Salve, sweetcheeks. Buongiorno, buttheads. Piacere, little fairies. Hey! I’m Kelsey Kay Love. Welcome back to Travelin’ Fools.
Today we’re here to talk about potentially the most badass thing we’ve ever done, which is buy our very first property of life, a 2 bedroom condo on the coast of Italy! We are finalizing all the paperwork right now, and will officially sign the deed, chug an undetermined amount of celebratory wine, and move in next week.
Now, I know y’all have a lot of questions…
‘How much did it cost?
Is it butt ugly?
How many feet pics did we have to sell on the dark and/or light web to afford it?
How hot is the average real estate agent in Italy?’
And don’t you get your little speedo in a bunch, buddy, I’ll answer all of that in good time.
For now, what I’d like to talk about is the basics of how we got here… meaning how we ultimately chose a location to buy a property in Italy—which is a huge decision in its own right—but also what the process of searching for a property in southern Italy is like, and why we’re buying a condo we haven’t actually seen with our own four eyeballs, in a town we only learned about for the first time a few months ago, in a country we’re not legally allowed to live in for more than 90 days at a time.
Buying a Property in Italy: Location Considerations
First, let’s start with the fun stuff: location. Our original plan, as you may or may not recall, was to buy a property in Puglia, Italy. We have a whole video about this—which you could and should, and can and shan—watch. But the basics come down to this: although Puglia rules and is still one of our favorite regions in Italy, the likelihood of us needing a car kept becoming more and more real.
And while yes, we as U.S. citizens can legally own a property in Italy, we weirdly enough *cannot* legally own a vehicle in Italy. There will be no tears shed over this, though, because any reason to un-invite more paperwork and more types of insurance into our lives is a win.
Primarily because of that, we decided to open up our search to other, more walkable regions of Italy for properties that still fit within our original search criteria, which you can reference in our previous video. Now, while I personally love Liguria—a region up in the north—it became pretty clear, pretty quickly, that the only thing we could afford up there was a dank ass basement up a very steep mountain. Pass.
During our property search on Idealista, one region, but also one town, kept popping up over and over again: the region of Calabria and the town of Scalea.
Why We Chose to Buy Property in Scalea, Calabria
So, what’s up with Scalea? Why out of everywhere in Italy, is that the place we’re buying a property?
Reason #1, it’s located directly on a train line. In 2 1/2 hours, we can be in the center of Naples. In 3 hours, we can be on the Amalfi coast or in Rome, and in 4 hours, we can be in Puglia or on the east coast of Sicily. We’re a 1-hour train ride from a small international airport in the town of Lamezia Terme, where there are inexpensive, direct flights to Albania and the UK when our 90 days are up and we need to exit the Schengen area, or Spain, Switzerland, and Poland when we do not. For longer international journeys, we will most likely take a train up to Naples or Rome and fly from there.
Reason #2, Scalea is located directly on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Since Peter basically lives his life as a merman, and my favorite form of travel is by float—preferably on a sea that’s calmer than a monk on tranquilizers—this bodes well for us, and was absolutely a prime consideration in our search for the perfect property. While most of the places we could afford in Puglia were not within walking distance of the sea, in Calabria, almost all of the train lines are conveniently located along the coastline, where there are many small and medium-sized towns worthy of spending your time.
Reason #3, Scalea is a small town during every season except summer, but not so small that it ever shuts down completely. There’s a population of about 12,000 year-round residents, but in the height of summer, this apparently gets up to 300,000. As a human who happens to like other humans, but also sometimes not so much, I appreciate a good mixture of peace and pandemonium. There are at least three supermarkets in Scalea, plus a lot of smaller specialty shops, and while yes, almost every business is closed for their daily siesta from about 1pm to 5pm (or later), the town itself never fully feels like a ghost town, even in the sleepiest of months of November or February.
Now, we’ve heard horror stories about the crowds, the prices, and the traffic in Scalea in August, when everyone in Italy decides they’ve had enough of the hideous act of working and takes their holidays at the exact same time, and also when everyone from Naples comes to share their truly terrifying driving skills with Calabria. But also, what’s the fun of living on the beach in Italy if it doesn’t occasionally get overrun with Italians who like the beach. I don’t want to live in that world. And I don’t have to. In fact, we will be spending August in Scalea this year, so I’ll be sure to report back on whether it’s incredible or incredibly annoying.
Reason #4, while Scalea literally translates to ‘ladder’ or ‘stair’ due to the historical city center being located on a terraced hill that includes a whole lot of stairs, thankfully, the majority of the modern part of town—including where we bought a property—is flat, and therefore a lovely place to walk and roam without wanting to die a swift, sweaty, and out-of-shape death.
Reason #5, Scalea has very a temperate climate and rarely gets below 40 degrees or above 90. Or below 4 degrees and above 32 if, like almost all of the world, you’re a user of the Celsius. The town is backed by lush mountain ranges, gorges, waterfalls and rivers, where you can ski and snowboard in winter, and hike, go canyoning and river rafting in summer, and the beaches have a lovely combination of turquoise water, cliffs, caves, and dark sand and rocks, with a couple of islands within kayaking distance. The summers are humid and hot, the winters are wet and windy, and we’ve seen people happily frolicking in the sea in the middle of November.
