This Village Pays You $70,000 To Move There (is it a scam?)

Have you ever wanted to pack up and move somewhere completely new?

Not for a vacation, not for a few months,

but to actually leave everything behind and start over.

We've all seen those one euro houses in Italy, the abandoned homes in Japan,

places trying to lure people back with a bargain.

But what if they weren't just selling cheap houses?

What if they were willing to pay you to move there?

Sounds ridiculous, right?

Well, according to the internet, it's not.

We kept seeing posts all over social media saying the same thing.

There is a tiny,

beautiful town in the mountains of Switzerland that will pay you to move there.

And so, in the hopes of debunking this internet myth,

we knew we had to check it out.

However, to make this even more interesting,

we decided to do something we've never done before by asking ourselves,

why don't we bring a stranger from the comment section of one of these

viral posts who might be interested in moving there.

We found an interesting comment, reached out to the commenter.

Hello, Mr.

Wild and Free.

Have you ever been in Europe?

No, no I haven't.

>> And in a massive leap of faith, he said, Yes.

Let's go. to a flight ticket to Switzerland the very next day.

So, why is this town paying people to move there?

And is it even a good idea?

We're about to find out.

A lot of uncertainties here.

I don't even know if this town is even real.

>> We only believe the internet,

and we flew a guy from Atlanta to be with us, so You know,

one of the first things

that my mom told me whenever I got on the internet is like,

be careful of strangers on the internet.

And now, we're going to a town

that we've just read some Instagram posts about with a random dude who commented

on that post.

I've had zero part of picking this person.

>> His Instagram name is Mr.

Wild and Free.

His actual name is Shawn.

Shawn.

I wonder how he is feeling because imagine you getting a DM,

and then you're on a plane, and now you're in Europe.

>> Yeah, he must be terrified or really excited, I don't know.

Oh, I think I see him.

He's just sitting on this bench with all these other people.

Shawn?

Hey, man.

Nice to meet you.

Everything's good?

From the comment section to, you know, real life.

I still only know what I have looked up about Albinen.

We will see what will happen.

>> We have no idea.

We don't even know if this town like exists.

How do you feel about like doing this?

Man, still very surreal.

I'm like, still reconciling the concept of like, me being here right now.

I'm in awe, you know?

I'm saying, I'm I'm pretty excited though, you know?

Like, I'm I'm big on adventure, I'm big on saying yes to things.

I default to trusting the good in other humans.

And I think when you do that,

you you get the good out of them, you know?

>> Yeah, 100%.

That's exactly what we live by.

Real talk.

Real talk.

I'm still just trying to figure out how close is the nearest grocery store.

How are y'all living here without a grocery store?

After finally meeting Shawn, we made our way to the hotel,

flipping through his photos from Geneva >> Nice, man.

You've been living it.

You know, I was up there. >>

and wondering what tomorrow in Albinen might have in store for us.

Morning.

How are you?

Good.

How's everything?

>> Good.

What's up, man?

Shawn.

Good to see you.

It's a pleasure, indeed, indeed. has no idea that that we brought you.

What's happening?

Oh, you guys are sitting across from

But we have a fun story for you.

All right, so basically what happened was, a couple of months ago,

>> I randomly come across this post about a space in Switzerland called Albinen

that's like paying people to move there.

And so, I comment, I'm like, okay, hey, one,

how's the internet speeds over there?

I work remote, I got to have good internet.

Two, where's the nearest grocery store cuz I got to have food.

And third, lastly, how does she like people over there?

I had to ask.

I check my phone on Friday, and I see a DM from Stefan.

He's like, yeah, like, this is going to sound crazy,

but you had commented on a post about Albinen, Switzerland, and yeah,

just wanted to know, do you want to go?

We're going.

The only thing is, >> It's like, now.

It's like, It was real, and here I am, and So,

welcome to my country, bro.

Well, thank you.

I appreciate it.

But out of 1 to 100%,

what's the likelihood you're moving to the city before even going there?

Before even going there?

Just give us a percent.

>> 3%.

3%?

3%. 3% is still good.

That's pretty good.

It's better than nothing.

It's better than nothing.

Hey, the Avengers are assembled.

To Albinen we go.

I just keep on thinking

that Shawn actually said before

that there's a 3% chance right now

that he's moving there. 3% chance.

This is like the most beautiful inhabited valley I've ever seen in my life.

That is that is that is very beautiful.

And we are rolling into the town, I think.

Albinen, is this the entry?

This is what we came for.

This is what brought us here.

This freaking Instagram post about this town.

They've set up a sign here saying Albinen,

one of the most beautiful villages in Switzerland.

Okay, okay.

