The Story of How We Bought our Sicilian House
"I do not envy the Heaven to God because I am well satisfied to live in Sicily" King Federico II of Sicily, 1194 - 1250 AD
Last year I received a multitude of emails and messages from people asking my advice about buying a house in Sicily and about life on the island.
I think that with a lot of us spending more time at home in lockdown that many people were using their time to follow a dream of looking for a place in the sun with Sicily in mind due to the amount of coverage in the media about towns selling houses for €1 and also due to the island becoming a more popular destination for holidays.
We did NOT buy our house for €1, our story is a unique one.
This year it will be sixteen years since we first visited Sicily and we immediately fell in love with the island, its culture, its food and its people, so much so that after just three trips we decided that we wanted to buy a house there.
This is our story .....
We first chose to visit Sicily after I read an article in a glossy magazine about alternative valentines weekend destinations which is how we first found out about Taormina. We booked some flights and a hotel and as soon as our feet touched the tarmac at Catania airport we were already seduced by the island.
On one of our trips we had the pleasure of meeting a person who would soon become known to us as our "Sicilian big brother". At the time he was working in one of Taormina's most famous bars. In the best Italian I could muster at that time I ordered myself a glass of white wine, a strawberry gelato and a beer for my husband. The impeccably dressed waiter gave me an odd look and swaggered off with his gleaming silver tray. As he returned to our table he put down a fancy coaster, placed my glass of wine on it and whispered "your Italian is S***!". My husband burst into tears of laughter and from that day we became best friends with Gianfranco and the rest is history. To this day he still cannot believe that he actually said this to me as he had never behaved that way before with any other customers.
Destiny was calling ….
On another trip and after our momentous decision to look for a house in Sicily we mentioned this to him thinking maybe a few months down the line. He said that he would keep an eye out.
We flew back to London and a couple of days later he called to say that he had seen a wonderful house for us in Giardini Naxos, the town below Taormina. Oh my god this was really happening. He sent us photos of the house and we booked the first available flights to view it.
Gianfranco met us at the airport and we eagerly headed straight to the house to see it, the house was not being lived in at this time. After viewing the interior we headed up to the roof terrace. It was dark by the time we had arrived so there was not much to see apart from a clear Sicilian night sky full of stars. Gianfranco assured us that there were views of the Ionian Sea, Castelmola, Taormina and of course Mount Etna. He told us the view of Etna was so spectacular that if she erupted we would be able to make toast. Downstairs there was a balcony that ran the whole way around the building and every room had its own doors onto it. The house was only five minutes walk from the beach. It was perfect for us.
We loved what we saw so we decided to return the next morning to view everything in daylight. As we stepped out onto the roof terrace there she was, Mount Etna in her full glory smoking away. It was early November so Etna was covered in a light dusting of snow making her look like a living painting. That afternoon we went to meet the owner of the house, who lived in Randazzo, to negotiate a price and to sign the papers to purchase our Sicilian home and then the fun began.
Our friends and family in London thought we were crazy! "Sicily?????" they all exclaimed.
One of the reasons we felt we wanted to live in Sicily was for the way of life and that it was not a destination full of foreigners and ex-pats looking for English breakfasts, curry, fish and chips and British newspapers. Sadly with an influx of interest in buying in Sicily at the moment this is gradually changing. We wanted to live life the Sicilian way.
Our home was built by our neighbour who we now really love like a grandad. He was there when we viewed the property and accompanied us with Gianfranco to Randazzo to meet the owner. After much hand gesturing, a few beers and homemade limoncello we came to an agreement and signed the Proposta d'Acquisto, a short contract agreeing to a 5% deposit which took the property off the market.
We flew back to the UK and started to make arrangements for the next part of the buying process.
Next was the legally binding preliminary contract, Contratto Preliminare di Vendita, which details all the selling conditions such as a description of the property, rights of way, payments and timing and ownership rights etc. On signing this contract we had to pay a deposit of 20% of the property price. At this point if we pulled out or if something went wrong we would lose the deposit, but if the owner pulled out he would have to pay back the deposit plus double. We now needed a notaio (notary) to prepare and coordinate the searches and deeds, acting on behalf of us and the owner. We agreed to use the owners notary.
