幾年前，32歲的澳大利亞電工馬克·科潘偶然在報紙上看到一篇關(guān)于西西里島待售房屋的文章。一歐元的房屋標價引起了他的注意。

“我決定前往西西里島一探究竟。”他告訴《財富》雜志，“幾天后我不得不離開，但我很快回來，選定了一所房子。”這所房子目前還在翻修，等一切搞定，估計會花上3.5萬美元。

盡管他被引誘以一美元的價格進行投資，并最終將支付很多倍于此的價格，但他還是非常高興。“這是一筆非常棒的投資。”科潘說。科潘有意大利血統(tǒng)，持有意大利護照，他選擇了住在所有屋主都夢寐以求的最高點。

“雖然我還沒有入住，但穆索梅利（Mussomeli）的居民已經(jīng)讓我覺得自己是社區(qū)的一部分了。”他說。

像許多發(fā)達國家一樣，大規(guī)模的城市化已經(jīng)掏空了意大利的大部分農(nóng)村地區(qū)以及穆索梅利這樣的城鎮(zhèn)。穆索梅利位于西西里島的內(nèi)陸，大約有1萬名居民。曾經(jīng)繁榮的村莊、小村子甚至是規(guī)模可觀的城鎮(zhèn)正在經(jīng)歷一代又一代的人口流失，尤其是年輕人的流失。這些被拋棄的地方提出了各種各樣的方案，試圖讓人口數(shù)量重新增多，希望能夠吸引那些厭倦了激烈競爭的人們來這里安安靜靜地重新開始。

因為這種人口轉(zhuǎn)移，出現(xiàn)了一長串標價略高于1美元的待售房屋。

大約12年前，意大利西西里島首套一歐元住宅正式進入市場。從那以后，數(shù)百棟房屋以類似條款售出，現(xiàn)在還有數(shù)百棟待售中。營銷顧問毛里齊奧·貝爾蒂說，未來還會有成千上萬棟的此類房屋出售，他建了一個網(wǎng)站，追蹤不斷擴大的一歐元住宅市場。

“二戰(zhàn)結(jié)束時，意大利的人口有一半多都生活在農(nóng)村地區(qū)。”貝爾蒂說，“但是今天，只有大約7%的人住在城市以外的地方。這種趨勢導(dǎo)致農(nóng)村地區(qū)的很多房屋棄置失修，大多村鎮(zhèn)都面臨人口減少以及老齡化的現(xiàn)狀。”

貝爾蒂說，各類一歐元住房計劃的目標都是讓人口減少的地區(qū)重新增加人口，帶來新的活力。

專事房地產(chǎn)和基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施問題研究的Nomisma公司的董事總經(jīng)理盧卡·唐迪說，要想讓一歐元房屋的開局策略真正奏效，當?shù)厣鐓^(qū)必須制定更全面的振興戰(zhàn)略。

“給一個小鎮(zhèn)增加幾個新居民不會有什么明顯效果。”唐迪說，“這些房子之所以以如此低的價格出售，是因為被市場的力量壓低了價值。但除非采取其他措施，為當?shù)貏?chuàng)造就業(yè)機會，說服出走的年輕人重回家鄉(xiāng)，否則售房只不過是緩兵之計，該來的遲早要來。”

購房要做什么

當然，潛在的購房者將不得不處理購房所需的一套相當多的繁文縟節(jié)，這在意大利司空見慣。比如，這些房子采用正式出售的形式而非贈予，是為了規(guī)避一項法律，該法律允許房屋繼承人在多年后仍然有權(quán)對送出的房產(chǎn)提出異議。貝爾蒂說，即使房屋售價低廉，新房主在拿到鑰匙前也要支付幾千歐元的公證費、注冊費和稅。

法國和英國正在進行小規(guī)模試驗，據(jù)報道，希臘的一些島嶼也正在考慮類似意大利的計劃。在西班牙，一些有多套房子的完全被廢棄的小村莊，以城市里一套房屋的價格出售。但在意大利，這一戰(zhàn)略更為成熟，在全國各地的覆蓋范圍也要廣得多。

不同社區(qū)的規(guī)則不盡相同，但大多數(shù)都使用積分系統(tǒng)對感興趣的人進行評估：夫妻通常比單身者得分高。有年幼子女的潛在買家，或打算在該地區(qū)做生意的人，或以其他方式為社區(qū)提供工作崗位的人，評分也會更高。使用對環(huán)境影響低的材料或雇傭當?shù)亟ㄖ谭路课莸娜丝梢缘玫筋~外的分數(shù)。許多城鎮(zhèn)要求翻新后的房屋成為買家的主要居所。

當然，正如科潘的例子所證明的，要想入住一座可能已經(jīng)棄置了幾十年的房子，翻修是一筆不可避免的花費。

但那些大膽邁出這一步的人表示，他們對自己的選擇十分滿意。

29歲的荷蘭人瑪麗耶·格拉夫斯瑪和31歲的庫爾德人奧萬·阿卜杜拉夫婦倆可謂是這類計劃的理想買主，他們用1美元在撒丁島（Sardinia）買了一座8居室的房子，花了16.5萬美元裝修。他們現(xiàn)在把其中三個房間用作客棧，還計劃把自己在烏得勒支創(chuàng)建的時尚品牌搬到他們的第二故鄉(xiāng)奧洛拉伊（Ollolai），雇傭當?shù)氐募脊ぁ?/p>

