Monday, Jul 05, 2010
Your favourite newspaper
Daily mail: For a few million, the chance to grab your own piece of Italy: Treasures put up for sale in battle against soaring national debt
Fancy owning an island off the coast of Venice or Sardinia?
If money is no object, one could soon be yours - as the Italian government is to sell off hundreds of treasures to reduce its national debt.
About 9,000 buildings, palaces, beaches, islands and forts with an estimated value of more than £3billion are among the items that will become available at the end of this month. Italy's growing debt stands at £1.18trillion.
Among the most expensive and picturesque assets on sale is the Caprera island chain, part of the La Maddelana archipelago off the north-east coast of Sardinia.
Posted by mark @ 12:32 PM (924 views) Add Comment
8 Comments
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1. rumble said...
Unsustainable state.
"that Kafka"
2. Simon said...
Selling off the family silver like this is quite disgusting and an insult to the ordinary folk .
No doubt Berlusconi will be getting plenty of kick-backs .
No doubt it will happen here too .
3. uncle tom said...
There's nearly 2,500 tons of gold reserves in Italy - one the largest holdings in the world..
..if current prices held up, they could raise £65bn by selling it - makes this little asset sale look a bit pointless!
4. mark wadsworth said...
They are mental. In economic terms, selling off land is even worse than issuing bonds or raising taxes. Historically, it was only the profligacy of the state that led to crown-owned land being sold off or bonds being issued.
5. tom101 said...
I'm sure it's leashold only. They'll get it back in 999 years.
6. 51ck-6-51x said...
Mental?
Mental ...as a FOX!
Sell it now buy it back on the cheap?
*chortle*
7. mrmickey said...
The Italian state can always compulsory purchase the island back, obviously giving the owner a fair price :-)
8. drewster said...
The whole plan stinks of a bung to well-connected construction companies. It could never happen in Britain - if they tried to flog a national park there'd be uproar from the NIMBYs.