Spending the right week in Cantalejo in August can make you believe that the village is all about pachangas. However, the small Spanish town, which is less than two hours away from Madrid, is actually empty for most of the year. For one week though, the town is filled with Spanish citizens celebrating their ancestors. “There was a time when this place was growing!” Felix Sacristan told NPR. “But not anymore. This pueblo is dying. The only ones left are the elderly. There are lots of abandoned homes.” The economic crisis has pushed people out of this mostly cold village, but even in more appealing places, people are leaving. The result is cheap housing.
Real estate agent Mark Adkinson looks for foreign buyers for the abandoned properties in these villages. Turns out that $6,000 can get you at least one house, but $230,000 can get you an entire village, complete with a bakery. You really can’t get a better deal than that, unless you go to southern Galicia. There, the mayor of Cortegada, Avelino Luis de Francisco Martínez, is giving away parts of the village for free. The only catch is that the 12 houses that make up one hamlet need to be renovated.
Read the entire NPR piece here to learn more about how these towns have ended up abandoned.