That's what happened in Italy a few years ago, in parts of Italy, they are practically giving houses away.

The plan was to inject life and money back into dying towns.

But for many foreign buyers, it wasn't smooth sailing.

We met Tamara and Gary Holm in 2019 when they had just bought their home in Sicily, words are failing me.

The couple had their work cut out for them.

It seemed the house had gone untouched since the 19 sixties.

We went back to Sicily to see the transformation and find out exactly how much they spent on it.

Ok, let's talk money because that's what everybody wants to know.

How much did this really cost?

So did the Euro home scheme work.

So a lot of my friends were saying to me, look, it seems like a scam and it's, it's probably too good to be true.

And beyond the one year old price, how much did buyers actually end up spending?

We're here via Delfino.

We made it, we got the keys.

This was Tamara and Gary Holm in 2019.

The lock works they began their search for a Sicilian home, like many others.

After seeing the media hype surrounding the scheme, we heard about it through the uh CNN article.

So I think we definitely had some doubts of like, are they really selling houses for a dollar?

The couple narrowed their search to the town of Sambuca in central Sicily, like hundreds of towns across Italy, its population had been shrinking for decades as younger generations left the countryside for bigger cities.

In search of work.

Originally, the local government put up 16 homes in Sambuca on sale for €1.

Most sold for that amount, but some in better condition went to auction.

That's what happened in Tam and Garry's case.

They bid €5000 for a house and lost.

What they ended up buying was this.

I kind of knew that what we ended up buying was the one just in my gut.

More than 600 year old townhouse with two bedrooms and a roof terrace with views over the town.

Instead of €1.

It cost him 19,000.

At first the couple thought they'd just spruce it up and have a place livable.

In a few months.

We went in thinking we're just gonna paint it nice.

Yeah, just some new new furniture, some new appliances, but a bing.

But they soon realized they'd have to spend a lot more money than planned.

Yeah, because it needed plumbing.

It needed some electrical works.

There was definite work that needed to be done on things like repairing a leaking roof that had caused mold throughout the house and moving walls to create a more modern living space.

On top of the €19,000 for the house, they paid €4000 for the agent fee.

Then a one bedroom house next door came up for sale at €8000.

So then we had to buy that, of course, which added another €4000 agency to join the two properties.

They needed to tear down a 3 ft stone wall.

The central staircase needed reengineering.

Then we go from here into this room and this room and they put new support beams in place.

You gotta make sure the place doesn't fall down.

It's been there forever, you know.

And so that restructuring definitely was a bigger expense than we had anticipated after four years, this is how it's been transformed, refinished walls, new tile in the bathrooms in a refurbished rooftop terrace that will eventually hold an outdoor kitchen.

As for the total cost of the renovation, we'll let Tam and Gary do the math later.

It wasn't just young people moving into the cities that emptied out towns like Sambuca.

An earthquake shook Sicily in 1968 reducing thousands of properties to rubble and leaving many more, too unsafe to live in devastation in Sicily where earthquakes have obliterated old towns and villages south of Palermo, the capital.

Now more deaths and injuries have brought about a mass exodus to the Italian mainland.

Some homes remained untouched for years.

New settlements were built outside but the old town centers were neglected.

Italy was also hit hard by the global economic crisis.

In 2008, many residents left the country altogether.

We need to improve our town.

So the more people come the better we are.

There's not much work here right now.

Italy's first one year home scheme started in semi a town in western Sicily.

In 2008, the town had around 4000 old crumbling homes.

At the time, many owners couldn't afford the cost of renovations or the tax they had to pay on a second property.

So they simply handed them over to the city to sell the scheme spread across Sicily and to the mainland.

And by 2019 headlines were attracting buyers from around the world, but as quickly as news spread about the one year old homes, so did reports that the scheme might be too good to be true.

On top of the purchase price, home buyers face added costs like legal expenses and agent fees that can range from 2000 to €5000 to make sure buyers actually stick around and invest in the property.

Some schemes also ask for a deposit of several €1000 which will be returned if the renovation work on the facade is completed within three years.

But there was also the state of these homes while some homes could be restored and made livable for between €45,000.

Some buyers spend as much as €100,000.

Fixing them up.

Danny mcgovern bought a one year old house in the Sicilian town of Mussa Meli in January 2020.

Now, I wanted to live somewhere that was quiet and tranquil.

I guess the antithesis of London cos I'd been there for 23 years.

Danny spent several months looking at more than two dozen homes before settling on this one which he bought for €1.

But then the pandemic struck, Danny was stuck in London and the property suffered.

And then when I returned to Muss Mali, there was a lot of extra damage that had been done to the house.

