Cheap houses in Friuli: where homes cost least, and why

The region's lowest value, €520/m², belongs to the Natisone valleys, along the border with Slovenia. Set the bar at €600/m² (the tax agency's OMI values for flats in average condition, January to June 2026) and 30 towns qualify, nearly all small: 27 have under a thousand residents.

Two caveats. The agency often gives similar neighbouring villages identical ranges (Bordano and Trasaghis), so a few euros' difference means nothing. And the values describe ordinary homes: one needing work is worth less, a renovated one more (reading OMI values).

We compared the medians of the 30 towns at up to €600/m² with those of the other 184 (OMI gives no value for flats in Monrupino).

• People: every one of them has lost residents, and 17 have lost one in five or more.
• Hospital: in 15 of these villages, round-the-clock A&E is over half an hour away. With chest pain or stroke symptoms the hub hospital is what matters: 47 min against 32 min.
• Winter sun: on the shortest day, 17 town halls get less than six hours.
• Homes with no residents (2011 census): many are second homes, not necessarily abandoned; for a buyer they can mean more choice.
• Sales: the agency publishes 2025 figures for only 7 of these towns, from 11 to 32 homes sold; Udine recorded 1,726.

These reasons travel together, usually in the same small valley village: the numbers show they go with low prices, not which weighs most. Drive times (no traffic) and clear-sky sun both refer to the town hall.

Bordano is not remote: Udine is 38 min away, Tolmezzo's A&E 19 min, and most buildings are recent. It has the other reasons: 697 residents, -12% since 2001, 32% of homes with nobody registered there, and on 21 December the sun drops behind the mountains at 14:21 (Bordano in figures).

Drenchia keeps its winter sun but is 57 min from A&E. Verzegnis has Tolmezzo 5 min away, yet 49% of its homes have no residents.

• The age of the houses. In villages rebuilt after the 1976 earthquake few buildings predate 1971 (Bordano 19%); in Pulfero, in the Natisone valleys, 90% do. Prices are low in both.
• Distance from Udine, on its own. A median 49 min against 40 min; 10 of the cheap towns are no further than the region's median town, at 42 min.

• A summer second home. December sun and hospital times matter less, summers are cooler (29 days reaching 30 °C or more, against 40), the ski slopes nearer (56 min against 1 h 9 min), the sea further (1 h 19 min against 52 min). A shrinking village and homes with no residents will count when you sell.
• Retiring, all year round. Almost everything counts: the hospital (drive times for every town), the cold (below-freezing minimums on 87 days, against 68), the shopping: 26 of the 30 towns have no supermarket. Verzegnis (5 min from A&E) and Cavazzo Carnico (8 min) are exceptions.
• Buying to let. Homes cost less and rents even less: a gross theoretical yield of 4.2%, against 4.9%.

At OMI values, €200,000 buys a median 342 m² in the towns at up to €600/m², against 255 m² across the region; €100,000 buys 171 m² (square metres town by town). What does not shrink:

• fixed purchase taxes: if the seller is a private person, registration tax never falls below €1,000, plus €50 apiece for the mortgage and cadastral taxes (the sums);
• ILIA, the regional property tax, based on the cadastral income, not the price: at most 0.70% on the one second home you declare, a median 0.86% on other homes, as in the rest of the region (Bordano: 1.06%; how it works);
• building work: the cheaper the house, the more the builder's quote weighs. Tax relief on works comes off Italian income tax (IRPEF): if you pay none, you cannot use it (details).