The above photo is the building I decided to purchase after viewing many properties. Alessandria Della Rocca and the neighboring towns of Cianciana and Bivona have hundreds of homes for sale just like the one I purchased. Most if not all, need to be restored. As you can see I’m in the process of restoring mine. At the time of this photo, The whole interior has been restored. From the concrete work to the plaster and painting, tile work, roof repairs and the restoration and painting of the doors. The list goes on.. All the while I’m coordinating the renovation from 6,000 miles away while traveling back and forth every few months. As I’m writing this, I’m having a brand new bathroom built and the facade and balconies redone. The face of the building will be painted white so the blue doors really pop! When I arrive in August I will post updates as the renovations come to a finish.
Cost of purchase and Renovations
So you want to know the cost to live the dream? Dreams come at a discounted price and all budgets in Italy. Depends on where you want to be. Rome and anything north of Rome tend to be much pricier than the south of Italy. The more south you go the cheaper. Which isn’t always the case but more so then none. But to each is his/her own. So you have to decide where in Italy you want to be. Sicily was super attractive to me based off of weather and beaches. I’m sure you have heard of the one Euro homes for sale all over Sicily and a few towns scattered across Italy. In my honest opinion, Steer clear of those. Most are in complete ruins, and you are basically building a new house from scratch. Although it is temping I decided to go a different route.
The route I started off on was looking at everything under 50 thousand Euros. Started to work my way down on price and stopped based on the building structure and if it had good bones. Being from the states you have to remember that most of these buildings are hundreds of years old. My home had an asking price of 12,000 Euros and I put in an offer at 9,500 Euros. We settled on 10,000. Next you have to add in closing cost which is usually a percentage of the cost of the home. I’ll explain the closing cost in another post. All in all I ended up paying about 14,000 Euros to call my Italian dream home mine. As far as the renovation cost, based on my preferences and what I needed to repair and reconstruct was about another 15,000 Euros. So total all in, 29,000 Euros. Not a bad deal in my eyes for living out a dream that I can pass on to my daughter. If you have any questions in regards to buying real estate in Italy, feel free to send me an email to set up a consultation. I know the buying process and what you need to know to get started living your dream!