A SAVVY Brit has managed to save thousands on rent, bills and food after leaving the UK to buy an 85p house in a sunny holiday hotspot. George Laing, 31, is currently renovating a three-storey block in Sicily, Italy on a shoestring budget in the hopes of turning it into his dream home. The cheap and ambitious project has cost George less than £15,000 so far - and he already owns an entire home, furniture and has made a friendly set of new neighbours .
It's a far cry from the average price of a UK home that will set back first time buyers a whopping £288,000, according to the UK House Price Index. For the businessman and entrepreneur, the chance to escape the mundane lifestyle in the UK and go to Italy was a must. A soaring cost of living ruled out a life in London for George, leaving him stuck in Eastbourne shelling out thousands each month with nothing to show for it.
After researching the cheapest homes available to buy in Europe , George found the one Euro Houses project. The scheme takes derelict, abandoned buildings across Italy and flogs them to people at an insanely low price. George quickly found a run-down three-bedroom cottage in the hilltop Sicilian village of Mussomeli and signed over the papers on the home.
Overall, the home and all the taxes that came with the paperwork cost him just £5,000. He told The Sun: "Financially getting on the property market in London or anywhere in the UK is incredibly hard. "£5,000 in the UK isn't going to get you diddly squat.
" .
