This definitely puts “sweetness” in “home sweet home”.
Taking advantage of an ever-growing opportunity in Europe, a woman from California bought three dilapidated houses in a small Italian town for $3.30 in 2019 – and is now fixing them up.
internal reports that Rubia Daniels, a 49-year-old Brazilian immigrant working in the photovoltaic industry, heard about Italy offering dirt low-cost homes to repopulate abandoned cities in distant areas – and felt a spark.
“I was so amazed. It was one of those things where you could have to see it to be certain it’s real,” said the San Francisco resident. “I did my research and inside three days I had a plane ticket, a rental automotive, a hotel and I was out.”
The town she went to: Mussomeli, a town of about 10,000 inhabitants near the middle of Sicily, an island just off the tip of mainland Italy.
Mussomeli is only one place in Italy offering properties at unprecedented prices to combat a shrinking population, a trend that precedes the coronavirus pandemic. For instance, in 2019, the Sicilian town of Sambuca di Sicilia – as part of its revitalization – gained fame by selling abandoned houses for around $1. Two years later, one other batch of homes went up for sale for just over $2, twice the worth.
![Rubia Daniels.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011135547.jpg?w=768)
(*3*)
![She plans to convert one of the buildings into a wellness center to repay the community that welcomed her arrival.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011135544.jpg?w=799)
![Her job included repairing the roof.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011135543.jpg?w=676)
![The ultimate and stunning product.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011135542.jpg?w=676)
Similarly, the southern Italian town of Laurenzana offered its own abandoned houses in 2021 for around a dollar apiece. Despite the low prices, the properties required between $24,000 and $90,000 to revive—and the owners had three years to finish the work.
(That being said, some owners of such properties realized they were in for way more than they anticipated, with major renovations required that got here at a price.)
Recently, the southeastern Italian city of Presicce offered interested residents as much as $30,000 to buy unclaimed homes. Similar efforts have also been made in Greece and Spain.
![Sambuca di Sicilia gained worldwide fame in 2019 for its efforts to fight a shrinking population by selling houses for small bucks.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011134936.jpg?w=1024)
![However, homework can be costly.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011134929.jpg?w=1024)
![In mainland Italy, Presicce offered people up to $30,000 to move.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011134939.jpg?w=1024)
Back in Mussomeli, Daniels has other plans for each structure he owns. He’ll stay in one at any time when he’s in town, and to present back to the community, he’ll convert the opposite into an art gallery and the opposite into a wellness center. This third might be her biggest renovation.
After being purchased in July 2019, Daniels began the renovation process later that 12 months. Exterior work on two properties has been accomplished for the time being and the last one is yet to start out, but 2020 has thrown the important thing to the initial progress.
“COVID-19 happened and we weren’t allowed to return, so last 12 months I began renovating again,” she told the outlet.
For Daniels, the town of Mussomeli – where she will spend no less than a month on each visit – reminded her of her hometown near the Brazilian capital, Brasília. Along with buying real estate for pocket money, she also gained warm neighbors.
“People were very welcoming and so they all desired to have coffee with me,” she told Insider. “The brokers welcomed me like a sister – they were with me day-after-day the whole time I was there.”