Wow, peace.

The scale of this place.

Wow.

Yeah.

I'm surprised that a town like this would struggle attracting people cuz it's really

beautiful.

Yeah, I literally can't see a single human being here.

We're here.

First impressions, pretty cool.

I mean, the dog isn't too happy about us being here,

but Albinen looks very nice.

What's the percentage right now?

It was 3% before.

We're >> 3% before, 6% I mean, I can't lie,

it's a kind of a beautiful place.

Hey, we all know what it's time for now.

Yeah?

Mission go and talk to people.

Yeah.

Thought it was going to be more like run-down, you know?

Cuz the one euro houses, that was like bad, you know?

But this is actually a beautiful town.

It's just that it's kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Got it?

Guys, guys, guys, guys, it's a grocery store.

12%.

Oh, is it open?

All right, it's closed. 3:00 to 6:30, so it's closed right now.

Hello, bonjour.

Parlez-vous français?

Un petit peu.

Vous êtes C'est votre maison?

Vous habitez ici?

45 ans.

Moi je Moi j'habite à Neuchâtel.

Ah oui.

Moi je suis de de Suisse.

Nous on est de Suède et notre ami Shawn,

il est des États-Unis.

On a vu que il y a un programme pour pour avoir les gens

qui qui viennent habiter ici,

ils payent.

Ça c'est ma non, il existe encore.

Ça existe encore?

It still exists, the payment thing.

Est-ce qu'il y a Est-ce qu'il y a des gens qui sont venus avec

ce programme qui habitent toujours ici?

Oui, oui.

Donc il y a une famille qui habite Mais vous les connaissez pas.

Beaucoup.

Il vit ici pour habiter avec pour 25000.

Okay.

Est-ce qu'il y a quelqu'un dans le village qui parlerait bien anglais?

Parle anglais elle.

It's a woman who owns the restaurant who married a Canadian husband,

but he's not here at the moment.

We'll find a way.

He's saying there's been like families

that roll up here like ready to move here being like,

how do I get the money?

And they're like, it's not how it works.

Like from Romania and stuff.

They received 10,000 letters from people The people from the whole world to apply

to to come here.

They go they go straight like they drive

and they go straight to the to the office to apply

and ask,

where can we get the money and the offer?

She offered us coffee.

She's very sweet.

We we she was telling us no restaurants are open, they're all on vacation.

And we were asking her if there's anywhere we can get a coffee,

and she said, you want a coffee?

And we were like, yes.

And then she went and got us some coffee.

Oh.

From my grandma in Albinen.

Ah, it's mint and honey.

Oh, oh my goodness.

Oh.

We believe that there is kindness everywhere in the world,

and you are a living proof on that.

Wow.

It's a bit sour, she said.

Sour?

Okay, it's happening.

This tastes like my childhood in Sweden, man.

Thank you.

Thank you schön.

Wow, she's so so sweet.

I'm going to miss her.

Shawn, what do you What did you think of that encounter?

Exactly what I thought would happen.

Mhm.

What she say when we were sitting there?

She was just like, y'all know, like, y'all have positive energy.

Yeah.

Right?

Cuz we were complimenting her.

We were like, wow, like, you're so kind, you're very positive, you're very nice.

She's like, no, like, y'all brought that energy to me,

so Is this like um Is this the hotel?

>> That's the hotel?

Oh, yeah, Burger Hotel.

Let's go.

That's nice.

I think it's I don't think it's open.

How do you have a hotel that's not open?

Yeah, it just says closed.

I don't know.

I don't think it's a timing thing.

I feel like I should be whispering in this town for some reason.

Like it's so quiet.

Speaking out loud feels like disturbing the peace in this town.

She did say that to move here, you have to spend 200,000.

So, where does that leave you?

You spend 200,000 and you get paid like I'm back at 4%.

You end up at a net negative though.

You end up in a net negative.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cut the Thomas explaining something in voiceover now about this.

Albinen started out as a medieval village more than 800 years ago.

Many of the wooden chalets here date back to the 17th and 18th century,

which is why the village is listed

as part of Switzerland's inventory of heritage sites.

For most of its history, Albinen was isolated.

Until the 1960s, there was no road into the village and in winter,

it could be easily cut off by snow for weeks.

Life revolved around agriculture, but as farming became less sustainable, residents began moving away.

So, in 2017, to keep the town from running out of residents,

Albinen's town council came up with a program that brought us here.

A cash incentive for young people to come and make Albinen their home.

Switzerland will pay you an insane amount if you move there.

>> Move to Switzerland and even get paid for it. >> place called Albinen,

Switzerland Switzerland The program was open to anyone under the age of 45,

but it came with a few caveats.

