Hardworking family who were priced out of Australia’s property market find an incredible way to buy their dream home – without being stuck with a mortgage for 30 years
- Jarred Holt, his wife Aurora and their two young children moved to Tuscany, Italy
- They decided to move after realising a home in Australia was above their budget
- They have been looking at ‘really decent homes’ in Arezzo for about $300,000
- Now they can focus on family time instead of working extra to pay off a high debt
A family who was squeezed out of the Australian property market have decided to buy a home in Italy rather than be stuck ‘paying loan for 30 years’.
Jarred Holt, 36, and his wife Aurora, 29, thought they’d found their dream home while house-hunting in Castlemaine, regional Victoria, but were heartbroken when the property sold for $50,000 above the asking price.
Mr Holt said the sale was a wake-up call: if the couple were to buy a home in Australia, they would spend the next 30 years ‘bogged down’ in unmanageable debt.
Jarred Holt, his wife Aurora and their two children (above) moved to Tuscany, Italy, after they were squeezed out of the Australian property market
‘We looked at homes, but most of the time, the only thing appealing about them was that they were within our borrowing capacity,’ he said.
‘We could have worked more and saved more, but we wanted to make life a bit easier and to spend more time with the kids.’
However, the couple and their two young children had an alternative option: to buy a home in Tuscany, where Ms Ricci was born and raised.
The family said they had previously planned to move to Italy in 2020 but were stopped by the Covid pandemic despite being ‘ready to go’.
‘We thought if buying a house isn’t on the cards, why don’t we use this opportunity and go?,’ Mr Holt said.
The couple were looking for homes in regional Victorian town Castlemaine but said ‘the only thing appealing about them was that they were within our borrowing capacity’ (pictured, a three-bedroom home for sale in Castlemaine for $859,000)
The couple said the decided to move to Italy after a home they liked in Castlemaine sold for $50,000 above asking price (pictured, a three-bedroom home for sale in Castlemaine for $859,000)
‘We can spend more time with Aurora’s family, the kids can see a new culture, and they will grow up bilingual.
‘Why not have a bit of an adventure while we can?’
Mr Holt said they were amazed by the affordable options overseas and knew moving was the right choice for them.
The average price for a small home in Castlemaine is $695,000, but homes in Arezzo are much cheaper, with large country homes on hectares of land selling for the around the same price point.
Mr Holt said the family is looking at ‘really decent’ homes for $300,000 in Arezzo, Tuscany (pictured, a five-bedroom home on two hectares of land on sale for AUD $549,000 in Arezzo)
Large, old country homes for sale in Arezzo are often the same price of a small home in Australia (pictured, a five-bedroom home on two hectares of land on sale for AUD $549,000 in Arezzo)
Mr Holt’s family has been looking at ‘really decent homes’ for about $300,000 but said they could easily find a smaller apartment or townhouse for much cheaper.
‘There’s no ridiculous price tags in Italy, the houses are significantly cheaper,’ Mr Holt said.
‘Property prices are what they were in Australia before the market went crazy.
‘There are homes here we could almost pay for outright with what we’d saved as a deposit in Australia.’
Mr Holt (pictured with one of his children) said the family has struggled with the bureaucratic process of moving overseas but is loving the lifestyle
Now the couple and their two children, aged three and one, have moved into a family friend’s old home in Arezzo, about 76km southeast of Florence.
Mr Holt said the family had to ‘hit the ground running’ once moving with problems arising from the ‘bureaucratic process’ of moving internationally.
‘I had to get a visa, and my wife had to get residency, then we had to sort out healthcare and taxes, and none of the agencies connect,’ he said.
‘We felt like we were kind of bumbling our way through as best we could but especially doing this move with two young kids has been a challenge.
‘It’s been a hard slog, but it’s been worth it.’
Mr Holt said his family hopes to stay in Italy for at least two years and buy a property they can always ‘jump back to’ (pictured, Mrs Holt and their two children)
He added that while the family love their life in Italy, but it’s not always the daydream people imagine it to be.
‘People think living in Tuscany must be beautiful, but life is normal. There’s good times and there’s bad times,’ Mr Holt said.
‘There are definitely benefits, we’ve been enjoying the summer festivals and community feasts, but we’ve also had to deal with culture shock.
‘Ultimately, we want to give our kids the best environment to live in, and we really value the perspective living overseas has given them.’
The family aims to stay in Italy for at least two years before considering moving back to Down Under but hopes to always have a home to return to in Tuscany.
‘We think it’ll be easier for us to buy a property over here than in Australia and always want to have an anchor over here that we can jump back to,’ Mr Holt said.
