What it’s really like to buy one of Italy’s super-cheap homes

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “If I were building this home in Chicago, it would be a $2m-plus home – but I can build it in Sambuca for $200,000.” open image in gallery Meredith’s house in Sambuca ‘I just googled “Where is the best place to invest in property?”’ While the allure of a €1 property is incredibly tempting, it’s not for everyone. “So I started looking at buying abroad – I just googled ‘Where is the best place to invest in property?’ and Sicily came up.” More googling put Beckie in touch with MyHouse, an estate agent based in Cianciana, another pretty hilltop town in Sicily’s west. “I think probably there weren’t many people going through the same thing, so everything happened quite quickly and smoothly,” she says. “We can’t buy a car, and if we take a car over from England, it would have to be registered in Italy, but we can’t transfer to Italian registration without being Italian residents,” explains Candice.