Places That Pay You to Move There: What Is Real in 2026

The honest list of places that pay you to move there in 2026 is shorter than the headlines suggest. The real offers are renovation grants on Irish islands and in Sardinia, symbolic one euro houses in Sicily, village matchmaking in rural Spain, and cash for remote workers in Tulsa and West Virginia. All come with conditions.

Every few months a story goes round about a village that will pay you thousands to live there. Some are accurate, some describe schemes that closed years ago, and a few were never more than a proposal. This guide sticks to programmes we could confirm on an official source in 2026, explains what each one actually requires, and is clear about the part most articles skip: you usually spend money before you receive any.

How these programmes really work

Almost no place hands newcomers a cheque on arrival. The money takes one of three forms, and knowing which you are dealing with changes the whole calculation.

Renovation grants. You buy an empty house, pay for the works, and the grant reimburses part of the cost once the work is inspected. Ireland and Sardinia work this way.
Symbolic sales. A town brokers the sale of an abandoned house for one euro, but you must renovate it within a deadline and put down a deposit to prove you will. The house is cheap; the renovation is not.
Relocation stipends. You move, prove you live and work there, and receive cash in instalments. This is the American model, built for remote workers whose salaries come from elsewhere.

What these places want is not visitors but residents: people who register locally, pay taxes, fill a school place and keep a shop open. Every condition in the small print follows from that.

Places that pay you to move there in Europe

Europe’s schemes are aimed at depopulating islands and inland villages, and most are tied to bringing an empty building back into use. They suit people who can work remotely, retire with a pension from elsewhere, or start a small business.

Ireland: Our Living Islands and the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant

Ireland pays towards the renovation of empty homes nationwide, with a higher rate on its offshore islands. This is the scheme behind most “Ireland will pay you to move to an island” headlines, and the headline figure is real, with conditions.

The national Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant pays up to €50,000 to refurbish a vacant property, and up to €70,000 if the property is confirmed as derelict. Under the government’s Our Living Islands policy, properties on designated offshore islands receive a 20% uplift: up to €60,000 for a vacant home and €84,000 for a derelict one.

The main conditions:

The property must have been vacant for at least two years and built before 2008.
You must own it, or be actively negotiating to buy it.
You must live in it as your main home or make it available to rent.
The grant reimburses approved works; you pay the builders first.

The catch is cost and logistics. Building on an island means materials arrive by ferry, contractors are scarce and weather shapes the calendar. The grant helps, but buying the house and covering the rest of the works is your responsibility.

Sardinia: up to €15,000 to buy or renovate a home

Sardinia’s regional government pays towards buying or renovating a home in its smaller municipalities, as part of its measures against depopulation. From 2026 the scheme covers every municipality with fewer than 5,000 residents, up from the earlier 3,000 threshold, which opens it to a much larger share of the island.

According to the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, the grant is up to €15,000 per applicant and no more than 50% of the planned cost. It applies to the home where your household has, or will transfer, its registered residence, and which the household owns. The region has set aside €15 million a year for 2026, 2027 and 2028.

The region allocates the money to the municipalities, and each municipality publishes its own call. In practice that means you pick the town first, then watch its council website for the notice. Calls differ in timing and detail from one commune to the next.

Sicily and southern Italy: the one euro houses

The one euro house is real, but it is the start of a project, not a bargain. Italian towns with empty historic centres broker the sale of abandoned homes at a symbolic price; the buyer commits to renovating within a fixed period.

Mussomeli, in the province of Caltanissetta, runs one of the longest-standing schemes and treats it as a permanent municipal programme. The houses belong to private owners; the municipality acts as the go-between. The town’s purchase terms require a surety bond of €5,000 in favour of the municipality, valid for three years, a renovation project with all permits within one year of purchase, and the start of works within six months of the building permit.

The real budget includes notary and registration fees, a survey, design work and the renovation itself, which in a long-empty stone house can be substantial. Other towns across Sicily, Sardinia, Puglia, Calabria, Molise and elsewhere have run their own rounds, often pausing between them while sales are processed. Treat any list of “active” one euro towns as a starting point, and confirm the current call with the town hall itself.

Spain: Holapueblo and village-level incentives

Spain’s rural repopulation effort is less about cash and more about matchmaking. Holapueblo, a platform run by Redeia, IKEA and AlmaNatura, connects villages of fewer than 5,000 inhabitants with people who want to move there and start a business.

Participating villages commit to supporting newcomers, for example with affordable housing and access to local services, and the programme helps with the business plan. The sixth edition opened in 2026 with a record number of villages registering, from Galicia and Asturias to Andalucía and Catalonia; registration for that edition ran until June. It suits entrepreneurs with a concrete idea, such as reopening a village shop, a bakery or a rural guesthouse.

Separately, many Spanish municipalities run their own small incentives, such as payments for each birth or adoption in the village. These change every year with the municipal budget, so check the town’s own announcements rather than relying on lists.

Places that pay you to live there in the United States

The American programmes are built for remote workers. You keep your job, move to the city or region, and receive a stipend plus a ready-made community. They are the closest thing to “places that pay you to live there” in the literal sense.

Tulsa Remote, Oklahoma

Tulsa Remote offers $10,000 for a year of living and working in Tulsa. Renters receive the money in monthly instalments; homebuyers can take it as a lump sum after buying a qualifying home in the city.

To be eligible you must:

be at least 18 and authorised to work in the United States;
have full-time remote employment or self-employment based outside Oklahoma;
be able to relocate to Tulsa within 12 months of approval;
have lived outside Oklahoma for a full year before applying.