阿卜杜拉在接受《財富》雜志采訪時表示：“我們正在慢慢聊這個問題，但我們有一些宏大的計劃，我們打算把精力投入到這個時尚品牌上，或許還會在斯梅拉爾達海岸（Costa Smeralda）開一家店。”斯梅拉爾達是撒丁島時髦的北部海岸。

“來這里意味著選擇了一種不同的生活方式。”格拉夫斯瑪在一次采訪中說，“我們想要更寧靜、節(jié)奏更慢的生活，現(xiàn)在十分幸福。”（財富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：Agatha

A few years ago, Mark Kopun, a 32-year-old electrician from Australia, happened to spot a newspaper article about homes for sale in Sicily. The price tag—one euro—caught his eye.

“I headed to Sicily to check it out,” he told Fortune. “I had to leave after a few days, but I went back as soon as I could and I picked a house.” He’s still renovating the place, and he expects, when it’s all said and done, he’ll have shelled out around $35,000 to finish the work.

Even though he was lured into the investment for the equivalent of a buck, and will ultimately pay many times that, he couldn't be happier. “It’s a fantastic investment,” said Kopun, who is of Italian descent and holds an Italian passport, choosing to dwell on an upside all new homeowners dream of.

“I’m not living there yet but the residents of Mussomeli, the city, already make me feel like I am part of the community,” he said.

As is the case in much of the developed world, mass urbanization has hollowed out much of rural Italy, and towns like Mussomeli, a town of roughly 10,000 inhabitants in Sicily’s interior. Once thriving villages, hamlets and even decently sized towns are losing population—particularly young people—generation by generation. Those left behind have responded with various plans trying to grow the population again, hoping to entice people who’ve become sick of the rat race to start over in these quiet communities.

This population shift has produced a long list of houses for sale for a little more than a dollar each.

The first house to be offered for sale in Italy for one euro hit the market around a dozen years ago, in Sicily. Since then, many hundreds have sold under similar terms and hundreds more are for sale now. And thousands more are due to list in the future, says Maurizio Berti, a marketing consultant who built a website to track the growing market in one-euro homes.

“At the end of World War II, a little more than half of Italy’s population lived in rural areas,” Berti said. “But today, only around 7 percent of the country’s population is based outside cities. That trend has left a lot of rural houses abandoned and falling into disrepair, a lot of villages and towns with dwindling and elderly populations.”

The goal of the various one-euro home initiatives, Berti said, is to help repopulate and bring new vibrancy to areas with declining populations.

If the gambit is to work for the communities selling the one-euro homes, it must be part of a broader local renewal strategy, says Luca Dondi, managing director of research firm Nomisma who specializes in real-estate and infrastructure issues.

“Adding a few new residents to a town won’t make a big difference,” Dondi says. “The homes are sold for such low prices because market forces push the value down. But unless there are other steps are taken to create jobs in the area and convince young people from the area to return, then it just delays the inevitable.”

Here’s what it takes

Of course, prospective homebuyers will have to deal with a fair share of red tape surrounding the purchases, par for the course in Italy. The fact that the houses are formally being sold rather than given away, for example, is to work around a law that allow heirs to contest properties given away even years later. And even with the low price tag, Berti said potential owners will still end up paying a few thousand euros in notary fees, registration costs, and taxes before they are given the keys.

France and the U.K. are experimenting with similar, small-scale versions of the initiative, and some islands in Greece are reportedly mulling plans akin to those in Italy. In Spain, some completely abandoned hamlets made up of multiple homes have been sold for the price of a single home in an urban setting. But in Italy, the strategy is more established and far more diffuse geographically up and down the country.

Rules change from community to community, but most use a point system to evaluate interested parties: couples usually rate higher than single people. Potential buyers with young children or those who plan to open a business in the area or otherwise provide jobs in the community also do better. Refurbishment projects that use low-environmental-impact materials or employ local builders earn extra points. Many towns require the refurbished home to be a buyer’s primary residence.

And of course, as Kopun can attest, there is the unavoidable cost of renovating a house that in some cases have been abandoned for decades.

But those who have made the leap say they are pleased with their choices.

If there is an ideal couple for the initiatives it might be Marije Graafsma, 29, from the Netherlands, and Ovan Abdullah, a 31-year-old Kurd, who spent around $165,000 to refurbish an eight-room home they bought for one euro in Sardinia. Now they use three of the rooms for a bed and breakfast and they are planning to move the fashion brand they started back in Utrecht to their adopted home town, Ollolai, using local artisans.

“We’re talking it slowly, but we have big plans to put energy into the fashion brand and maybe open a shop on the Costa Smeralda,” Abdullah told Fortune, referring to the chic northern shore of Sardinia.

“It’s a lifestyle choice to come here,” Graafsma said in an interview. “We wanted more tranquility and a slower pace of life and we couldn’t be happier.”