Italian village for sale on ebay... For less than average UK home

Log in to eBay and search for "Alpine village" and you will find many things: a vintage 1990 figurine, a 19th Century watercolour painting... and this: Bortgata Calsazio, located near Turin.

The village turned heads this week, as the local residents sought to find someone to take care of their home. Located in the Italian Alps, it was once full of people, 82 year old Livia Peira tells The Telegraph.

“There was a school, and 35 children would walk down the old mule paths from other hamlets to attend lessons. There were about 80 inhabitants."

Now, there are just eight people living there. It is a trend that has become increasingly common in rural settlements, rivalled only by the trend of selling the communities off wholesale. Indeed, a South Dakota town was listed for sale last week, the latest in a long line in the years following the recession.

While Swett went the traditional estate agent route, though, Bortgata banked on a more unusual way to find a buyer: eBay. The online bidding site has been used by sellers in the past, both in Bulgaria - where the practice has stirred some controversy, and Cyprus, where a shop was put under the virtual hammer for €1.4 million.

Compaed to that price tag, the Alpine village is a bargain. The listing promised 14 houses, combining to offer more than 50 rooms, not to mention potential for starting a business or a tourist restaurant.

UNCEM, the National Union of Mountain Communities, oversaw the auction, telling La Repubblica that the village would "lend itself to being taken over by a private owner who could acquire all the buildings and redevelop them".

Indeed, the state of the buildings is the one fly in the ointment - one that requires faithful restoration of specific timber and stone architectural features.

“If the eBay auction awakens interest in our region, then it’s welcome,” local mayor Anna Bonino told The Telegraph.

For a Brit with an eye for a bargain, the deal is hard to beat. The starting price of £195,000 is far below the average UK property value of £250,000, according to the Office for National Statistics. With 14 houses in the village overall, that works out an average of just £13,928 per property.

The listing even offers local pickup for shipping.

Mrs Peira is not sure what eBay entirely, but the sale was handled by her daughter, Marisa Calcio Gaudino, aged 54. She, like many people connected to rural villages, has moved elsewhere - to nearby Turin.

The auction expired, though, at 11:41 am Eastern Daylight Time on 8th July, with no sign of a succesful buyer.

“The problem with these tiny villages is that unless someone intervenes, they are at risk of disappearing altogether," added Bonino.

Calsazio, she points out, is not even the least populated village in the area.

"The nearby hamlets of Bose and Vasario have two inhabitants each.”