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$135,000: That’s how much it costs to buy this Spanish village

Acorrada, in Galicia, northern Spain. <em>(Source: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg)</em>
Acorrada, in Galicia, northern Spain. (Source: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg)

Abandoned countryside villages and towns all across Europe are going to all sorts of lengths to attract people back to the deserted neighbourhoods.

The fairytale Italian city of Grottole partnered with Airbnb to invite four temporary citizens to the town to revitalise the town centre, while the mayor of northern Italian town Locana is paying families to move and live there.

Now, Acorrada – a little Spanish hamlet in the northern region of Galicia with six gray-stone houses and two grain stores – has been put up for sale for only 85,000 euros, or approximately AU $135,000, according to a Bloomberg report.



The little hamlet is owned by 57-year old policeman Gustavo Iglesias and others like him whose families lived there for generations, but have since abandoned the village for better employment opportunities.

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“I’d like someone to buy it and do it up so that it continues to have a life,” Iglesias told Bloomberg.

Spain is well aware of the trend of other rural locals who are ditching the country life: it’s called ‘rural desertification’.

For a lot of European countries and regions, the solution has been to put up houses – and now, entire villages – for sale and open up the market to international buyers.

Granda, an abandoned hamlet for sale in Lugo province. <em>(Source: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg)</em>
Granda, an abandoned hamlet for sale in Lugo province. (Source: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg)

And they’ve been snapping them up.

“People are coming from all over the world to buy,” said Pepe Rodil, a manager at a real estate agency specialising at such sales where foreign buyers account for 90 per cent of the transactions.

Pepe Rodil walks in front of Teixois hamlet in the region of Asturias. (<em>Source: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg)</em>
Pepe Rodil walks in front of Teixois hamlet in the region of Asturias. (Source: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg)

Here’s a look at Acorrada:

(Gustavo Iglesias’s village, Acorrada, in Galicia. <em>(Source: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg)</em>
(Gustavo Iglesias’s village, Acorrada, in Galicia. (Source: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg)

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