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Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

(Pretty sure there have been other HN threads about this, but I couldn't find them. Anyone?)

Edit: thanks everybody!

I bought one of Sicily's famous $1 homes and spent $446K renovating it - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42371806 - Dec 2024 (2 comments)

Italian town is struggling to sell off its empty homes for one euro - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39812671 - March 2024 (28 comments)

Old towns eager for new blood sell Italy homes for $1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29058053 - Oct 2021 (124 comments)

1-Euro Houses - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24195000 - Aug 2020 (190 comments)

We bought a $1 house in Italy. Here's what happened next - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21552701 - Nov 2019 (3 comments)

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The article headline on the $446k renovation cost is very misleading. They did not spend that much on the $1 (which they actually payed 6,000 euro for). They ALSO bought the property next door for 22k euro and combine the two into a literal mansion with four bedrooms, two terraces, sauna, library etc etc etc. $446k for all that is super cheap.

edit: the last link is also a lie. They did not buy a 1 euro house, they bought a 10k euro house (presumably not part of the 1 euro program) and renovated it themselves.

> We bought a $1 house in Italy. Here’s what happened next (CNN Travel article)

> the last link is also a lie

I was wondering if “lie” was too strong a word, but no, CNN is straight up lying in article’s title. Deep into the article they admit it:

“I’ll be honest, we didn’t buy a €1 house,” he says. “We were shown something like 25 old buildings, some badly in need of repair, so at the end we opted for a three-room decent building for €10,000 and I invested more money in the renovation.”

Ah yes, ownership of a four bedroom estate, an unrealistic fantasy for most people in 2025 :)

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Here's a few

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42371806

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24195000

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39812671

This looks like a follow-up to the initial flurry of interest. Have seen a few YT videos of this process, and my recollection is that the overall cost was pretty hefty once you factored in required renovation.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39812671

"one euro" was my query

It's been a very common thing to see over the years, the COVID outbreak was particularly bad in Italy so I guess that took away more of the elderly population while the younger population seek more security and middle class jobs in towns and cities.

The scheme started before covid. The migration from these areas to bigger cities have long been going on.

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