A small Italian village that offers new buyers grants of up to $29,000 to relocate is expanding its program. Radicondoli, in the Siena hills in Tuscany, is now also offering to pay half of newcomers’ rent until early 2026 if they move to Italy.
Two years ago, in the summer of 2023, the Italian village of Radicondoli launched a program to encourage people to move there. The municipality offered the sum of €20,000 (approximately $23,000) as grants to entice buyers to any one of its many vacant homes, and it also offered another €6,000 for heating and transport expenses.
The mayor, Francesco Guarguaglini, said, “The housing scheme, initially launched two years ago, is being boosted”. CNN reports that the new program has ring-fenced €400,000 (about $465,000) for the purpose of supporting new buyers and renters, plus it intends to offer financial aid to students, as well as those who commute using public transport and those who subscribe for green energy—the village uses geothermal energy.
It is just one of many programs running across Europe at the moment that are offering financial incentives to newcomers to bring small, often very rural, villages back to life. Many of these offer houses for as little as €1, where potential buyers are enticed with the inexpensive cost of a home in rural hamlets. In these cases, €1 homebuyers promise to renovate the properties within a certain timeframe, say one or two years, and in some cases, they cannot be second homes.
In the case of Radicondoli, a one-hour drive from Florence, the municipality is marketing itself as the opposite of these €1-house schemes. Guarguaglini says these homes have a value and should be marketed positively because of the village’s rich socio-cultural heritage.
There are both one-bedroom homes in the village centre for sale and to rent, as well as larger Tuscan farmhouses in the countryside, all ranging from €50,000 to €100,000, and the mayor says that they would probably cost about €10,000 to renovate.
These European programs have attracted lots of news coverage for many Americans eager to start a life overseas. The reality is that they all require long-term commitment, and many are in small villages that have yet to be repopulated, although that is the long-term hope.
Radicondoli is a medieval village in Italy that used to be home to 3,000 residents and was renowned for wool production in the 14th century. It is now home to just under 1,000 people; each year, 15 elderly people die, and 3 babies are born. There are castle ruins, and the surrounding Sienese hills produce high-quality olive oil and are scattered with vineyards.
60 new residents have arrived since 2023, living in 23 renovated homes, many of whom are Italians and Belgians. The town hopes to eventually attract 1,000 people in total. Inside the village, 100 of 450 houses are currently empty and new residents must stay 10 years if they buy a home and 4 years if they rent, to qualify for the money.
For more information on Radicondoli and how to move to Italy, contact the municipality’s website.