Looking to purchase a house? This town is selling each of its 200 units at only US$1! If convert to Malaysia Ringgit, it would be RM4 for a house.

This is not a hoax as a peaceful and beautiful village in Italy is selling their houses for just one dollar, in order to prevent the town turning into a ghost town.

Image via DailyMail

Ollolai, the town located in the mountain region of Barbagia on the island of Sardinia, is a peaceful and breathtaking town as it is surrounded with green mountains and blue skies.

However, this town has a very low number of babies born every year. To make matters worse, the population is just 1,300 people.

Image via Inhabitat

Hence, the mayor of Ollolai came up with the idea of ‘houses for €1’ scheme in 2015 in order to prevent the population from plummeting further. 

Although the selling price for the house is cheap, there’s a catch too; buyers who have purchased the house must refurbished it.

As for buyers who do not wish to stay there, they can sell off their house after 5 years.

Ollolai was actually once the capital of Barbarian. It was once popular for their piazzas as people from afar will come here to taste the delicious pizza.

But now it is much quieter after most of the families abandoned their homes and youngsters left the town for better opportunities in the big cities. 

Hence, many of the homes have been left unoccupied and in total wreck.

To implement the idea of ‘houses for €1’, mayor of Ollolai contacted former homeowners and asked them to sign their properties over to the town’s authorities.

After that, with the approval of a special decree, the homes were placed on the market.

Image via sunshinecoastdaily.com.au

Image via CNN

The first ever customer to have bagged a house is a couple, Vito Casula and his wife who lived nearby in Sardinia but often visited Ollolai. They spot this campaign through an ad in a local newspaper.

Vito refurbished the house with environmentally friendly materials but still retained the original decor.

By the end of 2017, the mayor has received over 120 applications from different countries such as the United States, Australia and Russia. Although there are overwhelming responses from the world, the mayor decided to set February 7th as the deadline.

For unsuccessful applicants or those who are a little too late, you still have other options such as Montieri in Tuscany, Patricia in Lazio and Lecce de Marsi in Abruzzo which are other European towns threatened by depopulation.

Written by: Chan Suet Yee