An Italian city will pay you $31,000 to move there, but there’s a catch | Tech Reddy

• Presicce, Italy provides about $ 30,000 to people who move to the historic city.
• Anyone who buys a property built before 1991 and undertakes to restore it is eligible for the money.
• Other countries across Italy have launched incentive programs to attract new home buyers.

Presicce, Italy offers home buyers 30,000 euros, or about $31,000, to buy their abandoned houses.

Located in the Puglia region in the heel of Italy, Presicce has a rich history, but a declining population.

It is just the last small Italian country to try to attract newcomers dangling major incentives.

Other Italian cities experiencing population decline and struggling with abandoned properties have instituted similar programs. Take Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a mountain town in the southern part of Italy, which offers to pay people up to $52,500 to move there. And on the Italian island of Sicily, cities have auctioned houses starting at around $1.

Other European cities, such as the Swiss mountain village Monti Sciàga, have also sold houses for just $1 – although the structures that go for that little are often in desperate need of renovation. American cities, too, are using perks from cash to property taxes to a free bike to attract new residents.

Intrigued by Presicce’s $31,000 offer? The buyers will commit to redeveloping an empty residential property in the village of 9,000 people, according to their plan, which was first reported by CNN.

“The total funding will be divided in two: it will go partly to the purchase of an old house and partly to restyling, if necessary,” Alfredo Palese, a government official in Presicce, told CNN.

To qualify for the money, buyers must buy a property built before 1991 and take up residence in Presicce. According to CNN, applications for the Presicce program have not yet launched, but will be available in the coming weeks.

“There are many empty houses in the historic center built before 1991 that we would like to see come back to life with new residents,” said Palese. “It’s a shame to see how our old neighborhoods full of history, wonderful architecture and art are slowly being destroyed.”

In 2019, Presicce merged with the neighboring town Acquarica to form a new municipality – like a county – called Presicce-Acquarica. This merger allowed the region to receive more funding from the Italian government, Palese said, which was used to revitalize the community.

According to the Italian Real Estate listing site, houses in the municipality of Presicce-Acquarica are usually sold for 669 euros, or about $690, per square meter. A typical house of 46 square meters, or about 500 square feet, normally costs just over $31,000.

People who took advantage of the cash incentives granted by various cities shared their stories of difficult renovations and great joy.

Frank Cohen took advantage of a program called “A vostra casa in Latronico”, which helps buyers find old abandoned properties on the price of the southern Italian province of Potenza. He told CNN in September 2021 that he and his wife bought three houses in Latronico for less than $52,000 and appreciated the opportunity to fix them up.

“Latronico has changed lives,” he told CNN. “It’s the best in the world here.”