Buy a Home for $27,000 in a Secret Pocket of Italy

The beach resort of Termoli has a few property bargains…but for the best deals, head inland.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Termoli, Italy

Read more about finding affordable property in Italy in International Living Postcards—your daily escape

Molise is Italy’s youngest region. In 1963, it split from Abruzzo, the region lying to the north. Sharing the same Adriatic coastline, it’s also a wild and secret land of mountains and hilltowns. Very tiny, though—its coastline is only 40 kilometers long.

I’ve come for a quick look around Termoli, Molise’s main resort. Along with a modern town and long, sandy beaches, Termoli also has a small historic quarter on a peninsula jutting into the sea. I don’t know what summer weather is like, but it feels more blustery here than up the coast in Pescara.

Through the Gabetti property agency, most apartments range from €1,000 to €3,000 per square meter ($141 to $432 per square foot). A 55-square-meter (592-square-foot) apartment in the town center is €150,000 ($227,000), but in Zona Prticone, an apartment with 80 square meters of living space is the same price. A 350-square-meter (3,767-square-foot) villa on the northern part of the lungomare (promenade) is a massive €700,000, or just over $1 million.

Sabrina Carucci of Country Sunsets real estate agency handles traditional properties in inland Molise. A property mediator rather than an agent, Sabrina connects private sellers with buyers. Her website is in English, but most foreign buyers who contact her are Dutch. Maybe they appreciate wind-surfing...

In Sabrina’s view, Molise’s nicest hill town is Castelmauro, and prices inland are remarkably different from the coast. One 70-square-meter (753-square-foot) house in Castelmauro is €18,000 ($27,000). She reckons it needs only new doors, windows, and a paint job to make it habitable. This shouldn’t amount to much more than €10,000 ($15,000).

In the same area, a dilapidated farmhouse of around 200 square meters (2,152 square feet) is €30,000 ($45,000). Restoring it would cost around another €80,000 ($122,000). I doubt you’d find anything like this in Tuscany, Umbria, or Le Marche for such a low price. Certainly, for inland properties, Molise is another southern Italian region that warrants further investigation.

Steenie Harvey
Roving Europe Editor, International Living

P.S. Italy is a fantastic place to live and invest and it is more affordable than you may think. I give every overseas retirement and second home opportunity I know about in Italy for under $100,000 in this report.

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