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The Italian towns selling houses for €1

theguardian.com

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Re: The Italian towns selling houses for €1

#31

Post by bee_rider »

arthurcolle wrote: post #15
chirau wrote: post #11

Baltimore, MD has $1 houses as well. They expect you to a certain number of upgrades on it within a specific time. Some say it is actually more expensive in the overall analysis than buying a regular house.

Can I turn them into server farms?

I don’t think it is designed for that.

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/how-to-buy-baltimore-city-1-d...

> "All vacant sales must be redeveloped for residential or mixed-use. That includes residential or green space. So, this program is not for commercial properties. It's only for residential properties at this point in time," Department of Housing and Community Development official Kate Edwards said.

Maybe if you wanted to live with your servers? Would a server farm on the first floor, and an apartment on the second count, I wonder? Free radiant floor heating, if so…

Re: The Italian towns selling houses for €1

#32

Post by monster_truck »

arthurcolle wrote: post #15
chirau wrote: post #11

Baltimore, MD has $1 houses as well. They expect you to a certain number of upgrades on it within a specific time. Some say it is actually more expensive in the overall analysis than buying a regular house.

Can I turn them into server farms?

I would be impressed if you could get the power company to give you more than 100A at any single residential address in those zips

Re: The Italian towns selling houses for €1

#33

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

TrackerFF wrote: post #19

I come from a small rural place in Norway, at the lowest point the municipalities started selling old houses for next to nothing, as in equivalent to $100. No strings attached. But of course, the person living there would have to pay (equivalent to) $1000-$1500 / year on fees related to water, waste management, cleaning of chimney, etc. And you'd probably like to have the house insured. And these weren't nice new hou…

And that's why they should have put the "must renovate" clause!

Re: The Italian towns selling houses for €1

#34

Post by edu »

frereubu wrote: post #14

Great sales pitch, but this is a key excerpt: > What was the catch? It seemed most municipalities required you to renovate the house within a couple of years of its purchase, and due to high levels of interest, the houses often went to auction, ultimately selling for much more than a single euro.

How much is "much more than a single euro"? 5000€ is much more than 1€, but still very cheap.

Re: The Italian towns selling houses for €1

#35

Post by guywithahat »

TrackerFF wrote: post #19

I come from a small rural place in Norway, at the lowest point the municipalities started selling old houses for next to nothing, as in equivalent to $100. No strings attached. But of course, the person living there would have to pay (equivalent to) $1000-$1500 / year on fees related to water, waste management, cleaning of chimney, etc. And you'd probably like to have the house insured. And these weren't nice new hou…

There's an irony in that there is often a regulatory issue with the local government, not just some "shortage of humans".

The same thing happened in one of the most populated regions in the US. The area between Boston/NYC and DC, containing Baltimore, was once a city of a million people. It contains an underground subway and was once referred to as the Paris of America, however through regulation and unions it became completely impossible to do business in or live in, and the city collapsed. They also sold $1 row houses, which should have been a dream come true, except in practice the issue was never the house, it was the city government.

Cities offering $1 houses just means the government has ignored the actual issues for decades and is probably incompetent.

Re: The Italian towns selling houses for €1

#36

Post by bombcar »

lormayna wrote: post #29

Italian here. This is mostly a marketing initiative. If you buy those houses, you need to completely renew them using local companies and with a lot of regulation. You will probably spend 100k doing that. If you buy another house, in the same village, maybe you will pay 5k but you have more freedom in the renewal process and you will end spending less.

I saw a video on these and that was basically the takeaway - fun if you have money to burn, but anyone who is thinking about it and familiar with the place will do other things instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoSC_I2kwMg

Re: The Italian towns selling houses for €1

#37

Post by yieldcrv »

HPsquared wrote: post #22
arcticfox wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting as a thought experiment. You can easily make any house $1 with the "right" tax code. So I'm definitely curious about the situation here.

Reminds me of the negative oil prices during lockdown.

> Imagine the following...you pay $500 today and commit to receiving an escort at your house in 15 days. Cos your wife is traveling. This is called a futures contract.

> Unfortunately, lockdown came and your wife will be home for the next 60 days.

> You do not want this woman to show up at your house at all and try to pass this futures contract to someone else.

> Only you cannot sell this commitment because nobody can receive the escort at home anymore. Everyone is in full storage with wife.

> To make matters worse, not even the pimp (Chicago Mercantile exchange) has more room to receive girls because his house is crowded with girls.

> So you will pay anyone just to take the girl off your hands.

2020 copypasta, because its more relatable than futures and of course, "sex work is work" an inclusive phrase for the workers that choose that trade, immunizing us from criticism for making the analogy at all, hurray!

Re: The Italian towns selling houses for €1

#38

Post by bee_rider »

akudha wrote: post #30
larsiusprime wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maintenance of old crumbling European castles in inconvenient locations are also often famously bad deals for the owner.

This might still be appealing to young people, especially those who do not like the noise/pollution of big cities and can't afford them?

I could see the appeal of a shack, but I suspect a castle would be quite a maintainence burden.

I guess nowadays one would not need to employ as large a retinue… but you don’t get to tax the local villages anymore. Seems like a wash.

Re: The Italian towns selling houses for €1

#39

Post by mattlutze »

riedel wrote: post #23
tossandthrow wrote: post #7

A core idea is that a house sells for a positive value. But that presumption is likely false. Houses at unattractive places in poor condition might actually represent a negative value. As such, even 1 EUR houses might be severely over-valued. It should be interesting as tax code could also take that into consideration.

Why should immovable property differ from moveable property. How many things are sold for 1 EUR, just because everything else would be too difficult. Often those things have value that is only specific to the buyer and have negative value for the seller. The process for declaring something actually worthless and paying for waste removal is so much, but also gifting something to someone is often so much more difficult…

If geography is a factor in the value of an asset, being able to move that asset allows you the ability to effect change in the value of it. I.e., my car might sell for x in one city, but only 0.7x in another.

As an immovable asset's value cannot be changed in the same ways as a movable one's, perhaps there are different ways to tax it that are still fair, or encourage positive social effects.

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