We got a great deal on our dream Sicily home – but we’re sick of the other expats

A British couple who bought their dream home in Sicily for just €40,000 (£33,600) have said they are wary about the growing number of expats moving to the area. 

Engineer Dominic Cropper, 61, and his wife Juliet, 60, a teacher, bought their home in the Sicilian village of Sambuca di Sicilia for just €40,000 (£33,600).

In 2023, the couple discovered Sambuca on a property tour across Sicily and fell in love with “the beautiful buildings, the character of the old district, the museum, theatre, artwork and general pride in the Corso (main alley)”, Mr Cropper said.

A year later, they returned and bought a four-bedroom house located just outside the town centre.

They expect to spend an extra €40,000 renovating the house, including rewiring, a new heating system and water store, new bathrooms and a kitchen, before being able to stay in the home from September.

The pair were looking for a house which was big enough to accommodate their family, especially their three children and three grandchildren.

The pair fell in love with the town when they discovered it

“[We wanted something] in need of renovation but ideally habitable; we have renovated a house before and wanted to be realistic about what we were ready to take on,” Mr Cropper said.

In 2019, Sambuca di Sicilia was among Italian towns to launch a scheme to sell homes for just €1 to counter a swathe of young professionals leaving remote areas for cities.

The offer led to dozens of houses being snapped up by foreign buyers. But the Croppers, from Stratford-upon-Avon in the West Midlands, thought the scheme wasn’t quite right for them.

A €5,000 deposit, the fact that old homes required a lot of work and the three-year time constraints on renovating “meant you might lose everything – particularly when you consider the uncertainty of obtaining permissions for a historic property”, Mr Cropper said.

Although in love with the area the couple don’t plan to apply for visas

The Croppers are staying within the Brexit travel rules and don’t currently plan to permanently retire to Sambuca or apply for visas.

To them, the house is still a good deal. In the UK, buying a smaller house, even a simple flat, in a remote town would cost at least double, they said.

However, the couple have a few reservations about Sambuca’s global appeal. They’re worried that too many expats, mostly Americans and a few Brits drawn by the cheap homes, could ruin its authenticity.

Although they are glad that the town is thriving thanks to inward investment, they want this to happen “without seeing it lose its character because we are there!”

The pair are fearful of an influx of expats descending on the area

And “we certainly don’t want to join an isolated community of expats”, said Mr Cropper.

To mingle best with locals, they are learning Italian and have met “several generations living in our street”. They are also relieved that an increasing number of incomers are from elsewhere in Italy, which enables Sambuca to still be “a healthy community and still a long way from being saturated by outsiders”.

However, Mr Cropper warned about the “danger that the Saraceni district is becoming a sort of retirement village, with many half-empty second homes and holiday lets”.

But as a picturesque ruin, he added, the historic centre does little for the town, where there is an efficient waste disposal system alongside clean streets.

“Sambuca is much more and much stronger than the centre alone. It has a vibrant, practical, real-life economy, with thriving businesses”, said Mr Cropper.

“My hope is that inward investors – if they are respectful of it – can help to maintain that authentic character, rather than destroy it – even if the price means deploying the Saraceni neighbourhood to attract them.”