You Can Buy a €1 Home in Sicily, But We Have a Better Idea

Mussomeli
Italy has historic homes selling for historically low prices. Here’s where to find one worth the discount.

Nestled in the mountainous interior of central Sicily is a medieval hill town with winding cobblestoned streets, rich history and culture, and views over majestic landscapes.

This town, called Mussomeli, is also home to a vibrant and growing expat community.

Over the past decade, hundreds of foreign buyers have purchased houses here. More arrive all the time—so many, in fact, that local real estate agents now organize group walking tours of homes to accommodate all the interested buyers.

The reason so many people are flocking to Mussomeli is simple: You can buy a "premium" historic house in this idyllic Italian hill town for €35,000 ($37,500)… or even less.

Italy: The Land of Real Estate Bargains

Italy is the cradle of the Renaissance, has one of the world’s most celebrated food cultures, and is bursting at the seams with natural wonders and historic treasures. Many of its towns and cities are works of art in and of themselves.

Italy is also the land of astonishing real estate bargains.

That’s because its economy has lagged behind its major European neighbors for decades. As a result, there’s no work for the young in many of its historic towns. The country’s population has fallen by 1 million over the last decade, due to a plummeting birth rate and an exodus of young people seeking opportunity overseas.

Depopulation has particularly ravaged rural Italy. Historic homes sit empty and abandoned.

The upshot is that you can find incredible bargains on real estate there. And some of the best deals are in the hill towns of Sicily.

Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean, boasting historic cities, ancient temples, quaint little villages, towering mountains, and stunning beaches on every shore.

In medieval towns set amongst lost-in-time landscapes and sun-drenched hills, you can find historic homes in various states of repair for $70,000, $50,000, even $20,000 or less.

Buying a bargain home in one of these towns might seem appealing, but before you do, you need to consider the future of the town.

If the community continues to decline, then the amenities and services you need to live comfortably there—the cafés, bars, restaurants, hairdressers, etc.—may disappear as well.

However, if you buy into a town that’s experiencing an influx of new buyers, you not only get a bargain home, but you’ll also own in a community that’s set to thrive and prosper.

This is what makes Mussomeli so special.

How to Save a Town: Mussomeli’s €1 Campaign

Mussomeli Town

Mussomeli is about 90 minutes’ drive southeast of Palermo. Best known for the 14th-century Manfredonico Castle just outside of town, this is a quintessential hill town—a patchwork collection of homes set along narrow, winding streets that snake up to the summit.

A decade ago, Mussomeli was a prime victim of the depopulation trend decimating rural Italy. Then, in 2017, it started its €1 homes project in an attempt to reverse this decline.

In essence, programs like these give away crumbling homes under the condition that the new owners renovate them. This concept is one of the most successful real estate marketing projects of the past several decades, bringing global attention to the incredible bargains available in Sicily.

While dozens of towns in Sicily and across the Italian mainland launched these schemes, Mussomeli’s was particularly well-administered, with a dedicated English-language website, phone number, and English-speaking staff. These facilities are rarities among Italy’s €1 home projects.

The accessibility of Mussomeli’s scheme meant it was regularly featured in international media reports on Italy’s €1 homes. Buyers began flocking to the town to see the bargains on offer. Many of the €1 homes were snapped up. Now, only a handful of them remain.

As the €1 homes disappeared, buyers looked to other properties.

Today, the properties in demand are so-called "premium homes." That’s the designation that Agenzia Immobiliare Siciliana—the agency that runs the €1 home project on behalf of the town of Mussomeli—gives to homes that are structurally sound and in livable condition. These homes are often priced in the €30,000 range. Many of these premium homes require updating and renovation rather than wholesale reconstruction. This makes them a much better deal than the €1 homes, which are typically dilapidated and require extensive investment to bring back to life.

In late April, I asked one of my scouts, Ciaran, to visit the town to look at these premium homes. He met up with agents from Agenzia Immobiliare Siciliana, who took him to see four properties on the market there. (Watch the walkthroughs here and here.)