Forget about the Gold Coast! How an Aussie bought a home in Italy for just $1.50 and now he’s living the dream as house prices soar back home
A lucky Australian has snapped up a house in Italy for just $1.50, before buying a second dream Mediterranean bolthole for just $11,000.
Queenslander Danny McCubbin had seen the scheme advertised online, where foreigners are encouraged to bring money into small towns by being allowed to snap up bargain property.
Mr McCubbin, 57, is originally from the Gold Coast and worked in London from 1998 onwards, including 17 years with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.
Danny McCubbin has set up The Good Kitchen in Mussomeli on the Italian island of Sicily
Working with Oliver – who is famous for his use of Italian food and setting up social food programs in London – helped fire up Mr McCubbin’s interest in Italy.
When he heard about houses being sold in Italy for €1, he couldn’t resist – and with the average Australian house price now $1.1million, it made a lot more sense than moving back home.
‘I first saw on CNN the headline about buying a house in Italy for €1. Like many people I thought it was too good to be true.
After looking at a few towns selling €1 houses, Mr McCubbin settled on Mussomeli, a town that has housing for 40,000 people but a population of only 11,000, with many old homes having been left abandoned for years.
Many towns in Italy have these €1 schemes, but Mussomeli has been hailed a success thanks to clever marketing.
Instead of enticing young Italians here to repopulate, they’re targeting foreigners with the dream of owning an Italian home.
The town now gets around 1,000 emails a day asking about the €1 homes.
‘I loved the fact that Mussomeli was very remote. It’s in the centre of Sicily. I grew up in the country with farming and the land in my soul,’ he said.
A medieval street in the town of Mussomeli, Italy, where Australian ex-pat Danny McCubbin bought a house for €1
Australian man Danny McCubbin (pictured right) with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver (left) who he worked with for 17 years before moving to Italy
‘There’s a sense of kindness here. People talk to each other, they say hello.’
The pandemic may not have dampened his love for the idea, but it did cause delays and damage to the house he bought.
‘The €1 house stood still during the pandemic for a year and the two houses either side caused a lot of damage into it.
‘By the time I went to renovate it the cost had skyrocketed. Building costs had gone up in the town and then the house crumbled even further.’
Danny McCubbin is pictured outside the house in Italy he bought for $1.50 under a scheme to repopulate rural villages and towns
Danny McCubbin, who grew up in Queensland, bought this house (pictured) for $1.50 in Italy. The table, chairs and bottles were included
McCubbin decided to give up on his plan to renovate the $1.50 house.
He was not deterred to give up on the dream altogether.
He found a more suitable house that only cost $11,700 – and just needed minor renovations.
‘The real estate agents here now refer to them as “premium houses”. Mine was €8,000 ($11,700), which is hilarious because it’s less than the cost of my car that I bought here.’
He’s now been living there for more than a year, and explained a lot of people are now buying the premium houses rather than the €1 ones.
‘It’s less of a risk. You aren’t buying something that could cost a lot of money to renovate,’ he said.
Mr McCubbin knows he made the right choice.
‘I don’t have any building skills and I’m not a great handyman, but I could tell with this house that the foundations were pretty good and that it was in a pretty good state compared to many of them, some of which are just rubble.
‘What’s good about this place is that it’s original. It’s been abandoned for 15 years, so it’s as if the person just got up and left.’
He has kept a lot of the previous owner’s items ‘because there’s some good memories here and lovely objects’.
Among the things he kept are a wood fired stove in the kitchen, along with pots and some classic Italian coffee makers.
The locals ‘were a bit dubious at first (but) they are welcoming if you have the right attitude,’ he said.
Danny McCubbin, bought another home (pictured) for $11,700, after realising the $1.50 home needed too many structural repairs
He’s been living in the $11,700 home for months now, which features incredible views over the Italian countryside
He arranged for local supermarkets and fruit and vegetable wholesalers to deliver food they would otherwise throw out, so he can use it help those in need.
Mr McCubbin and others prepare hot meals for vulnerable locals at The Good Kitchen – a community kitchen he set up as part of a charity in the town square.
The Good Kitchen delivers 100 meals a week to the needy.
With youth unemployment at 50 per cent in Sicily, he wants The Good Kitchen to becomes a social enterprise, employing young people in the town.
A young man called Salvatore is helping him on court ordered community service.
‘It’s a way to help the community, to feel good about myself,’ Salvatore said. ‘I love it, it’s an amazing environment. Danny is an amazing guy and I get along with him.’
Ten-year-old Davide also helps out and said ‘When I’m older I want to run a restaurant with some friends.’
With young people being inspired like this, it’s no wonder Danny McCubbin, who is learning Italian by using it every day, has become a valued member of the Mussomeli community.
‘The €1 house was the hook, but it’s a lifestyle for me.’
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