With both deposits paid a few weeks later we needed to sign the final agreement, (atto or rogito) at the notary's office in Randazzo. Purchase taxes, notary fees would be paid there and the balance of the purchase price should have already been received prior to this meeting. Once all documentation was signed and monies paid we would be proud owners of a Sicilian house. Was it that easy? No!
For the meeting we were flying into Catania via Milan with a few hours stop off in Milan. We had already arranged for our bank in London to send a money transfer to Sicily and we boarded our flight to Milan in full knowledge that the money would arrive in Sicily before us. On landing in Milan Gianfranco called us to say that the monies had not arrived in the notaries bank account and that the owner was threatening to pull out.
We boarded our next flight from Milan to Catania not knowing if we would have a Sicilian home or not or whether we would lose our deposit. It was a long flight!
On arrival at Catania we nervously collected our luggage and met Gianfranco who had come to collect us. "It's OK, the money is here" he announced. The money had been sitting in an internal account in Rome and the bank had now sent the money to the correct bank account. Phew!
The owner who we thought was a sweet old gentleman had agreed that although we had not signed the final contract which we were due to do the next day, we could however have the keys to our new home in any case so that we did not need to check into a hotel. How kind of him we thought, until the next morning when he called Gianfranco to ask if we wanted to keep the furniture and said he wanted €5000 for it. We politely declined and then he immediately threw us out of the house and told us to return the keys leaving us nowhere to stay. As it was December all the local hotels had closed for winter. Arghhhhh!
Luckily our lovely neighbour who built our house came to our rescue and let us stay in his spare room BUT he was not happy with the owner of our house. The next morning we drove with him and Gianfranco to Randazzo to sign the final contract.
On arrival at the notary's office the owner would not make eye contact with us. Apparently our lovely neighbour had paid him a visit earlier that morning whilst he was clearing his furniture out of our house and had a "quiet" word in his ear. Eeeeek!
Exchanging the contract on the property was like a wedding ceremony, the seller and buyer had to sit next to each other in front of the notary and go through the whole contract. Part of the process is questions such as "Do you (sellers name) sell your property to (purchaser name)?" "I do" and "Do you (purchasers name) take ownership of this property from (sellers name)?" "I do".
My husband had the pleasure of this 'ceremony' with Gianfranco acting as his translator whilst I was sat on a bench at the back of the office with our neighbours arm resting on my shoulder in a Sicilian sign to the seller to indicate "They are under my protection".
The deal was done, hands were shaken and the keys to our new Sicilian house were given back to us.
We all headed back to Giardini Naxos and had a celebratory lunch at Gianfranco's in laws house.
We still see our lovely neighbour, he must be in his eighties now. We see him having his afternoon naps in the shade, sitting outside our local little coffee shop, driving his three wheeled ape or taking out his horse and cart. He always tells us about how beautiful the Sicilian sun is and always makes the Sicilian hand gesture of pointing one finger to his eye which means "I am looking after you".
So we now had a Sicilian house and it needed decorating and furnishing all with the help of Gianfranco.
Our house had only been used as a family holiday home and had never been actually lived in so it was more or less a blank canvas. It just needed a new lick of paint through out and it needed a new kitchen and a new bathroom.
Buying the bathroom was a big challenge as Gianfranco could not understand why I wanted a bath and not just a stand alone shower, "Where will the bidet go?" he said "I don't want a bidet, we don't have one in London!" "But you will be in a hot country and you will only be taking cold showers, you don't need a bath!" I did get my own way in the end though.
We loved decorating our home, filling it with books about Sicily and slowly buying a collection of ceramics from Caltagirone. However on many occasions my ideas on interior design clashed with those of Gianfranco which always resulted in him shouting at me "It is not the Sicilian way!!!!!!!" Putting up curtains and pictures spring to mind.