A leaky roof in the house next door caused a massive amount of water damage in Danny's home.

The cost to renovate it went were doubled.

So this was the original €1 house that I bought.

You can see though because it hasn't been looked after.

It's just continuing to crumble.

Danny sold the house back to the agency for €1.

So even though you might find one, that's a €1 you've gotta be really careful to look at, you know, what are the houses next door?

What conditions are they in?

This would be a money pit for sure.

What he eventually found was this house I got this house for under 10 grand.

It's in good condition.

You know, I still need to do quite a bit of work on it.

The bathroom needs to be totally renovated.

It's a really old bathroom.

The house was also furnished, which is amazing.

And then we go up another level.

The main things for me and what you need to look out for is are the foundations good.

Uh Is the roof good?

The houses next door?

Are they in good condition?

Are there people living in the houses next door?

And this house to me?

Um it seemed to be fine and perhaps the best part of the house, the stunning view over the Sicilian countryside.

Before buyers like Danny started snatching up homes in Mussel, the population had fallen to about 10,000.

But if you counted all the empty homes, there was enough space for 40,000.

This is Tati Negrelli, the deputy mayor of Mussel.

He helped set up the one year scheme here in 2017.

The whole town was handy.

So we want to repopulate that part of the town.

The plan was a success from the start.

In the first five years.

The town sold 300 houses.

Now we can see a lot of people from all parts of the world and speak English, speak French, speak uh Spanish.

Unlike Sambuca musume doesn't sell homes at auction.

Their Euro homes, all sell for the €1 ticket price.

But what are called premium homes can be bought anywhere from 5000 to €60,000.

Consider that at €20 we have sold maybe 95% houses.

The influx of foreign buyers has brought a boost for local shops and tradespeople.

The deputy mayor says 10 times more tourists are visiting them before the scheme started the boost from new buyers on top of the money from the eu and the Italian government is allowing them to invest €70 million into the town.

Plans include new roads and a more than €1 million remodeling of the town's central square, Pieta Humberto.

We want to invest in the old town of Muamer because we want to give more services to foreign people that invest here.

We want to give more energy to this part of the town and Danny is already bringing energy back to Musim Meli.

He opened the good kitchen in July 2021 with the mission to provide free meals for the town's most vulnerable populations like the elderly and the poor.

I wanted to start a project which would give me the inroads into life in this town.

He rents what was an abandoned store in the town's main square for only 100 and €50 a month.

It's grown into this beautiful hub in the town where we have cooking classes for kids.

We do a Sunday lunch where sometimes we have up to 50 people come and eat and sit down and share a meal together.

Danny collects surplus food from the surrounding area and delivers meals and produce to families in need every week.

My friend there, Angelo, I meet with him every Thursday.

He collects a lot of surplus produce from that market.

When we visited Danny, the good kitchen was celebrating two years of serving the community.

Feels like the first year.

Lots of people here, lots of pasta.

Everyone here with a good intention and full of love.

Now, can you go ahead back in Sambuca?

Tam and Gary are slowly making friends.

The couple lives in Los Angeles most of the time, but they try to visit a couple times a year today.

They're visiting their local winery, not only is the town beautiful.

They say the people are equally warm and inviting.

I think one of the things that I really fell in love with in San BUCA was the people.

Everyone has been super welcoming.

Thanks to the one year scheme, the town is home to a large international community.

People that already lived here for generations and generations are so nice and so cool with that and ready to like make friends with people from around the world.

I think they see the value in outsiders coming in to sort of reju the economy and, and tourism.

And I think it's definitely a boom for the town, but the homes say potential buyers need to do their homework before taking the plunge and they should visit as many times as possible.

Most €1 schemes will only allow people to invest if they're there to collect the keys in person.

Make the adventure.

You gotta hit the road and see if you connect with the town.

You don't just want to buy and not even know anything or no feel for the town.

You gotta, gotta get up in there.

It's not an experience for everyone learning the language is key, especially when dealing with contractors and local bureaucracy, which can be a lengthy and costly process.

For Danny.

You spent about €10,000 for a home that was moving ready.

As for Tam and Gary, our whole rental budget was around 100 and €20,000.

So 30 for the houses, 100 and 28,000 in fees.

So around 100 and 60,000 all in is what it looks like.

And I think we're pretty close to that.

Um I have some math to do but I think we're there after renovations, the couple was left with a four bed, 4.5 bathroom house.

The average price for a home this size in their native L A would be over a million dollars.

But it brought us here.

It brought over 100 people apparently into this town to see what you can get for.

Not a lot of money and just get this sort of dream, you know, who doesn't want to have a house in Italy.