[brainwad]

The market (especially in real estate) is not totally frictionless and arbitrage-free. Plus people can have genuinely different valuations for consumable assets (like housing) - that's the entire point of a market, to facilitate trade where both sides make a gain on the transaction.

I don't think anyone would buy these houses as an investment, but if you wanted a quiet house in the countryside and spoke Italian already, maybe it could work for you.

[prawn]

Maybe rewrite that as "if you wanted a quiet house in the countryside and spoke Italian already, had experience managing a challenging renovation in a foreign country, and hundreds of thousands of dollars spare to put towards the required renovations, maybe it could work for you."