Beautiful Swiss mountain village offers expats £50,000 to move there | Travel News | Travel
Albinen, a scenic mountain village in Switzerland, is offering people a whopping sum to move there. However, there are a few conditions that British people will need to meet before they can apply for the attractive scheme.
Albinen has launched the scheme in order to boost its shrinking population which numbered just 238 people at the end of 2018.
Families of four will be offered 25,000 Swiss francs per adult (£22,400) and 10,000 Swiss francs (£8,975) per person.
The town’s tempting offer has been designed to attract people to the town which has lost residents due to a lack of job opportunities.
Britons will need to be under the age of 45 to take up the offer and will need to be a Swiss citizen with a permit C residence.
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British citizens will need to have been living in Switzerland for 10 years to qualify for the residence permit.
Scheme participants will also need to live in a home valued at least 200,000 Swiss francs (£180,000).
People will also need to live in Albinen for at least 10 years or they’ll have to pay back the £50,000.
Second home owners also aren’t permitted to take advantage of the scheme and people will have to have their primary residence in Albinen.
Despite the caveats, there are plenty of positives to life in Albinen, including the easy access to Switzerland’s stunning mountain landscapes.
Residents will also enjoy some of the world’s cleanest air and Switzerland has a long life expectancy.
The education system is well regarded and the country also has some of the world’s highest salaries.
Many British expats currently living in Switzerland work in the banking or financial services industries.
However, the lifestyle comes at a cost and Britons will find themselves paying more for essentials in the mountainous country.
Albinen isn’t the only European town to be paying people to move in a bid to increase its population.
Several Italian villages take part in the one euro scheme, where people can buy a house for just one euro (88p).
Participants are required to spend a set amount renovating the house and many of the houses are in a state of disrepair.
However, it could be a small price to pay to enjoy the ‘vita bella’ lifestyle in an idyllic Italian village.
Similar schemes are also in place in some areas of Spain, particularly in the countryside which has suffered from depopulation.
Many of the impacted towns have lost younger residents to cities due a lack of jobs and opportunities.
Britons will need to check the terms and conditions of each scheme before applying as some require people to be a resident.