The homes were set in Mussomeli’s charming Old Town, a labyrinthine maze of steep, narrow cobbled streets dotted with centuries-old Catholic churches and small, leafy piazzas.

The homes had similar styles: three stories, multiple bathrooms, small kitchens, traditional window balconies. Some had already undergone partial renovation. Each had a unique character befitting their history. For instance, one had a downstairs garage converted into a living space with a spiral staircase leading up to the second floor, while another boasted marble floors, high ceilings, and a top floor with stunning views of the rolling hills.

You could live like a king on Social Security.

What really stood out about these homes, however, was the price tags.

All four homes were priced in the €28,000 to €35,000 range. A truly astonishing price for a livable historic home in a charming hill town.

There’s Still Time to Buy In

The agents from Agenzia Immobiliare Siciliana say they’ve sold around 300 homes to date, ranging in price from €1 to €30,000 or more. Many have gone to buyers from overseas. As a result, Mussomeli now has an international flavor. When Ciaran was in town, he met foreign homeowners from the US, the UK, Australia, and the Caribbean. There’s red tape, sure—it’s Italy—but still, more arrive all the time.

This influx of foreign buyers has helped Mussomeli turn a corner.

The central piazza has been renovated. There are new restaurants and cafés to serve the growing expat community. Building and renovation work is evident all around the town center.

That’s not to say that Mussomeli is the finished article. Many homes remain dilapidated. Agenzia Immobiliare Siciliana currently has hundreds of homes to sell, and more to come online after that. And there are other real estate agencies in town with yet more listings.

This explains why prices in Mussomeli haven’t risen over the past several years. For now at least, there is ample supply to keep up with the growing demand. But that also means there is still an opportunity to buy into Mussomeli’s rebirth.

One factor to consider before you do, however, is the climate. Sicilian hill towns like Mussomeli are known for temperature extremes.

These towns are exposed to the elements. Their hilltop positions made them easier to defend from attack. But living in a hill town means that cold winters are followed by hot summers. Homes require heating and air conditioning. And outside of summer, it can feel cold even when the sun is shining, due to the wind chill.

This drawback aside, however, the opportunity here is incredible.

In Mussomeli, you can buy a spacious, well-built home in a charming town with views to rolling hills for a little more than half the average cost of a new car in the US. You’ll have no HOA fees… and the annual property tax bill is less than an ordinary meal out back in the US.

You can be part of a real community, where you eat Italian food with your neighbors every day, and your gym is the steps you take to visit the café up the hill. It’s an antidote to the stresses and disconnection back home. You could buy a home and live like a king or queen on Social Security alone.

And to be clear, this opportunity is not unique to Mussomeli.

Since the first €1 homes scheme was launched in Sicily in 2014, buyers have been snapping up properties in hill towns right across the island. Local contacts say that the pace has accelerated since COVID, when more people started working remotely and gained the ability to move part- or full-time to communities like these.

This is reinvigorating towns across Sicily. For instance, Ciaran also scouted a small village of 1,000 people on the northern coast of Sicily called Gratteri, where an agent told him as many as 70 homes had been sold to foreign buyers.

Gratteri is quaint, charming, and has much to offer. It’s set in a national park and it’s only 15 to 20 minutes’ drive from the beach. In winter, you can visit ski resorts in this region, too. And the historic city of Cefalù, known for its in-city beaches and historic cathedral, is just 30 minutes northeast.

Despite all this, traditional homes in Gratteri remain highly affordable. A broker showed Ciaran four homes there in various states of repair listed from €25,000 to €55,000. (You can see video walkthroughs here.)

The point being, opportunities like this exist right across the island, so you can find the home and the community that suits you.

Still, Mussomeli is a good place to start your search. The town is notable for the scale of the influx and the size of the expat community there. The renaissance of this town is only beginning. And as it gathers pace, there will be opportunities for investors, too.

I’ll be keeping close tabs on developments here for members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group.

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