Italy 50k house | planning process explained & COSTS to build.

This one follows on from the other guide that I published a few weeks ago - it covers planning permission and the dance that it seems to be…

 It is important to stress that each application is different and different regions and communities may have a different approach. I am sharing my personal experience so that you get a feel for how it played out for me. All conversations that I had with my geometry and the town hall had a translator present. Most of these conversations were through my geometra and I took his lead and advice along the way. Make of that what you will…
😂 I made a fair stack of mistakes here but did learn at each step. Living and learning is the takeaway but I hope it’s helpful to you. Ask anything…I will try my best to help and reply to all. 👍

It is all a process in Italy. And I truly love my life here now that I am here permanently. Doing up the house is a great idea. As you get to know the area better, you also learn to navigate the system. I was told I could not change my window into a door because I need to hire an engineer, and I could not close up the front door and make a large opening window there because that is the designated door. Then the architect said to me, We can make this window all the way to the floor (french window style) and we can still call it a window. no engineer needed. And I could install a new front door with windows and just keep it closed. just open the windows. DUH! lol! My head was aching. Now I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. But everything takes time. Bravo. It is a peaceful place to live, is it not?

With the barn you’re turning into a relaxation area, you could put a BBQ and temporary pizza oven there. Maybe a nice big dining table/eating area too. Put some solar panels on the roof so you have electricity there. That way you can cook and eat outside during the hotter months. Not a permanent outdoor kitchen which might require planning permission, but something similar in a creative way to get around the rules. Try to beat them at their own game.

Hello Richard. I believe as long as you are comfortable with the living space that you actually are using all the other additions and expenses aren’t necessary. It’s nice to plan larger areas for when the children visit but I found out that they really don’t come as often as you think they will and when they do come they want to go places and see things. Your house becomes a pit stop and rest area. Make sure what you do makes you happy and if you enjoy it every one else will too. Bigger is not always better. Keep up the great work.

Simplicity is classic as they say. Don’t get ahead of yourself with dreams of grandeur. Or buy a home that fits your needs without having to do major renovations. Carry on Richard! Love your content!!

It is a ‘dance’ - we have a suitcase of paperwork under the bed 🤣. Agree about being too trusting & having too many ‘big ideas’ - always be on your guard. Definitely take your time. 👍 👏👏👏👏

Unfortunately, Italy has seismic areas, rural areas and natural parks and historic buildings... all of which must be preserved to ensure that there is more safety than in the past and that there is no wild construction. If you have bought agricultural land, you cannot transform it, you must stick to the square meters of buildings. now, if the barns have been declared, you could certainly use some of them as storage space, but not all of them, you have to see the Regional or Municipal laws for that area. Make different types of projects, look for laws that allow you to get around obstacles (in Italy we are good at doing this) you must have a good surveyor or architect. I hope everything is going well for you. I have renovated several times, in a region different from yours, and I have always clashed with bureaucracies and laws, sometimes you have to settle, take a step back and start again. you will see that then magically everything will be magnificent.

Good, honest commentary about the challenges we’re all likely to face when the time comes to make moves.

Thank you!

Enjoyed. Thank you. Very interesting too.😊

You quickly discover how your culturally based assumptions go out the window and how resilient but more importantly, adaptable you can and have to be. You’re a foreigner in Italy and waiting to do the outbuilding is a brilliant move that gives you time to continue to embrace this new region and its people, including those who’ll eventually grant you planning permission. Build those bridges and things will turn out. As a French-Canadian and therefore a Latin, it’s all about the people and creating those relationships. You’re on the right track! Interesting how what we want from Italy, the sweet life, comes at a price or maybe simply extends to all facets of life, including owning and building in a Latin culture. They take their time, they chat, the share ideas, change their minds, make you fill out tons of paperwork, most of it never amounting to anything other than filling a file folder, and almost seem to want to drag out the process so they can see you again and again and again rather than realizing you’re there to accomplish something …They’ve been doing it like this forever, just like in France or most Latin countries. I spent four years back and forth to Chile and still return there and even as South America’s most politically and economically stable and prosperous country, inefficiency reigns and, when things make no sense or when stories change a zillion times, I find myself saying “It’s Chile” and embracing the chaos and laughing at the inefficiency even if sometimes I want to pull my hair out! It’s Italy, and if you have to put up with this, and it costs you a few nights’ sleep and extra money, and requires endless chats and meetings and paperwork, so be it. Like Chile’s brilliant sunsets, amazing landscape and way of life, including its amazing wines, it’s a price worth paying to find yourself at the end of a long day of hard graft, sipping a Moretti on your deck. You now have your goal with Plan 6 so begin with that end in mind: to build your Italian oasis and enjoy la dolce vita to the full in a beautiful part of Italy!

Good infos there and glad that you happy with what you are able to do. :)

Very interesting thanks for sharing.

one can never truly tire of those views! 🥰

Great work and decision! ❤

Keep going forward. Don't give up, make sure you enjoy the journey and smile.

What you’re doing is exactly what I hope to do in a few years. For me your channel is real world. It’s not a process to rush, the devil as always is in the detail. Thanks for covering that detail as much as you do. It hasn’t put me off, far from it. It’s encouraged me more as I have more of an insight. And those views mate… absolutely stunning.

Wow great synopsis,admire your patience.Think I may have thrown a lot of spaghetti at town planners 😅

As you said, In the end it all worked out as it should have. Love it. Great video Richard. Thanks!

this is mad! got all worked up by listening