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Ollolai Mayor Francesco Columbu said thousands of Americans have expressed interest in snapping up homes offered to them for as little as €1 after the town launched a new website on Tuesday.
The site, aimed at Americans who might be looking to relocate following Trump’s election win, invited them to start building their ‘European escape’ in Ollolai – a community with roughly 1,200 inhabitants based in the Nuoro province, inland Sardinia.
“Are you worn out about global politics?,” the website reads. “It’s time to start building your European escape in the stunning paradise of Sardinia.”
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Mayor Columbu said: “We have received about 35,000 requests,” before adding the site had received 6,000 views within just a few hours of launching.
The scheme was planned to be open to other nationalities too, though, by his own admission, Americans were the target audience.
He told CNN: “We can’t of course ban people from other countries from applying, but Americans will have a fast-track procedure. We are banking on them to help us revive the village, they are our trump card.”
“We certainly don’t want to meddle in American political issues […], but with this initiative we are attracting attention with the aim of creating jobs in the country,” he added.
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“The whole point is to revitalise the town and improve the life of inhabitants,” Columbu added.
“We are a population of mostly elderly people in a town which is depopulating and we need to invest in our future. We can’t resolve the issue with these initiatives, but at least we are creating a bit of activity.”
Columbu said the village is offering three types of accommodation: free temporary homes to particular categories of digital nomads, €1 homes in need of renovation, and ready-to-live-in homes on sale for up to €100,00 ($105,000).
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The project was conceived in the wake of the ‘€1 homes’ initiative launched in the region about ten years ago to combat depopulation.
Only last year, ten American professionals moved to Ollolai under the ‘Work from Ollolai’ digital nomad scheme, which lured successful applicants with €1 rentals.
Columbu said a special team of experts ready to guide people through the scheme would be on hand and that pictures of the properties available were scheduled to be put up on the website soon.