For 57-year-old Danny McCubbin, buying a doer-upper for one euro was never just about bagging himself a bargain – he had more enterprising plans for his move to Sicily.
Sure enough, two years after getting the keys to his dilapidated home, Danny is immersed in his new life in the white hillside town of Mussomeli and has quickly become one of the locals. Hardly surprising, given he is doing things he is passionate about: helping disadvantaged people, reviving a neglected community and embracing the authentic Sicilian lifestyle, especially the food.
“In August I opened a community kitchen,” Danny, who is from Australia’s Gold Coast, told BricksAbroad in March 2022. “This was once a busy farming community but today there is no real economy. As well as being deserted by the younger generation, one consequence is food poverty, made worse by Covid, with many people being fed by the Church. Hence I decided to open The Good Kitchen, done with the help of more than £21,000 raised through crowdfunding.
“Our premises are an old butcher’s shop on the main square, which we rent for €150 a month,
and from there we prepare and offer free hot meals, hand out food parcels and hold cooking classes. Locals like to stop by for a coffee too.”
Danny is a seasoned pro when it comes to community work, which in a roundabout way is how he discovered Italy.
Before his move to Sicily, he lived in London for more than two decades and spent 16 years working for chef Jamie Oliver. He helped set up Jamie’s original ‘Fifteen’ restaurant in London, a project that invited 15 disadvantaged youth, including former addicts, to train as professional chefs, which blossomed into the charitable Fifteen Foundation.
“It was while working for Jamie that I got involved with a drug rehabilitation community in Italy, a project called San Patrignano in Emilia-Romagna,” enthused Danny. “I set up a collaboration with Fifteen which meant I was going back and forth there as a volunteer. Inevitably I began to fall in love with Italy and quickly realised that one day I’d like to live and set up my own community project here.”
In 2019, the combination of fast-approaching Brexit and discovery that Italian village houses
were being offered for just one euro gave Danny the push he needed to realise his dream. Through research he learnt how a growing number of remote Italian towns with depleted populations were selling off abandoned houses for a token euro, albeit with purchase costs and conditions
to restore the property, typically within three years and for use only for residential or tourism purposes. The hope was that adventurous foreign buyers would be attracted by the schemes and bring welcome investment to the local economies.
“So in May that year I flew to Italy to start hunting!” continued Danny. “In all, I did three trips out there, visiting different towns. It took 28 viewings before
I found the property I wanted and in July I agreed to buy my one-euro home. Mussomeli appealed to me because its rules for the scheme seemed less complicated than other places and the English-speaking mayor was welcoming. I liked my property because it was larger than others I viewed and had a stable, which I saw as perfect for my community kitchen.”
Structurally, Danny’s new home had solid foundations but there were leaks in the roof. Inside, the rooms had been left untouched since the previous owner passed away 15 years before. From the front door, a staircase led up to a bedroom
and toilet, while a further staircase took you to a kitchen area, with an attic space above. There was no bathroom and both power and water needed reconnecting. Architects estimated €15,000-€20,000 to restore the property.
Back in London, Danny resigned from his job with Jamie Oliver in October that year and began preparing for his big Italian adventure. His intention was to fly out to Sicily in early 2020, after spending time with friends and family back home in Australia. Like everyone around him, he had no idea that COVID was about to disrupt his plans.
“When the pandemic hit, I decided to head back
to London,” recounted Danny. “I still had my flat
in Kensal Green so could stay there until it was safe to travel out to Sicily. Meanwhile, I made myself useful setting up community kitchens. It wasn’t until December 2020 that finally I was able to make a permanent move to Mussomeli. This meant I was able to apply for my residency before the end of the transition period on 31st December. My house wasn’t ready to live in so I rented a house
in the centre of town, paying €300 a month!”
It took just a few weeks for Danny to get his house connected to water and power, as well as find a local builder to do a temporary repair on the leaking roof. However, getting a builder to start the refurb was harder than expected. Italy had recently introduced its Super Bonus scheme, which provides subsidies for properties being upgraded and made greener, and this had caused a surge in demand for building contractors. It wasn’t until September that Danny found someone who could look at this place. Sadly by then the price to do the work had doubled to around €28,000, thanks to the extensive damage caused by water ingress and hikes in the cost of materials.
“So I decided to sell the house back to the agency for one euro,” said Danny. “Really, my only loss was the value of the initial completion costs, about €3,000. I see buying my one-euro home as the launch pad for my new life out here. In fact, it’s already been sold again to an Argentinian couple. Since then I’ve bought another property, one that needed less work. It cost €8,000 and I’ve spent around €5,000 on it, so it was still a bargain. It’s what we call a premium one-euro home.”
So now, home for Danny is a one-bedroom townhouse, 15 minutes’ walk from the town square. The downstairs has a large bedroom and bathroom, while upstairs are the kitchen with adjoining toilet and living room with balcony. A bonus is the basement garage, that opens onto street level and could be useful for future community projects. His refurb costs covered structural work, including rebuilding the balcony, roof repairs, plumbing work and a new bathroom.
“The views from the balcony of the mountains and countryside are fantastic,” said Danny. “And it’s in a really friendly neighbourhood. In fact, the whole town is very welcoming and the people here understand how foreigners can help breathe new life into their community. If you’re thinking of coming here or to another one-euro town to work, do proper research about what is needed and what service would be most beneficial to the local residents. Coming here and setting up a business that is already here or surplus to requirements isn’t advisable. We have good broadband though, so if you can work remotely, that could be ideal!”
For the foreseeable future, Danny continues to be busy running The Good Kitchen, helping to keep the residents of Mussomeli fed and watered, at the same time training youngsters how to take on the role. At the end of the day, when a town has offered you a home for €1, wouldn’t you feel like giving something back to the local community too?
www.goodforgood.com
@dannyforgood