Mi faccio casa sul Colle
Se cerchi qualcosa da personalizzare in un posto tranquillo dove il tempo si é fermato, dove tutto sembra essere familiare e tutti si conoscono; se cerchi una location fuori dalla routine solita dei "posti di mare" dove puoi lasciare la chiave nella porta e dove l'umidità si trova solo quando piove il Colle sicuramente…
What it really costs
Can you move in?
Not before the basics are done
In the listingNeeds renovation- On the market for a long time
See what needs doing and what each job costs
The description says the building is currently a magazzino, not a legal dwelling, only potentially convertible, which is a veto red flag. At €90,000 for 40 sqm (€2,250/sqm) plus roughly €900/sqm renovation/conversion, the effective cost is about €3,150/sqm versus a €519/sqm baseline, and it has been on market for 600 days.
More on the house and the area
The tiny hilltop borgo and sea views are genuinely dreamy, with a quiet old-village setting that has real charm. But the building itself reads as a rough former magazzino with heavily worn walls and no habitable interior shown, so this is a project rather than a home. The location creates romance; the current condition keeps the score firmly capped.
Certified wiring, water and drainage, a heat source, a roof that keeps the water out, one working bathroom. Facade, insulation, a second bathroom and the floors wait.
All the services redone, bathrooms, kitchen, windows. The structure is left alone.
Our read of the photos, €900/m², falls in this band.
Turnkey, facade and insulation included.
Materials only, work you may do yourself€8,000 – €14,000
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.
- Currently a one-storey storage building, not a finished home
- Needs full renovation and change of use to become residential
- No bathroom or livable interior shown
- Visible exterior deterioration and likely structural/moisture work needed
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 90/100Monte Capanne and the western mountains of Elba rise directly above the settlement, with the Arcipelago Toscano National Park covering this part of the island. The Tyrrhenian coast is at the door, with rocky shores and small beaches around Marciana Marina, Sant’Andrea and the western side of Elba. The nearest town of size on the island is Portoferraio, which has the main port, services and ferry connections to Piombino. The area is known for granite mountain slopes, Mediterranean scrub, chestnut woods at higher elevations and the island landscape of Elba.