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1-Euro Houses

1eurohouses.com

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Re: 1-Euro Houses

#61

Post by jaclaz »

ciguy wrote: post #17

I looked into this pretty extensively when Italy announced it and like most government initiatives there it's a borderline scam and was done for the PR not because it makes sense. Each of these houses requires extensive renovation work, usually of the type that can only be performed by an expensive specialized contractor. Besides the expected costs for this work (Which will be at least 20k Euros up to 200k or more) y…

>After all this if you still aren't convinced you will find that the local governments will take months to issue each permit. The few specialized contractors licensed to perform the work will not show up for weeks at a time randomly whenever they feel like it. After one year you will have paid tens of thousands of Euros to local governments and contractors and your house will be worse than when you started.

Maybe, but this is a constant, no matter how much you initially paid the house (to be restructured).

Strangely enough, for a few hundred thousands of dollars/Euros, a large number of houses already perfectly rehabiitated are available that you can buy and enter into in a matter of a few days.

Also, in all western world you will need to comply with building regulations, build masonry and plants according to norms, have licensed architects and engineers for the projects, "fight" with contractors, etc., etc.

Italy is not much worse or different than other countries in this regard, maybe - it greatly depends on the specific place - permmits will talke a little longer than in other places, but all the rest will be very similar in any EU country.

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#62

Post by jaclaz »

pulse7 wrote: post #40

Most of those 1-Euro houses are in Sicily, Italy. This is connected to the fact, that "la famiglia" ("the family", mafia) is controlling everything in society. They will even give you presents worth more than 1 Euro, because they know they will get every cent back from you. If you stay long enough there, they will give you orders (like "you need to make this and this") and if you refuse to do it, they will - and I am…

Are you talking by experience or you just read an informed article about this?

I happened to live some 15 years in various parts of Sicily and that never happened to me, possibly because I have no children.

>People are relocating from Sicily because of this problem...

Any data to support this theory?

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#63

Post by pulse7 »

Aeolun wrote: post #53
pulse7 wrote: post #40

Most of those 1-Euro houses are in Sicily, Italy. This is connected to the fact, that "la famiglia" ("the family", mafia) is controlling everything in society. They will even give you presents worth more than 1 Euro, because they know they will get every cent back from you. If you stay long enough there, they will give you orders (like "you need to make this and this") and if you refuse to do it, they will - and I am…

> they will - and I am not kidding or making it up - just kill your children Gonna need some form of source on that claim before I’ll believe it. This sounds like something that happened once, but not regularly.

This has been told by the people who relocated, because they were not willing to risk their children. Another example: if you start your business there, someone from "the family" will come after a while and tell you: "You need a secretary. And I have found one for you." Now if you reject them, they will go after you. This is why people are leaving. It would be a beautiful place to live, but because of this, people are living. Many Italian politicians tried to fight "the family", most of them were killed.

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#64

Post by ido »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #33
ido wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck, there are a lot of properties in Germany (where there are actually jobs) that would require less than €200k. People here say these are remote but that is really mostly just how "spoiled" (in quotes because I'm "spoiled" that way too!) Germans are with commute. You can be 1 hour drive away (including traffic) from many fairly central places in Berlin & have very cheap housing outside the city (partially this is…

>Heck, there are a lot of properties in Germany (where there are actually jobs) that would require less than €200k Do you have any examples? I could never find anything larger than a matchbox in a village for under $200k in Germany. Anything decent I found in the outskirts of any big city was over 500k.

The first thing is to look in places without good transit as germans (reasonably!) prefer those. The moment it requires owning a car anything outside Berlin (so in Brandenburg) will be affordable.

Here's a quick search for houses under €100k with at least 100m^2 and 3 rooms (2BR) in Brandenburg: https://www.immobilienscout24.de/Suche/de/brandenburg/guenst...

It returns 83 results & while not all of them are within 1 hour drive from Berlin, at least a bunch of them are.

Also if you're in the affluent south or west of the country (which I suspect is where you searched?) you will have far fewer options for cheap housing than in the depopulated former East-Germany around Berlin. You definitely can't repeat this "trick" outside of Munich.

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#65

Post by literallycancer »

corty wrote: post #55
Aeolun wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you get a bunch of land for basically free and have to build a new house that’s still great though.

Yeah, but you won't. Conservation laws will prevent you from tearing down the old house and instead oblige you to invest to prevent it from falling over on its own.

It's Southern Europe. Ask the locals how often they wait for the bureau to allow repairs and how often they just go ahead and do whatever changes they feel are needed.

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#66

Post by ido »

melvinroest wrote: post #34
ido wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck, there are a lot of properties in Germany (where there are actually jobs) that would require less than €200k. People here say these are remote but that is really mostly just how "spoiled" (in quotes because I'm "spoiled" that way too!) Germans are with commute. You can be 1 hour drive away (including traffic) from many fairly central places in Berlin & have very cheap housing outside the city (partially this is…

Hey, are you up for chatting more about Berlin houses? I'm Dutch and my German is ... not too great. But I am mildly interested in it. So if you're up for it, my email is in my profile.

does this reply answer your questions? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24198125

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#67

Post by staz »

Aeolun wrote: post #56
staz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's an old joke that has two economists coming across a $20 bill on the sidewalk, which goes: > The young economist looks down and sees a $20 bill on the street and says, "Hey, look a twenty-dollar bill!" > Without even looking, his older and wiser colleague replies, "Nonsense. If there had been a twenty-dollar lying on the street, someone would have already picked it up by now."

I think that: > If it looks to good to be true, it probably is. Is more appropriate here. Finding a $20 on the street falls within the realm of reason, and is not likely a scam. Finding a suitcase full of cash however, and picking it up probably has strings attached.

I you stop at the attention grabbing headline, sure it's too good to be true.

It's probably clear to everyone that the cost in the end is going to be bigger. If you watch Raed667's video, the municipalities involved are quite upfront about it and not really trying to scam anyone.

But basically you can see that as a subside or a promotion. The fact that there is going to be other costs associated doesn't means the market ruled it as a bad deal as bobwernstein claimed

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#68

Post by melvinroest »

ido wrote: post #66
melvinroest wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, are you up for chatting more about Berlin houses? I'm Dutch and my German is ... not too great. But I am mildly interested in it. So if you're up for it, my email is in my profile.

does this reply answer your questions? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24198125

Hey, thanks, it does.

Why is the east side cheaper? I mean, I know it was occupied by the Soviet Union back in the day, but why is it still cheaper there now?

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#69

Post by ido »

melvinroest wrote: post #68
ido wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

does this reply answer your questions? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24198125

Hey, thanks, it does. Why is the east side cheaper? I mean, I know it was occupied by the Soviet Union back in the day, but why is it still cheaper there now?

Lots of free space! Look at how relatively sparsely populated the area around Berlin is: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Pop_dens...

Germany has a very low fertility rate & even immigration isn't enough to make the population grow more than very slowly so if a lot of people moved westwards and into the cities it means a lot of people moved out of the east and the country side.

Also almost the entire country is fairly flat & with a mild climate.

Re: 1-Euro Houses

#70

Post by kwhitefoot »

Raed667 wrote: post #2

This video [0] "The Truth Behind Italy's $1 Homes" by Business Insider, explains the concept, the motivation behind it and how these houses will cost you way more than 1$ in fees and restoration efforts. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP2vtDLTAgM

The website explains that on the 'How it works' page: https://1eurohouses.com/how-it-works-and-benefits/
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