A mountainous region in Italy is offering €100,000 to move there. But there’s a catch trust wallet Ever dreamed of a house next door to a ski resort, vineyard or thermal springs?
The northern Italian region known as Trentino, or officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, will pay residents of Italy or Italians living abroad to renovate one of the many abandoned houses in the region where the Dolomites meet the Alps. The grant consists of €80,000 (about $87,000) towards the renovation and €20,000 (about $22,000) towards the cost of the purchase of the property.
But there’s a catch.
Anyone who signs up to the deal has to live there for 10 years or rent the property out for that length of time, or risk having to pay back the grant.
The 33 towns being considered for this project, which are expected to meet final approval in the coming weeks, are all on the brink of extinction with the number of empty and abandoned houses outnumbering those that are inhabited.
It’s the latest Italian gimmick to try to counter depopulation of villages and hamlets that fall under a 2024 national budget law that created a fund of €30 million ($32.5 million) to dole out to municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants that have been identified as suffering economically and socially because of depopulation.
That could mean a town with an entirely elderly population that has led to closures of schools or even a lack of amenities like grocery stores and gas stations.