Compared to other areas of Italy, the province of Consenza has a relatively mild risk of being destroyed by a volcano and/or molten hot lava, although fires, floods, and tsunamis are never really off the table these days. If you’re still actively in denial about climate change, be sure to yell that at the water spout as it yanks you off the deck of your yacht.
Buying a Property in Italy: The Search Process
Moving on. What about the property search process? How did that go? In a word: chaotic. In multiple words: chaotic and busy as crap, yet ultimately successful.
During two separate visits to Scalea over a grand total of 11 days, we managed to see 36 properties with the help of at least 10 different agents. One was an auction property with a viewing set up by our auction agent at the time, two were properties for sale directly through the owners, and the other 33 viewings were through real estate agents. We primarily started with properties we found on the Idealista app, but after meeting the agents and explaining our search criteria and budget in person, they’d usually take us to several others that were either only listed on their individual agency websites, or not listed at all. The property we’re buying, in fact, was never posted online.
Because we looked at so many properties in such a short amount of time, by the end of our search, I could tell you in the first 15 seconds if the place was a top contender or not. We seriously considered 3 of the 36 properties, but when it came down to it, the location and amenities ended up being the deciding factors.
For example, we viewed a very modern two bedroom condo with a killer view in a neighborhood called ‘The Bridge’ about a 10-minute drive north of Scalea, but at the very least, we would have needed a scooter to get anywhere, including the beach, restaurants, or the train. We also really liked a couple of top floor units in the center of Scalea, but both needed all new flooring, semi-major bathroom renovations, and one of them was up 80 stairs with no elevator. We don’t have anything against stairs, but when we’re hosting people like our parents, or renting it out when we’re not in the country, these are factors worth considering.
My advice is not to be loyal to a specific real estate agency or even agent. Pick one who you feel comfortable with, who preferably has good reviews and experience selling property to foreigners, and most importantly, who speaks your language if you are not yet fluent in Italian. While we are both in the process of learning Italian, we are by no means fluent, so it’s been helpful to get clarity on the details of the deal as we work through contracts, taxes, utilities transfers, and all of the various things that come up when buying a property, without solely relying on Google Translate.
I can’t speak to what it’s like in other parts of Italy, or even other parts of Calabria, but in Scalea, real estate agencies seem to make up about every third building. You are never lacking for options when it comes to vacation homes, primary homes, or, based on the notes I took during the search process, homes filled with mold, so don’t be afraid to ask around, walk into random offices, and tell an agent exactly what you’re looking for. Most of the time, they’re all too happy to load you up into their car and take you for a rapid fire viewing of places you will never find on most of the popular real estate sites in Italy.
Our Condo in Scalea, Italy
So damn, after all of that, am I finally going to show you what we bought? The answer’s yes, but just know I don’t like your tone.
The property we’re buying is the 36th of the 36 total places we viewed, and in our case, ‘viewed’ is a loose word because our agent didn’t actually have the keys to our exact unit, so we viewed the one just next door to it, which is a mirror image of the one we’re buying. So we’ve technically been in our future neighbors’s bedroom, but not our own.
We purchased a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom condo on the second and top floor of a very pink, gated condominium complex just outside of the main part of town. We are 200 meters from the beach—about a 4-minute walk—plus there’s a private outdoor shower for when we get back from the beach, an external storage closet, a terrace and a separate balcony that’s accessible from both bedrooms, a full kitchen, washing machine, and also a parking space for my future tricycle. The condo was built in 2005—which is about 20 years after almost every other property we looked at—and most importantly, we don’t need to make any major renovations in order to move in and start living there. Since it’s primarily been used as a summer vacation rental, it is partially furnished, but we will replace most of the furniture when we move in.
We’re about a 30-minute walk to the historical center and train station, and a 5 to 10-minute walk to restaurants, cafes, bars, beach clubs, and a grocery store. The condo costs 70k euros plus all of the various taxes and fees, which I will explain in much more detail once we get through that part of the process, and even though this property is at the very top of our budget and I am now living the once familiar life of a true broke ass, at least I’m broke without a mortgage and with a home in Italy.
Now, in a perfect world, we would have viewed our own property, sure, had it inspected by various property professionals, absolutely, spent more time in Scalea and Calabria in general, word, and figured out how to live here long-term with the correct visa, totally. But you know… sometimes you’ve got to take a risk, and buying a property on the Italian coast feels like a risk that doesn’t suck. So come (when you’re invited), stay (when it’s furnished), and for the love of god, don’t say any cheesy crap (like living la dolce vita), to me or to your real estate agent.
Next time, I’ll do a more thorough breakdown of total costs, including one-time and ongoing taxes, notary and agency fees, plus the start-to-finish legal process of what it takes to purchase a home in Italy as an American and nonresident. For now, chin chin, chumps. Arrivederci, a-holes. Ciao ciao for now.
