1 Euro Houses in Sicily

The ingenious idea the Gangi town council hit on was simple: take abandoned properties, use them to attract families from all over the world and give their charming town a new lease of life.

But how can it be profitable for the town to sell something as big as a house for one Euro? Well, in the past decade Gangi has seen three tangible trends:

✔︎ local families have been relieved of maintenance costs and tax bills from houses they no longer use;

✔︎ local conveyancing and construction businesses have seen a huge upswing in work as newcomers to the area, buying a second home at a ridiculous price, have been able to afford to invest in their homes and bring money to the economy;

✔︎ the town has welcomed a wide range of new faces, seen the old town transformed at virtually no public cost and benefited from a huge amount of publicity.

‘One Euro Houses’ have been quite the success story in Gangi, then!