Picturesque Italian town near pristine beaches will pay £25,000 to anyone willing to move there

A picturesque town in Italy is offering a £25,000 payout to people willing to buy a house and move there.

The ancient town of Presicce in the Puglia region is offering the cash in the hope that new life will be breathed into its dwindling community, which is filled with dilapidated homes.

What makes the proposal even more enticing is that Presicce is just a 15-minute drive from the pristine beaches of Italy’s south-east shoreline, including Santa Maria di Leuca.

It is the latest example of Italian officials splashing the cash to rejuvenate flagging so-called ‘ghost villages’ and rural areas across the country. 

In recent years, people around the world dreaming of a place in the sun have snapped up properties for as little as 90p, promising to revamp them. 

Presicce is hundreds of years old and used to be known as the ‘city of green gold’ due to its expansive olive industry 

An alleyway in the ancient town of Presicce in Puglia, Italy, where a cash incentive of £25,000 is on offer to potential house buyers

Presicce is located in south-east Italy on the ‘heel’ of the country. It is only a 15-minute drive from the country’s stunning coastline

The ancient town of Presicce is home to a number of necessities, including a post office, supermarkets and a bank. The cinema pictured above is abandoned 

According to a local councillor, the money can be used towards both the purchase of a home and renovating it, with homes on sale there from just over £21,000. 

‘We will be offering up to 30,000 euros to people willing to move here and buy one of these abandoned dwellings,’ Alfredo Palese told CNN.

‘The total funding will be split in two: It will go partly into buying an old home and partly into restyling it, if needed.’

The ancient town is surrounded by greenery and has its own post office, bank and supermarkets.

Known during the Renaissance period for its vast olive groves and premium olive oil, Presicce is filled with evidence of its history as the ‘city of green gold,’ as it used to be called.

Huge underground olive mills can still be found in tunnels and chambers under the town’s streets, as part of an expansive subterranean city popular with tourists.  

It was merged in 2019 with a nearby town to create a larger community, though under-population and low births are still problems.

‘There are many empty homes in the historical centre built before 1991 which we would like to see alive again with new residents,’ Mr Palese told CNN.

The port town of Santa Maria di Leuca and its stunning clear waters and white beach are just 15 minutes from Presicce

Santa Maria di Leuca is located between the Adriatic and Ionian seas and is only a short drive from Presicce

‘It is a pity witnessing how our old districts full of history, wonderful architecture and art are slowly emptying.’

To qualify for the cash incentive, buyers must purchase a house in the village built before 1991, with details available on the local government’s website. The lowest-priced homes there are small apartments in need of repair.

Presicce is just the latest Italian town to offer tempting incentives to lure new residents in.

The Italian town of Sambuca was selling homes for just one euro, with one of them later being marketed by Airbnb as a rent-free home for one year to a lucky tenant.

Last year, it emerged that a tumbledown Italian ‘ghost village’ was being reborn after dozens of houses were snapped up by buyers around the world for just £1.

People from as far flung as Russia, China, and the US, splashed out the fee for a house in Garfagnana, Tuscany.

In 2020, Catropiagnano in Molise started offering abandoned homes for as little as 90p (€1)

The buildings in two quaint Italian villages were purchased through a project aiming to reverse the effects of depopulation.

Reconstruction projects for more than 40 of the two villages’, called Fabbriche di Vergemoli and Fabbriche di Vallico, abandoned houses will be start in 2021.

The ‘House for one Euro’ project was launched in 2016 as an way to stem the exodus from the north western municipality of Fabbriche di Vergemoli.

The initiative took off after after 2016 and administrators say they receive over 2,000 enquiries every year.

A year earlier the idyllic hilltop village of Castropignano started offering abandoned homes for as little as 90p (€1).

The medieval village located just an hour from ski resorts and beaches, launched the scheme after newcomers in its region were offered £22,635 (€25,000) to live there.

Molise, situated between the peaks of the Apennine ridge and the Adriatic coast, offered the sum to live in its deserted villages after all of its young people moved away.