Cascina in Santo Stefano di Magra
Fienile semindipendente in vendita a Santo Stefano di Magra – €35.000 trattabili In zona tranquilla e comoda ai servizi, proponiamo in vendita caratteristico fienile semindipendente di circa 32 mq, con ingresso indipendente e ottime potenzialità di recupero e personalizzazione. La soluzione, ideale come investimento,…
What it really costs
Can you move in?
Not before the basics are done
In the listingNeeds renovation- Registered as agricultural or storage, not as a dwelling
See what needs doing and what each job costs
The listing is explicitly a 32 sqm 'fienile' (hayloft/barn), presented as a support space/studio/investment and only vaguely 'to transform', with no indication it is currently or legally a dwelling. At €35,000 plus roughly €35,200 restoration (~€2,194/m² effective) it is far above the €438/m² baseline anyway, but the main issue is habitability/legal use.
More on the house and the area
There is some rustic charm in the old brick-and-plaster farmhouse shell, and the price is low for Liguria near the coast. But the photos show a raw outbuilding rather than a livable house, with boarded/openings and no evidence of finished interiors. This feels more like a conversion project than a dreamy cheap Italian home you could soon move into.
All the services redone, bathrooms, kitchen, windows. The structure is left alone.
Turnkey, facade and insulation included.
Our read of the photos, €1,100/m², falls in this band.
Materials only, work you may do yourself€13,000 – €19,000
Wiring, water and sanitary work of any kind, heating, air conditioning and gas go to a registered firm by law, and so do flues and the air openings for gas appliances. That labour stays in the bill. Yours is the stripping out, plaster, paint, floors, tiling and carpentry.
Labour is 61% of a renovation price on average and 67% at the median, across 191 items of the Emilia-Romagna 2025 public price list. Materials are the rest. An averaged price list, not a quote.
Materials you buy yourself carry 22% VAT; supplied by the firm doing the work they go at the 10% renovation rate. On a €30,000 materials bill that is €3,600 of extra tax.
Household wiring installed before 13 March 1990 counts as compliant if it has a main breaker with overcurrent protection, protection against direct contact and a 30 mA RCD. Having a firm bring the existing wiring up to that and certify it is the cheapest lawful route.
Bringing a house that has stood empty back into service: new water, sewer and electricity, plus the practices. The same sum on an 80 m² house and on a 300 m² one, which is why a €40,000 house is not a €40,000 project.
Show more
Water 1,800 · sewer 2,500 · electricity 700–1,600 · CILA 1,000 · cadastral filing 500 · structural design 700 · Legge 10 report 900 · safety coordination 1,800
No mains drain: add €2,000–4,500 for a septic tank. Listings never say, so ask.
- Essentially a former hayloft shell, not a ready home
- No visible finished interior, kitchen or bathroom
- Full renovation and conversion likely needed
- Very small size at 32 sqm limits usability
Estimate from the listing and its photos, not a survey. Treat it as the starting point for your own quotes. An Italian builder's quote is normally written without VAT and without design fees, so add about a quarter to any figure a firm gives you.
The area around
Location score 73/100The area sits in the lower Magra valley between the Ligurian Apennine foothills and the Gulf of La Spezia. The Magra river is the main watercourse nearby, and the Ligurian coast is a few kilometres away at La Spezia and Lerici. The Montemarcello-Magra-Vara Regional Park extends across the mouth of the Magra and the Vara and Magra valley landscape is part of daily surroundings here. La Spezia is the nearest town of size, with a port, rail links and full services. Lerici and Tellaro on the gulf are close coastal centres, and Portovenere and the Cinque Terre are reachable farther south-west but outside the immediate 15 km landscape. The area is known for the river plain, olive-covered slopes and the transition between inland Lunigiana and the Gulf of La Spezia.