Applicants would have to buy

or build a home in Albinen to the tune of at least 200,000 Swiss

francs and commit to staying for at least 10 years.

If you could do that,

then Albinen would pay 25,000 Swiss francs per adult plus 10,000 for each child.

Committing to a life in Albinen is committing to a pastoral lifestyle.

There is no school, no bank, no post office, just one shop, one pub,

and a bus that comes by once an hour.

The more we learned,

the more we realized

that this program was less about getting paid to live in paradise

and more about incentivizing new families to become part of a community

that is keeping a historical way of life alive.

But would we be willing to make that jump?

Hello.

Hello.

How are you?

Good.

You speak English?

Yes.

Oh, amazing.

It's not open, right?

>> No, it's not open yet.

Just just came back, so we have absolutely nothing.

Oh.

You live in Albinen?

We live here.

Oh.

Yes.

Hello.

How are you?

Hi.

I'm Thomas.

How's it going?

What's your name?

We are from Sweden, the two of us. from Switzerland from America.

And yeah, I'm very curious about the Albinen, so I'm here.

Yeah.

Now, we didn't realize it at first,

but this is the one couple in town

that speaks English that the lady was just telling us about.

After spending the last few weeks out of town,

they just got back

and meeting them was about to turn our entire trip around.

There's posts on the internet on Instagram

that are like talking about the program

that you all have here to like encourage people to move here.

We we just saw

that there was a a general assembly where people voted to renew the program.

Really?

Yeah, so they just just renewed it last week.

Last week?

>> Yeah.

You have to have lived in the US cuz you I I I'm I'm

Canadian.

Okay.

Born Canadian.

I went to McGill, so I lived in Canada.

I'm a McGill graduate as well.

You are?

We went to the same school?

That's awesome.

Yeah.

We would love to explore.

Like we're basically here today and tomorrow.

It turns out saying we would love to explore would set the stage for

the next day,

leading us towards a local legend

and something hidden in the mountains

that would test us in ways we didn't see coming.

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And now, back to the video.

The next day began with us making our way back to Albinen.

Our objective today to truly assess

if moving here would ever be a possibility is to become true locals.

Guten Morgen.

Yeah, good to see you again.

Have a nice day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

To see if despite so many leaving,

there is still some magic to be found in this small village in the

mountains.

However, we did not imagine it would happen in the way it did.

Hi, welcome.

Nice to see you guys.

My gosh.

Wow, what a nice and cozy home you created in here.

Really feels like home.

Yes.

So, one thing that a lot of people are interested in where

when they come here is the ladders.

The Albinen ladder.

There was no road coming to Albinen until the early '60s.

The only way you could come here is through a footpath from the bottom.

There's a little village called Chingel.

And then there was a train stop at the bottom here

and then they had to climb this about 300 m elevation gain.

The only thing is if you're afraid of height, then it's not recommended.

Why you zooming on me?

What would you say the conditions are the last time you all went to

the ladders?

Well, there were a couple of broken, yeah.

One a bit broken and a few loose,

but not like Doesn't sound that good.

A few loose, but And you said that some people have died here?

Well, the so I mean it it's it's This is getting worse.

There's snakes, some people died, there's some loose screws.

Grandma didn't say that. died since 1947 that we know of.

>> Okay.

Okay, so that's As we debated climbing these terrifying ladders,

we first went looking for some of the town's rare locals.

Hello.

How long have you lived here?

Always.

Always.

We were getting a lovely tour of the village here from our new friends.

It is really charming.

Found out also that a lot of these old towns

that were very remote like Albinen in Switzerland have burnt down.

My most people still heat their house with wood,

so every house has these wood reserve and unfortunately,

that is quite high risk and a lot of these towns over the decades,

centuries have burnt down.

They say that they consider Albinen still existing today

and being this preserved a little miracle.

I love the charm of this place.

Like hearing Steve talk about the history of it

and just like the endurance of this place.

It's very peaceful.

It's very quiet.

The people are very kind.

It'd definitely be hard to see myself living here,

but coming as like you were saying like a month to like just wind

down from life,

little mini sabbatical.

This is it.

As we continued wandering around the village streets trying to meet locals,

we were lucky enough to stumble upon someone who Steve

and Vivian claimed to be a local legend.

Maurice, Thomas Hello.

Hello.

Hello.

He brought his car for repair, for service,

walked back up the ladders to Albinen.

Excuse, we kind of have to do it right now.

Let's go right now.

He's he's like down to go right now?

That's amazing.

I'm amazed.

That's amazing.

You surprised?

I'm totally.

I see he doesn't normally maybe do things like this, yeah.

