Borgomezzavalle
Borgomezzavalle

The list of small Italian towns and villages deciding to put houses up for sale for 1 euro is getting longer and longer. The initiative, which has its origins in Sicily, has now spread all over Italy and has arrived in Piedmont, in the small town of Borgomezzavalle, to be precise. To find out more, idealista/news interviewed the mayor of the Piedmontese village, Stefano Bellotti.

Borgomezzavalle is a rather young municipality, in the sense that it was only established on 1st January 2016, through the merger of the previous municipalities of Seppiana and Viganella. It currently has less than 400 inhabitants and is located in a strategic area for mountain lovers and trekking enthusiasts.

Buying a house for 1 euro in Borgomezzavalle would also be the ideal solution for those who work remotely, given that the village has a fibre optic broadband connection, an essential service for working and studying with an adequate internet connection. Among other things, bringing people to the village is the main objective.

As the mayor of Borgomezzavalle, Stefano Bellotti, emphasised: "The initiative to sell houses for 1 euro in the village was conceived and promoted to avert the danger of depopulation and combat the phenomenon of abandonment of ruins and buildings, a problem common to many mountainous areas in Italy".

The municipal administration has therefore begun the process of tracing the owners of the abandoned buildings, an undertaking that is far from easy, "because it is also difficult to identify the owners, as these houses often belong to several owners or are even registered in the name of the great-grandparents of the heirs who do not even know that they have inherited them", explained Mayor Bellotti.

The first steps to achieve the sale of houses for 1 euro in Borgomezzavalle were taken in 2016 and in 2017 the initiative officially got underway. "We act as a go-between for the sale, but we are not a real estate agency, we just act as a showcase and put sellers and buyers in contact," explained the mayor. He added that the aim of the council is "to find the solution to repopulate the village and have more tourism.

In detail, the 1 euro houses for sale in Borgomezzavalle "need maintenance, because they have also been abandoned for many decades, they are located in different places in the village, mainly in the historic centre but also in neighbouring areas and in most cases, structural work is needed," explained Mayor Bellotti.

From 2017 to today, several houses have been sold for 1 euro in Borgomezzavalle: "even if the pandemic has slowed down the process a bit," the mayor points out that "interest continues to arrive and recently, another 2 properties were sold". Generally speaking, buyers come from outside the borders of the country, and even from abroad in several cases.