The Italian town of Bivona, Sicily wants you to live there for a paltry $1.47

Stop me if you've heard this before, but there's an Italian town that is offering homes for just $US1 ($A1.47).

This is not to be confused with the one selling homes for less than $2, the one where you could buy an abandoned house for $1.70, the one where the building is free, or, of course, the one offering you $43,000 to move into a ghost town.

Yup, they are at it again - this time it's the picturesque (aren't they always) town of Bivona, deep in the heart of Sicily.

Like all the towns linked above, this hillside commune in the Province of Agrigento has seen a slump in the younger population, and is in danger of dying out.

"In the last 40 years, our population has halved. Today we're down to just 3800 residents," Angela Cannizzaro, Bivona's culture councillor, told CNN.

"We want to recover the lost grandeur of our greatest time in history, back in the Renaissance, when 8000 people lived in Bivona, and it was a flourishing feudal duchy blessed by Emperor Charles V."

So what is Bivona offering to entice potential residents? Well, it is undercutting slightly some of the other towns when it comes to stumping up a bond.

It is asking for $US2750 ($NZ4051), whereas most of the others want around $US5000

The sales pitch also allows a mandatory renovation period of four years, so you have longer to do up your premises.