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I looked at doing this in Ukraine. Here you can buy 650m2 block of land on the outskirts (20-30minutes drive) of a 2nd tier city for about $10,000. However, I
by Factorium 5y ago
I looked at doing this in Ukraine. Here you can buy 650m2 block of land on the outskirts (20-30minutes drive) of a 2nd tier city for about $10,000.
However, I decided its better to just buy land in the USA instead for the following reasons:
1. Unless you can speak the language, or have a family connection to the workers, local tradespeople will overcharge you by 100%. If you don't speak the language, you'll need to hire a local project manager/translator anyway.
2. The selection of materials is very limited.
3. The pace of construction and design standards are stuck in the Soviet era.
4. There is nothing to do and no one who speaks English in these towns.
5. With the amount of time and money spent on building a nice house, paying a bit more for better land in a better area/country does not represent a large % increase in total costs.
6. Usually a lack of connectivity to one or more of electricity, gas, water, internet, sewer.
7. Due to the poor fertility rate of these countries, finding an eventual buyer for your house is going to be very difficult. Housing outside the cities of these countries is going to trend towards scrap value.
8. The higher latitude and lower average temperature mean either greater need for passivhaus-style design, or higher heating expenses. (Less of an issue in Italy). For example most of Ukraine is located at the same latitude as Northern Canada.
9. There's no mortgage system if you need to borrow money.
If you live in one of these areas, its little different to living in a small town in the USA in terms of total housing cost. If you're willing to build something, you can design and build a simple ICF house, with off-grid electricity, geothermal heating, well water and septic system, and Starlink internet.
Why go through all this trouble in Europe when you can still buy cheap, decent housing like this in the Midwest USA: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5017-Madison-St-Omaha-NE-68117/75887013_zpid/ https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5017-Madison-St-Omaha-NE-...