To settle down in Italy is a dream for many people. Now a city council of the Italian island of Sicily is helping foreigners in settling here and all this is being done at a very nominal cost. The cost of settling in this particular village is one euro, which is about 80 rupees.
In 2019, officials in Sambuca, a village in the Sicilian countryside, announced a special plan to tackle the problem of steadily decreasing population. They decided that the old vacant houses in the village should be sold for just one euro, that is about eighty rupees.
Like many small towns and villages in Europe, Sambuca also has a declining population over time and currently the population of this village is only 5,800 as the local people have migrated to nearby cities or abroad. Therefore, the city council of Sambuca took this decision assuming people from other parts of the world and the community will get an opportunity to come here and settle their dream home.
“The city council bought the houses after completing legal proceedings. Then the first 16 houses were auctioned and were bought by foreigners. The scheme was successful. Many artists from around the world showed interested in it,” Sambuca’s deputy mayor and architect Giuseppe Cacioppo said.
“People who bought these houses are mainly music and dance artists, journalists and writers. They can admire the natural beauty here.” he added.
“People from all over the world have shown interest in our village and culture. So far 60 houses have been sold,” says a resident of Sambuca. There is a condition that new owners have to repair their houses and they will be given three years to get this work done.
Due to this plan Sambuca became famous overnight in the world. Since the inception of the scheme, 40 houses have been sold at normal market prices. Not only foreigners buy houses but also immigrants from Italy. One of them is Gloria Origi, who first lived in the city of Milan, Italy, but then settled in Paris.
Regarding the decision to buy a house in Sambuca, she says, “I lived in France for many years but always wish I had a house in Italy. What I liked most about Sambuca is the beauty, people here are open-hearted and that’s why I decided to buy a house here. ”
PNN/Agencies
