In Italy, it's possible to buy very cheap properties for little to no money because the old homes require extensive repairs. Rural Italy also has a rapidly declining population so in some villages there are even more incentives for foreigners to buy. This British couple thought they'd bought the perfect home for their retirement, but forgot about Brexit, meaning that the UK was no longer part of the EU. That meant a whole host of issues that they didn't bother to find out about first.
Source: iNews (UK)
ROME – A British couple in their sixties have bought a bargain €15,000 (£13,000) three-bedroom house in Italy for their retirement – but they cannot get a visa to live in it because of post-Brexit travel rules.
Greg Walter, from Winchester, says he voted for Brexit, but now feels betrayed.
“We were told Brexit was not going to impact our life abroad, that it would be just a matter of formality,” Mr Walter, who used to work in construction, told i.
“People who had second homes in Europe, or planned to buy one, were never given the correct information on the vote outcome.”
So what's the issue?
“When we first applied last August we were confident that our savings and bank accounts, which amounted to roughly £85,000, would be more than enough,” Ms Appleton told i.
But after a few weeks they received a letter from the Italian consulate telling them that the money they had accumulated did not qualify for eligibility because most of it was not passive income, or pension.
“The Italian authorities don’t take into consideration savings in bank and savings accounts, they want pensions,” said Ms Appleton. “It’s been hell, bureaucracy at the Italian consulate is killing us. We suffer not being able to stay in Latronico for more than 90 every 180 days to follow the restyle of our house. We feel at home there, and have invested money.”
One would think they'd have, you know, sorted this all out before actually committing to buying their bargain Italian fixer-upper, but I guess that's not how these Brexit people do things. Act first, deal with the consequences later.
