beautiful Swiss village is PAYING people £53000 to move there قرية سويسرية جميلة تعرض 25 ألف دولار لمن يعيش فيها

This idyllic Swiss village wants to pay you more than £50,000 to move there

If it’s ever been a distant dream of yours to wind up in a tiny and beautiful mountain village, consider this.

تشكو القرى الجبلية في سويسرا، مثل مناطق أوروبية أخرى، من هجرة سكانها لها، ما اضطر المدارس إلى الإغلاق بسبب قلة أعداد التلاميذ، وتتحول المنازل السكنية إلى أماكن موسمية لقضاء العطل.

The Swiss town of Albinen, located in the scenic canton of Valais, wants to pay people 25,000 Swiss francs (£18,900) each to move there.

The council will soon be voting on the new initiative, which aims to repopulate a community that has dwindled to just 240 residents, reports The Local.

ولمواجهة هذه المشكلة، بدأت قرية ألبينن الواقعة على ارتفاع 1300 متر فوق مستوى سطح البحر والمطلة على وادي الرون في جبال الألب، البحث عن حل لهذه المشكلة بعد رحيل عائلتين منها مؤخرا، فلم يتبق سوى خمسة أطفال في سن الدراسة.

Under the scheme, each new adult resident will be paid the fee, with an additional 10,000 Swiss francs (£7,600) per child. For a family of four, that’s more than £53,000.

Most of the previous residents who have left the village have been families with children, according to Swiss news agency ATS, with the last three departures leading to the closure of Albinen’s school. It should be noted, however, that this was never exactly a thriving neighbourhood. Its highest ever number of inhabitants on record was 380, back in 1900.

There are certain conditions attached to the proposed offer. New residents must be under the age of 45, and are required to build or purchase a property to live in full time, not used as a holiday home, worth at least 200,000 Swiss francs (£151,900).

وطرح بعض سكان القرية حلا بسيطا يتخلص في دفع مبلغ للوافدين الجدد، وهي المبادرة التي وقّع عليها 94 شخصا (أي نصف السكان تقريبا) وتم إيداعها لدى البلدية، حيث تقرر أن يتم التصويت عليها من طرف الناخبين في القرية يوم 30 نوفمبر الجاري.

You’ll also have to remain in residence there for at least 10 years, or forfeit the fee. Officials hope that Albinen’s flailing economy will benefit from an influx of new homeowners through taxes, building contracts and the purchase of local produce.

What does Albinen have to offer?

Six square miles of Alpine land makes up the municipality of Albinen, huddled at an altitude of 4,300 ft in the south-west of Switzerland and dwarfed by its surrounding mountains.  

وتنص المبادرة على إقرار حوافز لمن يقرر الانتقال للإقامة في القرية وتجديد مبنى قديم أو تشييد بيت جديد، بقيمة 25000 فرنك لكل بالغ و10000 لكل طفل (1 فرنك = 1.03 دولار)، لكن بشرط أن تقل أعمار الراغبين عن أربعين عاما وأن يتعهد المستفيدون من هذه الحوافز بالعيش والإقامة في القرية لفترة لا تقل عن عشرة سنوات كاملة.

Most of Albinen is farmland and forest, with its settled area of buildings and roads accounting for little over three per cent of it.

There's little going on in the town's centre, save for its narrow cobbled turns, centuries-old houses, a church and a shop. And you’ll need to learn German, the region’s first language. 

جدير بالذكر أن ألبينن مثلها مثل القرى المتناثرة في جبال الألب، تتميز بالعديد من المزايا، منها المنظر الطبيعي الرائع جدا والهواء النقي والشمس الساطعة في معظم أيام السنة.

But hop in the car and it's less than four miles to Leukerbad, home to one of Europe's largest medical wellness, beauty and thermal baths complex. Charlie Chaplin, Tolstoy and Goethe were among those who travelled to the village to bathe in the calcium- and sulphate-rich thermal waters. 

Prefer to live in Italy?

This is far from the first time a shrinking town in Europe has offered to pay people to move there, most commonly in Italy. Just last month, the Italian town of Candela in Puglia announced it would hand out up to €2,000 (£1,792) for new residents. They must live permanently in the village, rent a house, and have a salary of at least €7,500 (£6,723).

Earlier this year, Italy also said it was giving away 103 of its historic buildings for free, with one catch - all takers will need to commit to transforming the properties into tourist facilities including hotels, restaurants or spas.