Topping the charts on Netflix this week is La Dolce Villa, a romantic comedy that will have you yearning to jet off to rural Italy to find a bargain dream home by the time the heartwarming ending rolls around.
The story revolves around American businessman Eric (played by Scott Foley) who tries to dissuade his daughter Olivia (portrayed by Maia Reficco) from purchasing a run-down property at a steal of a price.
Spoiler alert: Olivia goes against her father’s wishes and buys the house anyway. As they invest a considerable sum in renovating the villa, both father and daughter find themselves unexpectedly falling head over heels for two local residents.
Romance aside, the film does has one truth running through it. Since 2017, it’s been entirely possible to a home in Italy for the princely sum of one euro.
Thanks to the country’s ‘Case 1 Euro’ scheme, which sees old, dilapidated houses sold off from, based on the current Euro to GBP exchange rate, around 80 pence, buyers from overseas can bag themselves what seems like a total unfathomable bargain.
Since the scheme was introduced in a bid to restore inhabitant numbers in remote towns and villages caused by depopulation plenty have proved that it’s possible – including TV’s Amanda Holden and Alan Carr.
The first series of Amanda & Alan’s Italian Job for the BBC saw the TV star friends renovating two seen-better-days apartments in Sicily after Amanda bought them for a euro each.
And last year, British man George Laing documented his journey in buying a €1 home, three-bedroom cottage in the hilltop Sicilian village of Mussomeli – saying his purchase had made him ‘happier than ever’.
Netflix rom-com La Dolce Villa, starring Scott Foley, centre, and Maia Reficco, left, follows the story of father and daughter Eric and Olivia as they buy a ramshackle villa for one euro
The film, in true rom-com tradition, has a happy ending…but overseas property buyers hoping to take advantage of the real-life ‘buy a house in Italy for €1’ scheme should be cautious, say experts
Possessions: Many properties under the scheme are sold as seen, and include the previous residents’ furniture
A property on offer in the Sicilian village of Mussomeli. Right: Another Sicilian property – now sold – that carried a one euro price tag
When Donald Trump won his second term in office in the US, a plucky village in Sardinia decided to use it as a selling point.
The picturesque mountain town of Ollolai has long been trying to persuade outsiders to move there after decades of depopulation, and decided to prioritise disaffected Democrats after President Trump was sworn in once more.
The campaign website asks: ‘Are you worn out by global politics? Looking to embrace a more balanced lifestyle while securing new opportunities? It’s time to start building your European escape in the stunning paradise of Sardinia.’
Elsewhere, one American woman has been so entranced by the scheme that she bought not just one home but several houses in the tiny Sicilian village of Sambuca di Sicilia.
Meredith Tabbone, 45, told CNBC, that she was keen to invest in a property in Sicily because of a family connection via her father – but admitted that it took a lot of work to take her ideas from pipe dreams to reality.
In a sobering account of what she faced when she arrived in the village, she says the first property was ‘terrible at best’ and other pitfalls included a roof laced with asbestos, no running water or electricity and nesting pigeons.
Mrs Tabbone’s experience is, it seems par for the course, with those considering snapping up a street of homes for less than a tenner advised to consider the following factors.
Here, MailOnline looks at some of the potential pitfalls raised by those who’ve bought via the Case 1 Euro scheme:
Amanda Holden and Alan Carr’s €1 Sicilian flat went on sale for £127,500 after they bought it for a single euro and then renovated it for the television series Amanda And Alan’s Italian Job
Revamp: The 1,300sq ft apartment has been completely overhauled – after the pair first found it abandoned, filled with rubbish and used by squatters
Mind the red tape: Italy’s property paperwork obsession – and time pressures
In La Dolce Villa, Italian bureaucracy is the butt of more than a few jokes, and the script writers aren’t far off – Italian property buying, even when you’re paying a regular price, can be mind-boggling.
If house buying in the UK requires a mountain of paperwork, then you can double that for a Case 1 Euro application.
Most schemes also stipulate that you use local workers, and complete the works within three years.
Safe as houses: The gamble on the work required
A quick browse through the websites that show off properties for sale for one euro on Google gives a pretty clear picture of what potential homeowners face, with many properties on offer in need of serious structural repair – from the roof to the foundations.
Other problems faced include legacy pitfalls such as asbestos roofs and, if you choose a particularly remote location, sourcing materials and getting them where they need to be – many properties are in traditional hilltop villages often with restricted vehicle access.
Very few require just aesthetic makeovers, and experts warn that they could need future-proofing too against potential earthquakes if they’re in a particularly vulnerable area.
Sold as seen: When a lifetime of possessions comes with the price
George Laing, 31, pictured, said he was inspired by the BBC1 show Amanda And Alan’s Italian Job, where Amanda Holden and Alan Carr successfully turned €1 houses into lovely homes
In videos posted to Instagram, miscellaneous pots, pans, bags and rubbish tarnish the floor during the building’s extensive refurbishment
Before you start planning where your pizza oven will go, bear in mind that many of the properties are abandoned in every sense of the word, with the previous resident’s worldly possessions often left behind.
When Brit George Laing first pushed the door of the home he bought in Sicily, documented on his Instagram page @/george_laing_, he realised that he’d also be buying the personal property of the elderly lady who’d lived their before, including items such as jewellery and artwork.
He told Mail+ last year: ‘I could barely see the walls because every single inch was covered with a lifetime’s worth of stuff, accumulated by the old lady whose son had neither the time nor inclination to sort through it.’
Mounting costs: how 1 euro can become £100,000
If the hammer falls on just one euro, then your Italian project is still very likely to run into the tens of thousands to bring your dreams of overseas property ownership to life.
When US woman Meredith Tabbone bought a home in Sambuca di Sicilia, the costs associated with the paperwork alone – before renovations began – totalled around £5,000.
After a neighbouring property caught her eye, the American with a passion for her Italian heritage agreed to buy that too.
Mrs Tabbone is delighted she’s living the La Dolce Vita but says the cost of bringing her dream home to life has cost her around £384,000 – with her newly luxe four-bed Sicilian bolthole now boasting a sauna, trendy kitchen, pizza oven and even a library.
Learning the lingo…and winning over the localsIf you don’t speak a word of Italian, then you may want to put yourself through more than DuoLingo to get up to speed with the country’s property regulations.
Eric in La Dolce Villa takes months to win over the local residents – with cultural differences a potential real-life issue for buyers too
And once you’re in, there’s the small matter of winning over the locals. Depopulation means that rural communities often have ageing communities, with younger generations fleeing to bigger towns and cities.
Netflix’s La Dolce Villa conveys a little of what ‘outsiders’ might face when buying a holiday home in an ancient community; main character Eric takes an entire movie to win over the three ladies of advanced years who sit by the village’s water fountain and put the world to rights. He eventually does…but it might not be so easy in reality.
