This COVID-Free Italian Town is Giving Away Homes for Cheap

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If it’s been your dream to live in Europe, then this might be your chance.

A tiny town in Italy is looking to fill its empty homes with people for relative peanuts. Located in the toe of Italy’s boot, Cinquefrondi, a town in the southern region of Calabria, is selling homes for €1, about $1.14, as the country begins to emerge from the pandemic lockdown.

Calling itself a “COVID-free village,” the community has reported zero cases of the coronavirus, and Mayor Michele Conia is calling the project “Operation Beauty.”


Homes are selling for cheap because the mayor wants to increase the town’s population. Young people normally relocate to bigger cities in search of work and higher paying jobs, so Cinquefrondi wants to welcome new residents who enjoy the quaintness of a small town.

Currently, there are 12 homes available and 50 more are expected to end up on the market.

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While this deal may sound like other deals across Italy in the past, other towns have required homeowners to place a down payment when purchasing their home, and if they do not renovate in three years, they forfeit that money.

Cinquefrondi, on the other hand, is asking homeowners to pay an annual policy insurance fee of €250 ($284) until work and renovations are completed. They will be held liable to a fine of €20,000 (about $22,754) if they do not renovate in three years. Because Cinquefrondi is known to have smaller home sizes, renovations are expected to cost around $11,000 to $23,000, Conia told CNN.

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