Countries That Pay You to Relocate: Grants & Incentives 2026
7 verified programmes — cash grants, renovation grants, and monthly stipends. 4 currently active. Every figure sourced from official government or municipality documents.
Quick answer
Countries that pay you to relocate in 2026 include: Ireland offers up to €84,000 for renovating a derelict property on one of its 23 offshore islands; Extremadura (Spain) pays €8,000–€10,000 to remote workers and digital nomads who relocate there; Albinen (Switzerland) offers CHF 25,000 per adult plus CHF 10,000 per child to qualifying families; and several Italian regions (Calabria, Sardinia) have offered grants of €15,000–€28,000 for residents who move to depopulating villages, with the programme status varying by current round.
Key facts
- €84,000 Ireland — highest confirmed renovation grant (derelict island property)
- €1 Sicily — symbolic house sale price; renovation costs extra
- 4 of 7 programmes with a confirmed open round as of July 2026
- 3 programmes exist but current round status is unconfirmed — check official source
How we label confidence
All figures were primary-source checked on 2026-07-06. Programmes change — verify the official source before any decision.
7 Verified Programmes
Croí Cónaithe — Offshore Islands Vacant Property Grant
Ireland · Renovation grant
€60,000 – €84,000
€60,000 for vacant properties; €84,000 for derelict properties. 50% upfront, 50% on completion.
Key eligibility
Property must be on one of 23 designated offshore islands; built before 2007; vacant for ≥2 years. Buyer must make it their principal private residence.
Key catch
Only 29 applications were filed across all 23 islands as of April 2025 — uptake is very low, partly because buyers must source a derelict property on a remote island first.
Albinen Wohnbauförderung (Residential Support Grant)
Switzerland · Cash grant
CHF 25,000
CHF 25,000 per adult (CHF 50,000 per couple) + CHF 10,000 per child under 18.
Key eligibility
Requires Swiss citizenship OR Swiss Permit C (permanent residency). Minimum property investment of CHF 200,000. Must remain resident for 10 years. Most non-EU foreigners are ineligible.
Key catch
The eligibility gate is Permit C or Swiss citizenship — this is a formal long-term residency permit that takes years to obtain. Almost no new-to-Switzerland foreigner qualifies directly.
Calabria Reddito di Residenza Attiva
Italy · Cash grant
€20,000 – €28,000
Up to €28,000 total: either a €20,000 lump sum or €1,000/month for up to 2–3 years. Must start a business or register as a professional in Calabria.
Key eligibility
Must relocate to a Calabrian municipality with fewer than 2,000 residents. Must start a business or begin self-employment locally. This was a 2020–2021 pilot; no confirmed open round for 2026.
Key catch
The programme was a limited pilot — confirm via the Regione Calabria portal that a current round is open before planning a move around this grant.
Sardinia Home Bonus (Bonus Residenza)
Italy (Sardinia) · Cash grant
€15,000
Up to €15,000 for purchase or renovation of a home in a Sardinian municipality under 3,000 residents. Cannot exceed 50% of property costs.
Key eligibility
Municipality must have had fewer than 3,000 residents as of 31 Dec 2020. Applications were managed via the regional 'Restart' platform — last confirmed round closed April 2025.
Key catch
The Restart platform round closed April 20, 2025. No 2026 round has been confirmed — treat this as 'available when a new round opens', not as currently accepting applications.
Extremadura Digital Nomad & Teleworker Grant (Decreto 119/2024)
Spain · Cash grant
€8,000 – €15,000
€8,000 base (all applicants); €10,000 for women, applicants under 30, or those relocating to towns under 5,000 residents. An additional bonus of €4,000–€5,000 is payable only if activity continues into a 3rd year.
Key eligibility
Must be a digital nomad or teleworker relocating to Extremadura for at least 12 months. Self-employed or remote-employed. Application round ran Oct 2024–Oct 2025; check the Junta de Extremadura for current round.
Key catch
The '€15,000' headline is misleading — it's the 3-year maximum. The base award is €8,000–€10,000. The third-year bonus requires the grant recipient to still be active in Extremadura in year 3.
Antikythera Relocation Stipend
Greece · Monthly stipend
€500 – €18,000
€500/month for up to 3 years (€18,000 total). Also includes free housing on the island and subsidised food.
Key eligibility
Requires a family with at least 4 children. Programme is organised by the Orthodox Church of Kythera (not a government programme). Limited to 5 families. As of January 2026, no families had yet moved in.
Key catch
This is not a government programme — it is run by the Orthodox Church of Kythera. It targets very large families (4+ children) and is capped at 5 households. Very few people will qualify.
Sicily €1 House Programme (Casa a 1 Euro)
Italy (Sicily) · Discounted property
€1
€1 symbolic sale price for abandoned properties in participating municipalities. The buyer assumes full renovation obligations.
