One-Euro Homes: How Is the Project Going? They're Taking Off, But Not Everywhere

The initial intuition was Vittorio Sgarbi 's: as mayor of Salemi in 2008, the art critic decided to sell the abandoned houses of the village in the Trapani area for one euro. Media hype, but little following. Years later, from Locana in Piedmont to Cinquefrondi in Calabria, Petrella Tifernina in Molise or Zungoli in Irpinia, the municipalities of the internal areas that publicize that initiative proliferate, hoping to see the small centers come back to life, together with their uninhabited buildings. The results are very different, positive especially in Sicily.

"That first call for tenders was too complex for foreigners: we streamlined it and it was a boom," recalls the current mayor of Salemi, Vito Scalisi. "We put 30 properties up for tenders, some of which were ruined by the Belice earthquake: 12 were assigned for one euro, with the obligation to renovate within three years. About twenty were sold by private individuals, especially after the spotlight was turned on by the BBC , which purchased a home for a documentary. Some foreigners have stayed to live in Salemi, and we expect most of them in the summer (we estimate 400 visitors). Encouraging tourist flows, also according to a study carried out with the Polytechnic University of Turin ," Scalisi enthuses. "The central government - he adds - certainly isn't helping us with the cuts."

A real international success was that of Sambuca , in the Agrigento area: «230 houses sold since 2019 in the tenders at 1, 2, 3 euros. Many foreigners have fallen in love with this corner of Sicily with a food and wine industry», says Giuseppe Cacioppo , mayor recently ousted from office. «A French photographer, a Milanese gallery owner, two German families and a couple from Los Angeles - he lists - have bought in the last week alone. They are almost always freelancers, young people favored by smart working». P

More or less known, such as Caltagirone, Piazza Armenina, Bivona, there are about thirty municipalities on the island that have followed the trail of one-euro houses, trying "also to give a new image to the town", admits Pio Siragusa, councilor of Corleone, where however the tender is still on paper "waiting for the census of the properties". With nothing done, the project has died down in other villages, mainly in the North: from Borgomezzavalle , in Piedmont, they confirm that "the initiative has been interrupted for some time" without results.

In Campania, however, in Zungoli , 930 souls in the Avellino area, at the fourth call for one-euro houses there are «eight or nine - says the mayor Paolo Caruso - renovated, about twenty assigned». The narrow streets of the village have won over tourists with benefits for the economy and a growing confidence in the valorization of both the past - with slow tourism linked to transhumance, a UNESCO heritage - and in the potential of fiber optics and high speed. «The nursery school now has 19 children, a few years ago there were 4». Numbers stronger than many reflections.