Another municipality has been added to the already extensive list of towns offering houses for sale for 1 euro in Sicily. However, this time we're not talking about a small village with very few residents. 1 euro homes are now for sale in Caltagirone (in the province of Catania), a real Italian pearl which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. To find out more, idealista/news interviewed Antonio Montemagno, the town councillor for heritage.
"We have made the decision to promote the 1 euro home initiative in Caltagirone, looking what has been done by other Sicilian villages, even though our town is not as small, being able to count on almost 40 thousand inhabitants and a beautiful and important historical centre, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site", Montemagno points out.
The municipality's main objective, in fact, in addition to stimulating re-population ("many inhabitants have preferred to abandon their homes in the historic centre to build in the new expansion areas," explains the councillor for heritage in Caltagirone) is more than anything else to make the historic centre safer.
Many of the houses in the central area of the town have been inherited and in many cases the heirs live outside Caltagirone and have no interest in spending money on renovation, seeing it as a burden because of the taxes and expenses, even if the properties remain abandoned.
And that's not all, because, as Montemagno pointed out, "in the event of one of the buildings collapsing, which has already happened, the owners have civil and criminal liability, and the way the buildings are structured, if one of them collapses it is a danger for the whole town centre".
Hence the Municipality's idea of acting as a go-between for the sale of the houses for 1 euro, giving owners the chance to get rid of a "burden" and avoid spending money on an asset in which they have no interest. At the same time, potential buyers can buy a house in the historic centre of Caltagirone, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for a symbolic sum of money. Those who buy one of these properties must undertake the necessary safety and renovation work within 3 years of purchase.
"There is already a lot of interest when it comes to selling properties and, as soon as the scheme was published, I immediately received phone calls from owners who want to make their homes available for sale through the 1 euro project." And soon, as Montemagno adds, "the public notice for buyers will also be published".
There are no particular restrictions or constraints when it comes to the use of the property, and buyers can use the property for residential, commercial or hospitality purposes. The heritage councillor also explains that "whoever buys a property can also use it as a technical office or artisan's studio. We are open to everything". This includes Italians who want to invest in a Sicilian pearl that has been declared a UNESCO heritage site, or international buyers.
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