A GERMAN city is offering free flats, pub socials and hiking trips to lure in a new generation – but there’s tough competition.
The new programme hopes to address the picturesque city of Eisenhüttenstadt’s dwindling population by giving two lucky young people the chance to live there for free.
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Dubbed an “amazing architectural place” by Tom Hanks, the Soviet-style city, on the Polish border, was built around a steel plant after WW2 and has relied on its production ever since.
This is something, Axel Drieschner, curator at the city’s Utopia and Everyday Life museum, says risks turning the area into a “ghost town”.
Now, in a bid to curb depopulation, officials are offering families a whole host of freebies as part of their ‘try out living’ programme – or Probewohnen in German.
As the city celebrates its 75th anniversary, youngsters are being offered a furnished apartment for two weeks in September, free pub socials and the chance to sit down with potential employers.
Hiking excursions in the surrounding forest will also be on offer to entice any curious newcomers, reports the Guardian.
But with a multitude of freebies available, the competition to secure a spot in the city is fierce.
Officials said they received more than 1,700 application from around the world with “the most wide-ranging motives”.
Julia Basan, the municipal economic development officer leading the campaign, said: “We ourselves were very surprised by our Probewohnen (trial living) project has had.”
While the majority of application were “very realistic” she admitted receiving some odd ones too, including one man who said he was keen to “marry a Germany woman”.
Everyone has a shot at entering, though officials said Germans and Europeans with the right paperwork, language skills and job qualification would have the best shot and being offered a place.
The programme, which is inspired by similar schemes in other east German regions, hopes to tackle the city’s dwindling population that stands at only around 25,000.
It’s not the first time city officials have offered financial incentives to lure newcomers in.
A number of depleted towns in Italy have attempted similar schemes, like in Tuscany where regional authorities offered to pay people up to £25,000 to relocate to the breathtaking Italian mountain towns.
The money would be used to buy a house in a town in the picturesque province.
Elsewhere, towns are offering residents houses for as little as £1 to encourage new regeneration projects.
Rubia Daniels bought the six houses for €1 (£0.85) each in the quaint town of Mussomeli in Sicily for herself, her daughter and her aunts.
The 51-year-old purchased the houses in the historic destination, as part of a council scheme which encourages people to renovate abandoned homes.
After admin costs, agency fees and the deeds, the cost of each property to was around €4,000 (£3,400) and for all six, she spent a total of a total of €24,000 (£20,500).
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