The woman who bought one of Italy’s ‘one euro houses’ based on the truth behind the scheme

A woman has turned an abandoned Italian house “for one euro” into a £384,000 dream home – with a spa, outdoor kitchen and wine cellar.

Meredith Tabbone, 45, decided to bid on the €1 house on a “whim” after her friend sent her an article about the scheme.

Several small Italian towns have made headlines for selling empty houses for €1 each in recent years.

Municipalities offer houses at a symbolic price of €1. They say improving these homes and moving them in over the next few years is more valuable to cities than selling them at full price.

Meredith bid £4,400 at random – for a derelict 17th-century building in Sambuca di Sicilia, Sicily, Italy.

The building had no electricity or running water, and the roof was thick with asbestos.

Meredith bought the house next door for £27,000 and tried to make it a four-bedroom, five-bathroom property.

She spent £384,000 and five years creating her dream holiday home with an outdoor kitchen, spa and outdoor party room.

Meredith, a financial adviser from Chicago, Illinois, USA, said: “The house was in very poor condition – but in many ways, it was everything I expected it to be and more.

“It had so much charm.

“It had such interesting architectural details – you could really see the history coming through the walls. But that was the upper part, to say the least.

“It was worth it, it turned out well.

“It’s modern, but preserved. It’s a vacation home.”

In 2016, Meredith began researching how to obtain Italian citizenship and discovered that her father Michael’s great-grandfather, Fillippo Tabbone, came from Sambuca di Sicilia – a small village in Sicily.

After reading an article about people bidding on one-euro houses in Italy, Meredith made a bid in January 2019 and found out she was successful in May of that year.

She started work on it a month later – spending £661 to remove the roof in an environmentally safe way.

In August 2020, she bought the house next door through a private sale to break ground and create a 3,000 sq ft property.

Meredith said: “When we first saw the house – it was 750 square feet, had no electricity, no running water, no windows – and it was full of asbestos.

“Initially the plan was just to turn it into a little getaway house.

“Although we originally only wanted it as a little getaway – we turned it into a dream home.”

Meredith bought two guest houses in the same village for a total of £28k which will need some minor repairs.

She also bought a derelict building for £58,000, which she will turn into an art gallery and artist-in-residence apartment.

Meredith is currently gathering plans and manpower to begin renovating the gallery later this year.

Areas in Italy implementing €1 house schemes

Where you can bargain

After five years of hard work, Meredith’s holiday home was finally completed in April 2024 – and she now spends four months a year in Italy.

She said: “It was very slow and tiring.

“The sunsets are spectacular.”

Meredith recommends people consider buying a €1 home, but says it’s not for the faint of heart.

She said: “I invested everything.

“If you can muster the strength, it’s worth it.”