Participants also receive a 36-month membership at a local coworking space and access to a community programme. The selection includes an interview, a background check and income verification.

Ascend West Virginia

Ascend West Virginia pays $12,000 to remote workers who move to one of its partner communities, in equal monthly instalments over a two-year programme. Participants also receive an outdoor recreation package and coworking space.

Applicants must live outside West Virginia and work remotely full time, or run a business based outside the state that they can manage remotely. The programme is aimed at people who want mountain towns, trails and rivers on the doorstep, and it selects for that.

A quick comparison

Programme	What you get	Main condition
Ireland, islands uplift	Up to €60,000 (vacant) or €84,000 (derelict) towards renovation	Vacant 2+ years, built before 2008, live in it or let it
Sardinia	Up to €15,000, max 50% of cost	Home in a town under 5,000 residents, household residence
Mussomeli, Sicily	House at a symbolic €1	€5,000 bond, permits within a year, works on schedule
Holapueblo, Spain	Village support and business mentoring	A viable business plan in a participating village
Tulsa Remote	$10,000	Full-time remote job based outside Oklahoma
Ascend West Virginia	$12,000 over two years	Full-time remote work, living outside the state

Figures and conditions as published by each programme in 2026. They can change between rounds.

Programmes change: check before you plan

Relocation incentives come and go with budgets and politics. Several schemes that circulate online have closed, paused or were only ever proposed, and some towns open a single round and stop when the money is allocated. The Tuscan village of Radicondoli, for example, offered to cover half the rent for newcomers’ first two years, but only for applications submitted by December 2025.

A sensible order of work:

Confirm the programme on the official government, regional or municipal page in the month you plan to apply.
Check that you have the right to live there, and what residence registration involves.
Work out the full cost: purchase, fees, renovation, travel back and forth, and the time you will spend on site.
Read the repayment clause. Most grants claw money back if you leave early or miss a deadline.
Visit before you commit, ideally in winter as well as summer.

Scouting trips: making a viewing day work

The step most people underestimate is the visit itself. Villages that pay newcomers are, almost by definition, the ones that are hard to reach: few trains, infrequent buses, and properties spread across a hillside or several hamlets.

A scouting day usually means three or four viewings, a meeting at the town hall, perhaps a notary or a builder, and lunch in the one café that is open. With a hire car, one of you is navigating unfamiliar mountain roads and looking for parking while the other takes notes. With a driver, both of you can look at the houses, compare notes between stops and arrive on time for the appointment that matters.

From Amsterdam, SilverDrive handles both ends of that kind of trip. A Schiphol transfer covers the flight out and back, and for scouting closer to home, in Belgium, Germany, France or Luxembourg, an hourly chauffeur or a cross-border drive can carry a full day of viewings at a price agreed in advance. Our guide to hiring a driver for a day explains how a day booking is structured. For a programme further afield, ask us when you request a quote and we will tell you honestly what makes sense.

Choosing between the places that pay you to move there

The best of the places that pay you to move there are the ones where you would want to live without the money. The grant then becomes a useful contribution to a decision you have already made, not the reason for it. Irish islands and Sardinian villages suit people ready to take on a renovation; the one euro houses suit patient buyers with a builder they trust; Holapueblo suits entrepreneurs; Tulsa and West Virginia suit remote workers who want a fresh start with a community attached.

When you are ready to see a place in person, book your Schiphol transfer or viewing day with SilverDrive and spend the day looking at houses rather than at a satnav.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to be a citizen to apply for these programmes?

Rarely, but residence rights matter. The European schemes generally expect you to register as a resident, which an EU citizen can do anywhere in the EU and a non-EU citizen needs a visa or permit for. Tulsa Remote requires authorisation to work in the United States. Check the right to live there before you look at any house.

Is the money taxable?

It can be, and the answer depends on the programme and where you are tax resident. Some grants are reimbursements of renovation costs, others are cash paid in instalments that may count as income. Ask the programme directly and take advice from a tax adviser in the country concerned before you count the money in your budget.

Do I have to pay the money back if I leave early?

Often, yes. Grants tied to a home usually require you to live in it, or let it, for a set period, and renovation deposits in Italy are only returned when the works are finished on time. Read the clawback clause before you sign; it is the part of the paperwork that decides what the offer is really worth.

Are there places in the Netherlands that pay you to move there?

Not in the way Italian or Irish schemes do. Some Dutch municipalities offer starter loans or local housing schemes, but these are aimed at buyers in the local market rather than at attracting newcomers from abroad. Housing pressure in the Netherlands works the other way: the challenge is finding a home, not filling one.

Can a family apply, or are these schemes only for individuals?

Families are welcome in most of them, and several are designed around them. Sardinia's grant is linked to the household moving its residence, Holapueblo matches families and entrepreneurs with villages, and the American programmes look at the applicant's remote job rather than the size of the household. Schools and healthcare access are worth checking first in very small villages.

How do I spot a fake relocation offer?

Be wary of any site that asks for a fee to apply, promises guaranteed acceptance, or cannot point you to a municipal or government page. Real schemes are run by a council, a regional government or a named foundation, and their conditions are published. If you cannot find the programme on an official website, treat it as unconfirmed.

How long do these programmes stay open?

There is no rule. Some run for years with an annual budget, others open one round and close when the money is allocated. A town can pause its scheme while it processes applications and relaunch it later. That is why it pays to check the official page in the month you plan to apply.