Real estate frustration in Italy: Village struggles to sell 1 euro houses

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Patricia is an idyllic place. The village of 3,000 inhabitants in the Italian province of Frosinone, southeast of Rome, is located on a rocky hill. Residents enjoy beautiful views of the Sacco Valley. Yet many people have left the city in the past for economic reasons. Some are in the north, in nearby countries or abroad. What remained were their homes, some of which had been empty for decades.

The problem of slowly becoming a ghost village is also common in other Italian communities. Some have responded successfully by selling uninhabited and dilapidated houses for the symbolic price of one euro. Lucio Fiordaliso, mayor of Patrica, was also impressed by the idea. But of the more than forty abandoned properties in his village, only two have been sold so far.

Permission from owners required

While in other towns and cities empty houses may be sold by local authorities after a certain period if ownership is unclear, this is not the case in Patrica. “We first need the willingness of the owners or their heirs to sell their old houses,” Fiordaliso explained to CNN. “Only then can we offer these properties for sale with their consent, which makes the process very complicated. Almost impossible.”

The local government first mapped all abandoned houses and issued a public appeal to owners asking them to hand over their dilapidated properties. Fiordaliso received positive responses from ten owners. “But we were only able to sell two houses for one euro,” he regrets. The other owners changed their minds at the last minute.

Heirs often disagree

Fiordaliso suspects that the reason for this is that the heirs of the original owners had different opinions about it. “Sales of potential one-euro houses stalled because most family members sharing a home were in conflict with each other for personal reasons or could not agree on the sale. Some hardly spoke to each other or did not know each other, others lived in distant cities or even abroad.”

The only two abandoned houses that Patrica was able to sell under his One Euro program were wholly owned by two local residents. This eliminated the need to contact grand-nephews and great-grandchildren of the original owners.

Bad condition is a deterrent

Another reason why sales of one-euro houses in Patrica never really took off could be the condition of the abandoned houses. That’s why Gianni Valleco, born in the village, and his two brothers decided to put their parents’ abandoned house on the market. “We knew that after half a century, our parents’ house was just a pile of rubble,” says Valleco. Still, he and his brothers wanted to try. Ultimately, however, they had to realize that no one would ever buy the house.

A community in Ticino also experienced problems selling old, dilapidated buildings for a symbolic price. In 2019, Gambarogno offered several remote Rustici above Indemini for the price of one Stutz each. For years the community failed to find a single buyer. The reason: the Rustici are too remote and can only be reached on foot – it takes more than 45 minutes to reach the next street. There were also too many unanswered questions. It was unclear, among other things, whether a building permit could even be obtained for the reconstruction of the Rustici.

Mayor Fiordaliso of Patrica does not give up hope that he can revive his village. On the one hand, he continues to try to convince the heirs of the vacant houses to sell. On the other hand, the municipality finances the renovation of the exterior facades of old buildings and grants tax benefits to newcomers and traders who open a business in Patrica.

Source: Blick