Spent a good part of yesterday (yes, it rained all day again) looking at Italian real estate, mainly cheap old ruins that need major restoration. And I mean ruins. It's a bit cheeky really, selling off houses that aren't even liveable while you do them up,but I guess the agents are trading on the dream of that "little place" in Italy. Tuscany and Umbria are pretty much out of reach price-wise, but there's bargains in the less popular provinces - the south and east of the country. Judging by the condition of the farmland, these are properties that people have literally walked away from, now drowned in nettles and vines and self-seeded trees. Sad, really. Places in need of love and care. There's some beautiful places to be had, but you need the dosh to do them up, plus the chutzpah to enter the Italian property market and the balls to do a total house renovation in another language.
What's good about Italy is that the ancient tradition of small peasant farms has meant that there are lots of small rural properties; here in NZ trying to find a small rural property is very difficult. We tend to run to large farms, and laws about subdividing these are strict. We have "lifestyle blocks" but these tend to be for wealthy people, who want somewhere for the daughters' ponies. They cost an arm and a leg. (The properties, the ponies and the daughters).
I could sell everything and go and live in Italy, but I'd still need an income. I could sell something NZ in Italy, something they don't have over there, perhaps? Run a B&B? But I don't like people much. The idea is to avoid people as much as possible; I could be a hermit, the crazy straniera lurking in her ruin halfway up the Gran Sasso with her goats and cats. But it would be a long commute if I was hoping to keep my job here.
So if anyone knows some cheap land with an acceptable ruin within commuting distance of Christchurch, let me know.
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