Tuscan authorities have issued a unique invitation – go and live in the region’s hills and they will pay you between €10,000 and €30,000 to buy a house.
Contrasting fortunes
The dream offer has what some might consider a bonus and others a catch: it only applies to houses in mountain villages with fewer than 5,000 residents. There are 119 such villages in Tuscany, a central Italian region synonymous with breath-taking landscapes, art and history, with the UNESCO-recognised Renaissance gem of Florence at its heart.
Although some areas of Tuscany are now so desirable they have become unaffordable for many people, other small communities have suffered a rural exodus, leading to empty homes and closed-up businesses. Take Pitigliano, a small ancient town known as Little Jerusalem, whose walls and slate roofs glow red gold in a glorious panorama atop an outcrop of radiant tuff rock, 80km southeast of the city of Grosseto. There sits a 10-roomed, 500 m2, partly-ruined farmhouse, that can be yours, complete with 10 hectares of land, including a lake and olive groves, for €180,000, plus fees. And now, under the new scheme, called “Residency in the mountains 2024”, successful applicants could get between €10,000 and €30,000 towards the price of their investment.
Criteria
But to be successful, candidates must meet certain criteria. The funds are only open to people of legal age, who are Italian or EU citizens, or who hold a residency permit for 10 years. Most of the purchase’s legal and administrative fees will not be covered by the contribution, and the government subsidy cannot represent more than 50% of the value of the property and any renovations.
Another catch? The applicants must already be Italian residents but cannot be currently resident in a mountainous region. That’s because the aim of the scheme is to draw people and investment back from elsewhere, not further demarginalize other mountainous communities. As the official call for bids states, Tuscany wants “to promote and encourage the repopulation and socio-economic revitalization of mountain areas.”
A challenge and opportunity
Describing the scheme as “a challenge and an opportunity, especially for young people, and the chance for a new life choice,” Stefania Saccardi, Tuscany’s regional vice president, said the it covered “territories of unique beauty with villages to be rediscovered which, however, suffer from depopulation.”
With €2.8 million allocated for the subsidies over the next two years, even if all applications received only the minimum regional aid, there would be enough to help only 280 new homeowners. What’s more, the funds must be applied for before 1 pm on 27 July 2024. So, the dream may be big, but time is short.
