MAMMA MIA! - ITALY'S GREAT PROPERTY GIVEAWAY

Surely it must be too good to be true: thousands of old Italian houses up for sale at less than R20 each. So what’s the catch?

- TIM MOORE

IT SEEMED like a pretty good deal,” says Rafael Solorzano, leaning against an ancient whitewashed wall.

The 28-year-old American from Miami is referring to the house we’re standing in – all four floors of it, including a yawning basement – and the fact that this habitable, historic home in a comely old Sicilian hill town was his for €1 (about R17,50). That’s basically the same as what you’d pay in Italy for a slice of pizza.

It’s now 14 years since former MP and cultural commentator Vittorio Sgarbi suggested a radical solution to Italy’s ratcheting rural decline which over the past two decades has seen a million Italians abandoning their small-town homes and going in search of opportunities in cities.

To reverse this flow, Sgarbi proposed that the nation’s dwindling settlements offer their many vacant houses to newcomers for a pittance. It took a while to convince mayors and absentee owners, but 34 remote towns and villages are currently running €1 house schemes, scattered along the country’s full length.

For some, these initiatives are just part of the desperate solution to an existential crisis. Pledge to settle in Molise, a struggling region in the southern Apennines, and open up a business to boost the local economy and you’ll receive a grant of €800 (R14 000) a month for three years to help get you on your feet. For South Africans to do this, they’d need to apply for an Italian self-employment visa.

Further south, Calabria offers smalltown newcomers who promise to establish a business or enroll their children in school a golden hello worth up to €33 000 (R557 000).