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Ollolai, a village on the Italian island of Sardinia has sniffed a potential opportunity to persuade foreigners to relocate to the village, which is witnessing a trend of depopulation
Ollolai has seen its population decline over the past decades. (Image: CNN)
In an interesting move, a village in Italy is offering homes for as little as one euro or just over a dollar to the United States (US) citizens who are likely to be upset from the onset of Republican candidate Donald Trump’s second innings as President and are looking to move out of the country.
Ollolai, a village on the Italian island of Sardinia has sniffed a potential opportunity to persuade foreigners to relocate to the village, which is witnessing a trend of depopulation, in a bid to revive its fortune and culture, reported CNN.
According to the report, Ollolai has even launched a website to voo the American expats, offering cheap houses in a hope that those upset with the Trump’s return would explore one of its empty properties.
“Are you worned (sic) out by global politics? Looking to embrace a more balanced lifestyle while securing new opportunities? It’s time to start building your European escape in the stunning paradise of Sardinia,” the website said.
Ollolai mayor Francesco Columbu explained that the website was specifically launched to voo the Americans who are looking to relocate. He said that Americans are the best people to help revive his community.
“We just really want, and will focus on, Americans above all,” he says. “We can’t of course ban people from other countries to apply, but Americans will have a fast-track procedure. We are betting on them to help us revive the village, they are our winning card,” he told CNN.
According to Columbu, the village would offer three tiers of accommodation– free temporary homes to certain digital nomads, one-euro homes in need of renovations, and ready-to-occupy houses for prices up to 100,000 euros ($105,000).
The mayor further informed that a special team has been formed guide interested buyers through every step of the purchase, from organising private tours of the available dwellings to finding contractors, builders and navigating required paperwork.
According to the report, Ollolai’s population has shrunk from 2,250 to 1,300 with only a handful of babies born each year in the past century. Additionally, many people left the village during tough economic times, in search of work and better lives. Over the last few years, the population has further depleted to 1,150.
The mayor further told the news outlet that US citizens would preferred above potential applicants of other nationalities. “Of course, we can’t specifically mention the name of one US president who just got elected, but we all know that he’s the one from whom many Americans want to get away from now and leave the country,” Columbu said.
“We have specifically created this website now to meet US post-elections relocation needs. The first edition of our digital nomad scheme which launched last year was already solely for Americans,” he added.
Columbu informed that the website has already received around 38,000 queries on houses, mostly from the US,
The Italian village has previously tried to lure new residents with appealing housing schemes. As per the report, the town hall has sold dilapidated empty homes for one euro in 2018. It also rented empty working spaces for the single penny.
Meanwhile, search engine Google has seen a huge spike in web searches regarding moving and relocating to Scotland, and Scottish citizenship from the United States, following Trump’s mega victory in the November polls.
According to a report by The National, trends on Google showed a massive surge in searches from the US querying how to move away from the country. It said that around 76% of the searches were made in the US itself.
The people also searched about moving to New Zealand, one of the easiest countries to move to from the US, Ireland and Canada. As per the report, most of the searches were made from Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Tennessee and Minnesota states.
On the other hand, a huge number of web searches in India were made regarding ‘legal immigration,’ ‘H1B visa’ and ‘US birth citizenship’. Indians in a huge number searched for ‘legal immigration’ on the Alphabet’s search engine- moments after Trump was emerged as winner- from virtually no search interest a month before. The people in Punjab led the search for the query on Google, followed by those in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Kerala.
Donald Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States on Wednesday, after the Wisconsin win put him over the 270 electoral vote line needed to clinch the presidency.
