Sardinia’s digital nomad program has stepped up its game in luring foreign remote workers by providing them with cost-free housing options.
The Italian village has introduced such opportunities to help the further growth of the economy and increase the population in this region.
The population in central Sardinia, Ollolai, is dwindling. According to a report from Euronews, in the last 100 years, it shrank from 2,250 to 1,300 people.
In addition to its initiatives to boost population growth in this territory, Sardinia has introduced various measures, including selling houses for €1, among others.
That was a major success — many foreigners bought and restyled dozens of forsaken dwellings.
The program “Work from Ollolai” attempts to transform the area into an attractive place for foreigners, with an investment of over €20,000 made in this regard. In the following two months, the village will host remote workers one at a time for a period of more than three months, while remote work lovers must apply online before the end of December.
The head of the local cultural association Sa Mata, Veronica Matta, said that this is not a free holiday.
[Workers] must have a proven background as a digital nomad and leave a concrete piece of work at the end of their stay – be it a conference, an essay, research paper or documentary.
She emphasised that remote workers from all fields are encouraged to apply, taking into account technology, finance, media, real estate, and architecture, as well as artists, musicians, writers, scientists and academics.
Matta said that all persons are welcome as long as they are open to the reciprocal agreement, agreeing to leave behind a knowledge jolt that enriches the village culture.
The demand for Italy’s Digital Nomad visa has increased significantly in the past few years, in spite of the fact that the country still does not have a digital nomad visa. On March 28, 2022, the digital visa for remote workers was approved and signed into Italian law.
Among the main requirements for benefiting from Italy’s Digital Nomad Visa are the following ones:
- You need to be a citizen from a non-EU country
- You need to work for an employer registered outside of Italy
- You need to work by using telecommunications technology
Some of the cheapest destinations in Italy for Digital Nomads are Palermo, Padova and, Napoli, Perugia, with the latter average cost of living for a digital nomad being $2,200 per month.