I chose the colours red and orange for our living room to reflect the colours of Mount Etna, I framed photographs of Etna in eruption and we found a huge canvas of Etna in Ikea in Catania on the day it opened. In our bedroom I styled it with Norman and Arabic style fabrics and we have two Sicilian puppets above our bed. My husband had visions of them coming alive at night wielding their little swords at him. Our guest room has a Godfather theme to it, with a movie poster above the bed and black and white photos I have taken of the filming locations close by.
Finally I had the Mediterranean kitchen that I always dreamed of and it is an absolute pleasure to cook whilst looking out to the sea and I have my barbecue grill outside the door on the balcony which wafts amazing smells up to the roof terrace where my husband is hungrily waiting to eat.
Although we have a lovely living room to be honest we hardly ever use it as we spend most of our time on our roof terrace which acts like an outdoors living area and so we started living life the Sicilian way dividing our time between London and Sicily.
We have had a lot of fun in our house and I am sure that our neighbours think sometimes we are crazy, like the time we painted the outside and I was hanging over the balcony with a golf umbrella to catch any drips of paint whilst my husband leaned over with an extended roller brush. They must think I am crazy when I am wearing summer clothes to sit on our balcony in the middle of winter or wearing a bikini when I hang the washing out.
One of the most memorable occasions was after Etna had erupted in December 2014 and rained down small volcanic stones on Giardini Naxos turning our roof terrace and balcony into dusty ash trays. We filled an unbelievable amount of heavy duty dustbin bags with rocks that are as sharp as glass.
There was only one thing missing from our house, a dog.
Then along came Daisy but that is a story for another time.
We were very lucky that we had the pleasure of meeting Gianfranco who was such a big help to us finding and purchasing our house and helping us to decorate and furnish it.
We are only part time residents in Sicily and the advice that I always give people who want to relocate permanently is to rent first as a holiday on the island is much different to living on the island.
Over the past few years a number of towns in Sicily have been offering cheap €1 properties to encourage people to move to the area with the hope that people will see the area as a good place to invest in or for a renovation project. Many of these towns have a dwindling or ageing population and hope to build the community again. The properties range from small houses to larger villas but many are in a rundown condition from years of neglect with many being left empty for decades after the earthquake hit the island in 1968 leaving a trail of structural damage in its wake. The conditions for buying the properties vary but the majority of them need large renovation works which are part of the scheme. Conditions include notary fees and agreement of spending a minimum amount of money on renovations which must be completed within a specific time limit, so it is always best to check the finer details with the local commune.
Can you really buy these properties for €1? Technically yes, however the houses are put to an auction where people can bid on them. While some do sell for €1, on average houses sell for around €5,000 up to €20,000, it is always worth keeping in mind that many of these properties might require more work than others and are very rundown, with no electricity or running water.
Would I recommend buying a home in Sicily?
Yes I would but this is of course is down to our own personal experiences and circumstances.
Please note that fees, percentages and the buying process may well be different now than 2007 when we bought our home so it is best to do your own personal research but I do hope that our story will be of some help and inspiration.
If you enjoyed this post then you might enjoy these ones from my Blog archive:
"14 Things I Have Learned Living In Sicily"
https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2018/06/14-things-i-have-learned-living-in.html
"Celebrating 10 Years Of Our Sicilian House"
https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2018/04/celebrating-10-years-of-our-sicilian.html
Now enjoy a sneak peek of our Sicilian House ...
Last week I was super excited to have an article about Weddings and Honeymoons in Sicily published by Luxury Weddings and Honeymoon specialists WEDAWAYS ©
I had the pleasure of meeting Renée Strauss, the co-founder of Wedaways and star of the US TV programme 'Brides of Beverly Hills", in Taormina in 2017 where we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast and morning together at the San Domenico Palace Hotel and we have kept in touch ever since.
You can check out my article here 💍
https://www.wedaways.com/sicily-weddings-honeymoons/
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