A man who has just bought his second house for €1 in Italy has revealed exactly how much it costs to own one.
George Laing, 32, made headlines after he purchased his first €1 home in Mussomeli back in 2022.
Since then, he has been working on renovating it and has so far managed to stick to a tight budget.
The antiques trader purchased the bargain property through a government-backed scheme which was launched in 2017.
It was created with the aim to help boost local economies and attract new residents to towns and villages with a declining population.
Now, having just bought his second €1 home, George exclusively reveals to the Daily Mail exactly how much it costs to own one of the bargain properties, and his estimated costs to completely fix up both by hand.
He explains that, while the €1 secures the freehold of the property, there are other costs that total to around £4,000.
‘So in total, with all the €1 houses, you pay €1 for the freehold,’ George says.
George Laing , 32, made headlines after he purchased his first €1 home in Mussomeli back in 2022
Now, having just bought his second €1 home (pictured), George exclusively reveals to the Daily Mail exactly how much it costs to own one of the bargain properties and his estimated costs to completely fix up both by hand
He explains that while the €1 secures the freehold of the property, there are other costs that total to around £4,000
‘You then have to pay an agency fee of about £500, you then have to pay the local notary to act as your sort of legal representative to transfer the deeds over from the owner to you, that costs about £2,800.’
In addition, George shares there’s agency fees of around 100 to 200 euros, as well as an energy certificate which costs around €200.
George adds, ‘Then you need to pay for the floor plans, which is another €80.’
A lot of the €1 properties also don’t have water connected, according to George.
‘To get a new water meter €700 and then usually you need a new mains pipe into the the mains water, which is another €700.
‘So all in all, I tell people a €1 house costs roughly £4,000.’
George’s first €1 property ‘needed a complete, complete refurb,’ including work on the electrics, plumbing, roof, bathroom and kitchen.
He gutted out five vanloads of rubbish before the house was clear.
George’s first €1 property (pictured) ‘needed a complete, complete refurb,’ including work on the electrics, plumbing, roof, bathroom and kitchen
He gutted out five van loads of rubbish before the house was clear. Pictured: The first property
‘It’s a shell which is going to be turned into a self contained one-bedroom flat,’ George adds.
However his second property ‘is in a slightly better condition’.
He says: ‘Both have issues with the roof and need a new roof, but it’s a little bit smaller.
‘But generally, the first one had a quite a few major cracks from an earthquake in 1968, the second one had no cracks at all, which is one of the reasons I snapped it up, because the condition was pretty good for being a €1 house.’
Despite the range of renovations needed on both abodes, George has taught himself a lot of skills and plans to complete the work – mostly himself – within a tight budget.
‘I’m getting pretty good at doing it pretty cheap,’ George reveals.
‘The first property I bought, my budget initially was £15,000 to renovate the entire property, but I’ve only spent £1,000 so far, and I’ll do the entire property for under five grand.’
The Brit has witnessed other €1 property buyers complete similar renovations for thousands of pounds more.
However his second property (pictured) ‘is in a slightly better condition’
George says: ‘The first property I bought, my budget initially was £15,000 to renovate the entire property, but I’ve only spent £1,000 so far, and I’ll do the entire property for under five grand’
‘I know someone who’s done the exact same job as me, and they spent 50 grand,’ he adds.
George says he has become skilled at making ‘a pound go about £100’.
He has received a little help along the way in the form of ‘free stuff’ and ‘free materials’.
‘A lot of people come here, they do one building, building jobs, and then they’ve got loads of materials and they just don’t want them anymore, and they just give them away,’ he shares.
As for his newest house, which he purchased in July, George has an even lower price tag in mind.
‘The second property, I’m budgeting about €10,000, but I’ll likely end up doing it for half of that,’ he explains.
George brings down the price by doing a lot of the work himself, including roofing.
He says: ‘I’m doing the roof myself. I’ll be replacing any beams that needs replacing.
As for his newest house (pictured), which he purchased in July, George has an even lower price tag in mind
George brings down the price by doing a lot of the work himself, including roofing. He says: ‘I’m doing the roof myself. I’ll be replacing any beams that needs replacing’
‘I was just on the roof a minute ago, replacing about 40 tiles on the first house I bought.
‘You can pay five grand, six grand, for someone to replace a roof, but I just go to the local building merchant and I get a trader’s discount on the tiles.
‘It may not look perfect, but it will cost me a fraction of the price.’
Once the transformations are complete, George plans to rent the houses out and purchase properties.
Though George has had great success so far with his renovations, he admits it isn’t always easy.
He reveals one of his biggest challenges is funding the projects and travelling between the UK and Italy constantly.
‘It’s constantly a bit of a money pit,’ he explains. ‘I’ve got to travel back and forth because of Brexit. I can only stay in Italy 90 every 180 days.
‘So I’m effectively only here every two weeks, every month, because I don’t have a visa.’
Once the transformations are complete, George plans to rent the houses out and purchase properties
He reveals one of his biggest challenges is funding the projects and travelling between the UK and Italy constantly
He adds: ‘It’s been very difficult saving any money, but I managed to do it just by working seven days a week.
‘So there’s been a bit of financial struggle, but we’re getting on with it because the flights add up, you’ve got to pay for food. Everything sort of quickly adds up.’
George has also struggled with language barriers at times, and has found it difficult to learn Italian.
‘I speak absolutely no Italian, and I find learning Italian incredibly difficult,’ he shares.
‘I’ve got ADHD, so I find it very hard to focus on things sometimes and retaining certain information.’
Instead, George has found himself relying on Google Translate to communicate with locals, butt admits it can be ‘quite lonely at times’.
Aside from the struggles, George feels his €1 venture has added more value to his life.
‘It’s bought so many opportunities and it’s created so much more money for me, and my life has got so much better since leaving London and leaving the nine to five struggle,’ he explains.
George has also struggled with language barriers at times, and has found it difficult to learn Italian
George has big plans for his future endeavours, including buying another €1 house, opening an antiques shop, and completing a sponsored walk.
‘By the end of this year, I will acquire another €1 house. So I’ll have three €1 houses,’ he says.
‘In addition to that, I’m going to open up an antique shop in Mussomeli,’ he adds, explaining he has acquired lots of items from house clearances that he has been selling.
George goes on, ‘Later this year, or maybe start of next year, I’m going to do a sponsored walk from London to Sicily.
‘I’m going to try and crowdfund a couple of 100 grand, and I want to start buying some really big properties and start doing big projects, a lot bigger than ones I’m doing now.’
