I bought a house for one euro and I'm happier than I've ever been. When I sit on the balcony in Sicily, I fell like I've won the lottery of life. Here's how you can do it too...

I bought a house for one euro and I'm happier than I've ever been. When I sit on the balcony in Sicily, I fell like I've won the lottery of life. Here's how you can do it too.

.. By George Laing Published: 21:19 EDT, 24 May 2024 | Updated: 21:36 EDT, 24 May 2024 e-mail View comments 'Where in the world can I buy a house for under £5,000?' Not expecting a great deal, that was the question I idly typed into the Google search engine a couple of years ago.

To my surprise, the answer was quite a few places. But amid the myriad adverts suggesting cheap apartments everywhere from Bulgaria and Albania to — surprisingly — parts of the US, I stumbled on one particular link that caught my eye. It was called the 1 Euro Houses project and, as the name suggests, it offered the chance for house-hunters to get the keys to their own property in rural Italy for less than a pound.

Yes, the property would take hard work and require extensive renovation as well as legal fees and expenses. Yet in return I could own my own Dolce Vita home. Too good to be true? That's certainly what a lot of my friends thought.

More than one suggested it must be some kind of scam. Viewers of BBC1 show Amanda And Alan's Italian Job, of course, will know that it most certainly isn't. The show focuses on Amanda Holden and Alan Carr 's successful efforts to turn €1 houses into harmonious homes.

The €1 residence in question - an old, three-bedroom cottage sitting in the hilltop Sicilian village of Mussomeli Georg.