Key eligibility
Open to anyone including non-EU buyers. Each Sicilian municipality runs its own call independently — Mussomeli, Sambuca di Sicilia, Piazza Armerina, and others have active rounds in 2026. Mandatory renovation within 3 years.
Key catch
The €1 price is symbolic. True all-in costs include survey fees, notary costs (€2,000–€5,000+), and a mandatory renovation budget often in the range of €30,000–€80,000. This is a bargain on a historic property, not free housing.
What we excluded — and why
- Brazil "digital nomad village": Exhaustive search found no primary government source for this programme. Brazil has a digital nomad visa (VITEM XIV) but no village programme. Excluded to avoid spreading misinformation.
- Molise "I Choose Molise" / Reddito di Residenza Attiva: The 2019 pilot (€700/month × up to 36 months) appears wound down. No confirmed 2025/2026 round found. The widely-quoted "€27,000–€30,000" figure is an error — the correct math gives ~€25,200 maximum.
- Remote-work tax regimes (Portugal NHR, Spain Beckham Law): These are tax incentives rather than direct relocation grants. Covered in our Expat Tax Rates 2026 dataset.
Find the right destination for your move
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Compare destinations →Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these programmes real? Do countries actually pay people to move there?▾
Yes — but the details matter enormously. Ireland's island renovation grant (up to €84,000 for derelict properties) is a live government programme with an official PDF scheme outline. Albinen, Switzerland's family grant (CHF 25,000/adult) is in a formal municipality declaration. However, most programmes are either narrowly targeted (Antikythera: families with 4+ children; only 5 spots), currently between rounds (Sardinia, Calabria), or — like Sicily's €1 houses — attach significant renovation obligations that can reach €50,000–€80,000. We have not included programmes where no primary source could be found.
What does 'Confirm round' status mean?▾
It means the programme is real, the amounts are verified, but the current application window's open/closed status was not confirmed as of our research date (2026-07-06). Programmes like Sardinia's Bonus Residenza and Extremadura's digital nomad grant run in periodic rounds — if you're planning around one of these, check the official source linked in the table for the current round status before committing any plans.
Which programme has the fewest hidden strings?▾
Ireland's Croí Cónaithe island grant is the most transparent: amounts are fixed in a government scheme document, the programme is actively administered, and the catch (derelict property on a remote island) is explicit rather than hidden. The Albinen, Switzerland grants look large on paper but are effectively closed to most non-EU nationals who don't hold a Swiss Permit C. Sicily's €1 houses are real bargains on historic properties but come with mandatory renovation spend.
Why did you exclude some programmes I've seen reported?▾
We excluded any programme where no primary government or official municipality source could be found during our research. For example, a widely-reported 'Brazil digital nomad village' programme returned zero results in official Brazilian government sources — we believe this is a mischaracterisation of Brazil's VITEM XIV digital nomad visa. We also excluded Italy's Molise 'I Choose Molise' programme because the pilot (2019) appears wound down and no confirmed 2025/2026 round was found. Better to have a shorter, verified list than a longer list with fabricated sources.
I found a programme not on this list. Why isn't it here?▾
Our research covered the most-cited programmes as of July 2026. There are additional regional and municipal initiatives we have not yet verified — particularly in rural Italy and Spain. If you have a primary-source URL for a programme you believe should be included, you can cite this dataset (CC BY 4.0) and note the gap — we update periodically.
Cite this dataset
Suggested citation
CC BY 4.0This dataset is free to redistribute, quote, and embed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Use any of the formats below.
WhereNext. (2026). WhereNext Relocation Incentives Index 2026. Retrieved from https://getwherenext.com/data/relocation-incentives-2026?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=citation&utm_campaign=data-citation. CC BY 4.0.
WhereNext. "WhereNext Relocation Incentives Index 2026." WhereNext, 2026, https://getwherenext.com/data/relocation-incentives-2026?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=citation&utm_campaign=data-citation. Accessed via https://getwherenext.com/data/relocation-incentives-2026?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=citation&utm_campaign=data-citation. CC BY 4.0.
@misc{wherenext_getwherenext_com_data_relocation_incentives_2026,
author = {{WhereNext}},
title = {WhereNext Relocation Incentives Index 2026},
year = {2026},
url = {https://getwherenext.com/data/relocation-incentives-2026?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=citation&utm_campaign=data-citation},
note = {CC BY 4.0}
}<a href="https://getwherenext.com/data/relocation-incentives-2026?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=citation&utm_campaign=data-citation">WhereNext — WhereNext Relocation Incentives Index 2026</a>
Published under CC BY 4.0. Amounts and eligibility rules change — re-verify against each official source before publication or decision-making.
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