Idyllic towns with 2,500 hours of sunshine a year offering £25,000 for people to move there – but you better act quick
IDYLLIC towns that bask in sun 2,500 hours a year are offering thousands for people to move there – but applications close soon.
Tuscany’s regional authorities have announced they’ll pay people up to a whopping £25,000 to relocate to the breathtaking Italian mountain towns.
The sun-soaked Italian region of Tuscany is a location with notoriously expensive properties.
The money would be used to buy a house in a town in the picturesque province.
Dwindling populations in the regions with locals moving to cities for work has driven Italy to make the amazing offer.
The new scheme dubbed ‘Residency in the mountains 2024’ will give applicants between €10,000 and €30,000 to purchase a home.
The terms and conditions include the purchase having to be in a mountain town with a population fewer than 5,000 people.
Currently there are 119 Tuscan towns suffering from the population crisis.
The generous financial contribution cannot, however, exceed 50per cent of the cost of buying and renovating the property.
Stefania Saccardi, Tuscany’s regional vice president described the Tuscan mountains as: “territories of unique beauty with villages to be rediscovered which, however, suffer from depopulation.
“Deciding to live in one of these municipalities is therefore a challenge and an opportunity, especially for young people, and the chance for a new life choice.”
Italy have been incredibly inventive as of recent to remedy the population crisis, like launching one Euro Houses.
The project took derelict, abandoned buildings in Italy and flogged them to people at an insanely low price.
After barely managing to survive living in London with the astronomical rent and soaring cost of living, 31-year-old George Laing packed his bags and jetted off to Italy to create his perfect life on the cheap.
The savvy entrepreneur jumped at the chance to stop wasting thousands a month on rent and quickly found a run-down three-bedroom cottage in the hilltop Sicilian village of Mussomeli.
Last year the sun-soaked region of Calabria was the newest place to offer a new scheme.
In the south of the country, dubbed Italy’s “toe”, a whopping £26,000 was offered to anyone who wanted to move there.
The stipulations were that applicants needed to be under 40 and have an idea to start a business in one of the villages or work in one of the jobs that needed filling.
Who can apply?
Applicants have to be Italian citizens or citizens within the EU.
Non-EU citizens can apply but have to hold a residence permit lasting a minimum of 10 years.
They must also be registered in an Italian town or city as a resident but not living in a mountain community.
Applications for the life-changing opportunity close on 27 July.
Previous worldwide destinations that paid applicants to move there
IT might surprise you to learn that there are some stunning destinations worldwide that have paid for people to move there
Antikythera, Greece
The island of Antikythera was looking for more people to live there, as the younger population left for more job opportunities on the busier Greek islands.
Located between Crete and Kythira, it is 45 minutes by plane from Athens.
The island planned to offer €500 (£450) per month for three years to people who moved there, which worked out to £16,200 over the three years.
Candela, Italy
Candela, a tiny town in Puglia, is offered up to €2,000 (£1,800) for people to move there after the population had dropped from 8,000 to just 2,700 people.
It was €800 (£723) for single people, €1,200 (£1,085) for couples, up to €1,800 (£1,600) for three-person families and €2,000 (£1,800) for four-person families.
You needed to become a resident, along with a house and a job of at least €7,500 (£6,700) a year.
Sicily, Italy
Sicily offered homes for just €1 (90p), with the only catch being the amount you need to spend to renovate them.
While they were not quite giving you money, they were giving a huge discount on homes.
The Palermo homes were in need of TLC, meaning at least €15,000 (£13,500) must have been spent to refurbish them within three years.
Vermont, US
The state of Vermont has one of the lowest populations in the US, which is why they hoped to lure remote workers to the area.
Their Remote Worker Grant scheme offered applicants $5,000 (£4,000) every year for two years to live there – working out to $10,000 (£8,000) to cover moving to the area.
The applicants needed to become a full time resident of the state to be eligible.
Santiago, Chile
The best offer to move abroad was to Santiago in Chile – which offered $40,000 (£32,700) to move there.
The government wanted tech entrepreneurs to launch their business there, with the Start-Up Chile programme that looked for female founders and founders with companies less than three years old.
The offer also included a year-long work visa as well as a free co-working space.