But before tackling the ladders, Maurice decided to show us his cellar.

The cheese?

Oh. two to three years old

And as with every remote European village we visited,

we weren't getting out of here without being offered some mid-afternoon wine.

So, there was a post that went viral about this place.

Albinen Yes.

And I commented on it.

The third question was, how did you find people out here?

Maurice is trying to understand what's happening.

It's like, what?

So, he's saying, well, black, white, it doesn't change anything.

Well, at least not me.

There was a moment when we were coming up, right?

When we first got to Albinen,

we didn't see anybody

and we were like kind of nervous

because we were like,

we don't know what we're walking into

and we don't know how well we'll be received.

But, I was like, you know what?

We're going to go in there with positive energy

and that's going to reverberate back to us.

I mean, and that that's your secret, I think.

I mean, we were coming back from holiday, right?

We had just driven what, 6 hours?

We arrive and we're looking forward to just Little did they know.

We're looking for something to eat.

But, your energy was I mean, you won us over.

It makes me so happy to see like this whole thing in Switzerland again

because it's hard to sometimes meet people

and to get to know each other even between us.

And it makes me very happy to see like the whole thing now happening

with Swiss people and

and Moritz and I'm proud of my Swiss people

as well.

What do you think about of us doing these ladders?

I found footage afterwards of the last words.

Please, please don't say that.

If we have Moritz with us, nothing nothing can go wrong.

Okay.

How did we get coerced into Now,

I feel like because Moritz is doing it and he's like over 70,

I feel like we can't.

But, here's the thing.

If we would have went out there on our own,

we for sure wouldn't have been doing it.

Yeah, no, that would have been not good.

But, if he's there and he can coach us through every single step,

it gives me a little bit more confidence.

Sean, have you seen what these ladders look like?

That's a death-defying excursion right there.

Okay, well, to the ladders we go.

How are you feeling?

I just my pants.

Oh, Moritz, he's freaking Moritz is super ready.

Okay, this was supposed to be a really chill Swiss village video,

not an adrenaline video.

Legend is still walking up now.

We're all scared and he's like, ah,

it's He did this walk yesterday to go get his car in the other

town.

But, the thing is as well,

he has done it probably since he was like five, you know.

Yeah, okay, this is This is pretty high.

Oh my god.

Wait, this is >> Hello.

This is like a straight-up drop here.

Hello.

Yeah.

Okay, so he's walk.

Slowly.

Slowly and steady.

I'm like terrified right now.

This is This is This is This is Yeah,

this is This is This was bad.

I mean, you guys said we might be disappointed in terms of how sketchy

it is.

Now, it's It's a bit worse.

It's a bit worse.

This is just a straight straight line down.

Oh.

That can't be the ladder, right?

Yeah.

No, Ruby, this is great.

At least you're doing a summer hike in Switzerland now,

one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

We did the longest cabin in the world.

We had that ladders like this at the end.

It was sketchy.

And this is sketchy.

It's a bit intimidating.

It's good, but I can't like Yeah, I can't feel my legs.

Moritz is chilling.

I think we did it.

Let's go!

That was wild.

They definitely did not undersell it.

That was That was sketch.

Oh, Moritz is doing it holding the camera.

With one hand.

He's climbing with one hand.

Look at this view.

Wow.

That was high.

That was more than I thought, but that was beautiful.

That was epic and we did it as a team.

Moritz is just still smiling.

That was amazing.

Let's go!

Oh, look at that.

Look at that, man.

Yeah, that was something extraordinary.

Now, look at his smile.

He has a We traveled to this town to debunk an internet meme

and in the end found ourselves surrounded by several new

and unexpected friendships.

When you think about it,

the odds of this exact group of people sitting on the edge of this

historical cliff of this ancient town is probably close to zero.

But, in that way, the internet, as polarizing as it often is,

really can be a catalyst for real-life connection if done safely and intentionally.

I did not expect that we'd make a new friendship from this comment idea,

so super grateful. so much.

I'm so grateful as well, man.

Thank you so much.

Y'all keep doing it, all right?

You know?

We have a We have a small gift with us as well.

Inside of here is a piece of a rock from the mountain

and made into like a art piece from a local artist here.

So, hopefully you'll enjoy it and bless your bless your home or workplace.

None of us will be moving to Albinen despite definitely falling for its charm.

And the headline of getting paid to move here certainly isn't

as sweet as it sounds

as it comes with its caveats,

which explains why only a few families have taken up the town on its

offer.

It is clear, however,

that for people seeking for a pocket of the world to settle down in

with some peace and quiet surrounded by pristine nature,

Albinen would not be a bad contender.