The Sican Network: partners
Cianciana My House,
the real estate specialist
in selling to foreigners
The small Agrigento village
“discovered” by actor Ray Winstone
is now a haven for foreigners
From mining hub to paradise for foreigners. Cianciana, a small agricultural village in the hinterland of Agrigento with just over three thousand inhabitants, now speaks English, French, Polish, Czech, as well as Swedish, Danish, and Finnish… An international case, since the phenomenon has also been covered by the big names in world journalism, such as the Times, the BBC and CNN.
“It all began,” says Carmelo Panepinto, surveyor, president of the local Pro Loco and husband of Giuseppina Montalbano, owner of the Cianciana My Home sole proprietorship, “in the early 2000s, when the well-known English actor Ray Winstone, during a vacation on the island, fell in love with the Sicilian landscape, so much so that he began looking for a house in these parts.
Today, Panepinto together with his wife Giuseppina, fellow surveyor Alfonso Martorana, and Joe Calogero Guida, all under 50, make up the working team of Cianciana My House; a real estate reality established in 2005 and that has so far handled about four hundred sales and purchases.
“The inspiration for our activity,” Panepinto says, “was Winstone himself, who after buying a beautiful farmhouse in Cianciana, began looking for homes for some of his friends who, in the meantime, hosted by the British actor, had also fallen in love with Sicily. We thought, why don’t we do it ourselves? And so began our adventure in the real estate business.”
Cianciana My House is part of the Sicani Rural Quality District and has become a reference point for foreigners who want to buy homes in this area of the island.
“What made us realize that we were on the right track,” says Panepinto, “was, in 2007, the London fair dedicated to ‘La Dolce Vita’: it was exciting and stimulating to be in the same context with the most prestigious brands of Made in Italy. There was Piaggio, Barilla, and we were there too. From there, we started to invest in foreign portals and also promote our business in print media with ads, for example, on Ryanair brochures. We also did some classic leafleting on the streets of London, in short, we did not spare ourselves.”
But who are the foreigners who decide to buy homes in Cianciana and why do they do so? “The vast majority of our clients,” Panepinto says, “are British. We have very much focused on the United Kingdom, where a large community of Ciancianesi live. It is there, in fact, that, after the closure of the sulfur mines in the early 1960s, many of our fellow citizens moved; others, on the other hand, went to Belgium, where they continued to be miners. But it is across the Channel that the most substantial community remains; of course, many have returned and this is the reason why in the streets of Cianciana we also speak a fair amount of English.”
Not just artists and returning Sicilians. Those who buy homes in this corner of Sicily nestled among the Sicani Mountains, about four hundred meters above sea level overlooking the Mediterranean, are mostly ordinary people who want a second home for vacation. “Despite Brexit,” Panepinto says, “more than forty percent of our clients are British, followed by the French who buy mainly as an investment, and from Northern Europe we are starting to get Swedes, Danes and Finns; then lately there has been an exploit of Poles and Czechs. There are also Canadians and Americans, but the target audience is still middle-class, ordinary people. Most of the houses they buy are in Cianciana, but we have also handled purchases and sales in Ribera, Sciacca, Alessandria della Rocca… and they are houses within the reach of many: consider that the average purchase price of the approximately four hundred purchases and sales handled, so far, by Cianciana My House, is twenty-five thousand euros.” Stuff to think about for a buen retiro among olive and almond groves, in the calm of the Sicilian countryside, where time slows down and the heart finds its happiest rhythm.
Text by Angela Mannino
