just over 9,000 people live here, so it’s relatively quiet.
There have been similar cases in Italy, where places like Taranto, Pettineo, Pratola Pelinga, Sant’Elia a Pianisi and Sambuca di Sicilia have offered up €1 house purchase schemes over the last few years.
The reasons are the same as in France: to encourage people, particularly younger generations, into the local area to stabilise the population.
Rules can differ between towns, but as was seen with a recent scheme in Mussomeli in Sicily, Italy, buyers needed to: demonstrate the ability to support expenses for the renovation of the property; prepare a project for the renovation within one year of purchase; start work within two months of the building permit being issued; and put down a deposit of £5,000 that they would lose if the work did not go ahead within the three-year time period.
As the scheme is intended to attract more permanent residents, the idea is that you’ll spend most of your time here integrating with the local community.
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.
MORE : I bought my own house but my partner won’t pay rent — or even buy loo roll
MORE : Not spotting these common property issues could end up costing you £40,000
MORE : Pope Francis accused of making homophobic slur behind closed doors
Share this with