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A lucky Australian has snapped up a house in Italy for just $1.50, before buying a second dream Mediterranean bolthole for just $11,000.
Queenslander Danny McCubbin had seen the scheme advertised online, where foreigners are encouraged to bring money into small towns by being allowed to snap up bargain property.
Mr McCubbin, 57, is originally from the Gold Coast and worked in London from 1998 onwards, including 17 years with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.
Danny McCubbin has set up The Good Kitchen in Mussomeli on the Italian island of Sicily
Working with Oliver – who is famous for his use of Italian food and setting up social food programs in London – helped fire up Mr McCubbin’s interest in Italy.
When he heard about houses being sold in Italy for €1, he couldn’t resist – and with the average Australian house price now $1.1million, it made a lot more sense than moving back home.
‘I first saw on CNN the headline about buying a house in Italy for €1. Like many people I thought it was too good to be true.
After looking at a few towns selling €1 houses, Mr McCubbin settled on Mussomeli, a town that has housing for 40,000 people but a population of only 11,000, with many old homes having been left abandoned for years.
Many towns in Italy have these €1 schemes, but Mussomeli has been hailed a success thanks to clever marketing.
Instead of enticing young Italians here to repopulate, they’re targeting foreigners with the dream of owning an Italian home.
The town now gets around 1,000 emails a day asking about the €1 homes.
‘I loved the fact that Mussomeli was very remote. It’s in the centre of Sicily. I grew up in the country with farming and the land in my soul,’ he said.
A medieval street in the town of Mussomeli, Italy, where Australian ex-pat Danny McCubbin bought a house for €1
Australian man Danny McCubbin (pictured right) with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver (left) who he worked with for 17 years before moving to Italy
‘There’s a sense of kindness here. People talk to each other, they say hello.’
The pandemic may not have dampened his love for the idea, but it did cause delays and damage to the house he bought.
‘The €1 house stood still during the pandemic for a year and the two houses either side caused a lot of damage into it.
‘By the time I went to renovate it the cost had skyrocketed. Building costs had gone up in the town and then the house crumbled even further.’
Danny McCubbin is pictured outside the house in Italy he bought for $1.50 under a scheme to repopulate rural villages and towns
Danny McCubbin, who grew up in Queensland, bought this house (pictured) for $1.50 in Italy. The table, chairs and bottles were included
McCubbin decided to give up on his plan to renovate the $1.50 house.
He was not deterred to give up on the dream altogether.
He found a more suitable house that only cost $11,700 – and just needed minor renovations.
‘The real estate agents here now refer to them as “premium houses”. Mine was €8,000 ($11,700), which is hilarious because it’s less than the cost of my car that I bought here.’
He’s now been living there for more than a year, and explained a lot of people are now buying the premium houses rather than the €1 ones.
‘It’s less of a risk. You aren’t buying something that could cost a lot of money to renovate,’ he said.
Mr McCubbin knows he made the right choice.
‘I don’t have any building skills and I’m not a great handyman, but I could tell with this house that the foundations were pretty good and that it was in a pretty good state compared to many of them, some of which are just rubble.
‘What’s good about this place is that it’s original. It’s been abandoned for 15 years, so it’s as if the person just got up and left.’
He has kept a lot of the previous owner’s items ‘because there’s some good memories here and lovely objects’.
Among the things he kept are a wood fired stove in the kitchen, along with pots and some classic Italian coffee makers.
The locals ‘were a bit dubious at first (but) they are welcoming if you have the right attitude,’ he said.
Danny McCubbin, bought another home (pictured) for $11,700, after realising the $1.50 home needed too many structural repairs
He’s been living in the $11,700 home for months now, which features incredible views over the Italian countryside
He arranged for local supermarkets and fruit and vegetable wholesalers to deliver food they would otherwise throw out, so he can use it help those in need.
Mr McCubbin and others prepare hot meals for vulnerable locals at The Good Kitchen – a community kitchen he set up as part of a charity in the town square.
The Good Kitchen delivers 100 meals a week to the needy.
With youth unemployment at 50 per cent in Sicily, he wants The Good Kitchen to becomes a social enterprise, employing young people in the town.
A young man called Salvatore is helping him on court ordered community service.
‘It’s a way to help the community, to feel good about myself,’ Salvatore said. ‘I love it, it’s an amazing environment. Danny is an amazing guy and I get along with him.’
Ten-year-old Davide also helps out and said ‘When I’m older I want to run a restaurant with some friends.’
With young people being inspired like this, it’s no wonder Danny McCubbin, who is learning Italian by using it every day, has become a valued member of the Mussomeli community.
‘The €1 house was the hook, but it’s a lifestyle for me.’