Fighting depopulation in Sardinia, from 1 euro houses to bonuses for businesses and new residents in small municipalities

From one-euro houses to high-scientific settlements capable of 'attracting new inhabitants', to incentives for families and businesses that have decided to move in. These are some of the measures put in place by the Region, which for the next three years confirms and increases the 360 million euro allocation, and by the municipal administrations of Sardinia to counter the depopulation of small towns and villages.

The most significant case was that of houses for one euro, that of Ollolai in the Nuoro area, where the municipal administration a few years ago launched a project for the sale of properties to be renovated for one euro. The small town in the Nuoro area, which was also the birthplace of the bodybuilder, actor and film producer Franco Columbu (who died a few years ago in the US), also ended up at the centre of a case last November. After Trump's victory, the mayor had posted on the English-language website liveinollolai.com a message dedicated to foreigners, an appeal to leave non-European cities to choose a different life. The post was picked up by CNN and, as Mayor Francesco Columbu recounted, in the space of 24 hours 30,000 enquiries from people from the US, interested in 1 euro houses, arrived at the municipality.

In recent years there have been measures promoted by the Region, precisely to reverse the trend, which mainly concerns municipalities with fewer than five thousand inhabitants. The Region, for the period 2022 - 2025, has fielded EUR 360 million distributed over different measures. The last announcement, which expired in April, concerned people who, from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024, opened a business or a local unit or transferred their company headquarters to one of the Sardinian municipalities with a population of less than three thousand inhabitants on 31 December 2020.

The support measure provided for the disbursement of 'EUR 15,000 for the opening of a business or local unit or for the transfer of the business or activity in the area covered by the facilitation' and EUR 20,000 'in the event that the start-up or transfer of the business or activity or the opening of a local unit has led to an increase in employment, in accordance with the procedures set out in the notice'.

From the Region, meanwhile, they let it be known that the total amount to combat depopulation 'for the next three years will not only be confirmed but also increased with other funds'. An opportunity to 'transform Sardinia from a land of emigration to a laboratory of innovation' could be the Einstein Telescope. This was argued by experts and institutional representatives during the presentation of the OECD report 'Rethinking Sardinia's attractiveness', with a focus on strategies to counter demographic decline and enhance the island's potential from an international perspective.