Driver baffles with bizarre Bunnings car load<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
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Four Aussie mates quit Australia for a regional town in Italy. Photo: Instagram\/theoneeurodream<\/p>\n
Turns out they could \u2013 but what they found was a long way from a dream home.<\/p>\n
After hiring a car and inspecting properties across Sicily and the mainland, the four friends came face-to-face with a string of rundown houses in shocking condition.<\/p>\n
Some had giant holes in the floors, serious structural damage and no electricity or water connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe roof is completely collapsed in. There are dead pigeons and a lot of shit,\u201d Ricky said while inspecting one property.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe oven looks pretty good though \u2026 This is bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Best mates Miles, Ricky, Jack and Riley are renovating a home in Sicily, which they purchased for just $1.63. Photo: Instagram\/theoneeurodream<\/p>\n
The homes are part of Italy\u2019s well-known \u20ac1 house scheme, which has been rolled out in a number of regional towns trying to reverse population decline and bring abandoned buildings back into use.<\/p>\n
Many of the properties are unwanted inheritances, with families choosing to offload them rather than continue paying taxes and upkeep on homes they no longer want.<\/p>\n
It was in Salemi, a town in Sicily, where the group finally found the house they decided to buy.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of us are tradies, some are not \u2026 We might be crazy. But we are going to have some fun,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
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They certainly have their work cut out for them. Photo: Instagram\/theoneeurodream<\/p>\n
But while the \u20ac1 price tag makes headlines, the real challenge starts after the sale.<\/p>\n
The friends have already hit a series of setbacks during the early stages of the renovation, including a delivery truck that couldn\u2019t fit through the town\u2019s narrow streets and a mistaken order for a tonne of the wrong sand.<\/p>\n
That has left them doing much of the heavy lifting themselves as they race to finish the job.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve set themselves a three-month deadline to renovate the property while documenting every win and disaster along the way for their growing audience.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But how good is the view? Photo: Instagram\/theoneeurodream<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not the first Australians to be lured by the promise of cheap homes in Italy.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Brisbane couple Sophie Bouali and her husband Adam made headlines after buying an Italian home for less than the cost of a ute.<\/p>\n
The pair bought a three-level property near Tuscany for \u20ac55,000, about $90,000, in late 2023 and now plan to sell their Queensland home.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Many of the abandoned houses are unwanted inheritances. Photo: Instagram\/theoneeurodream<\/p>\n
Unlike many low-cost overseas listings, their place was move-in ready and featured terrazzo floors and exposed timber beams, avoiding the need for major structural repairs.<\/p>\n
The couple also found that living costs in regional Italian towns can be about 30 per cent lower than in Australia, making a mortgage-free lifestyle far more achievable.<\/p>\n
The four Aussie mates haven\u2019t yet revealed the full cost of their Sicilian renovation beyond the initial \u20ac1 purchase.<\/p>\n
But their story is already tapping into a growing frustration among Australians who feel home ownership at home is slipping further out of reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four young Aussie mates sick of sky-high house prices have ditched Australia and snapped up a home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-853431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}