My eldest nephew (he is 16 months younger than me) was telling me about the deals they struck in Italy. Two years ago they purchased a small village near Trieste where they re-building the town as a retirement community. They purchased the entire town for less than € 200,000 (building and all). As Michel said, for less than the price of an ugly apartment in Strasbourg.
The plan, which is is near completion is to transform the entire village into a retirement community. The small houses are perfect and will be able to support nearly 3,000 residents and a staff of nearly 1,000. They are building medical clinics, and there is already a small hospital.
The amazing thing, as the owner of the town they decide what can and cannot be built, and they control zoning. Access to the town is restricted to residents, their guests and workers. The idea is to create an Alsacian retirement community. The family had planned three sales offices for the project in Stuttgart, Strasbourg and Zurich, but they were never opened. The project sold out before the real marketing effort started.
My sister was supposed to move there with her husband this summer when the place was ready for its first residents.
Now before anyone thought this was a cheap deal, they had to install all modern systems (potable water, sewers, and electricity), about half the buildings were ruined and road access was, difficult. The total investment was substantially more than € 200 million, which sounds like a lot, but you have to take into consideration that it is housing for 4,500 people, and services too.
What is truly amazing is that the residents of the new town will have the sun and heat of the summer and not the miserable winters of the region. The cost to each resident is substantial but a fraction of what it would be in France. Amazing
Note: This is not a sad place, it's just that it has been conceived to cater to German and French speaking residents. It is just a planned community as it common in other parts of the world.
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