Do you want to move to Spain? You can buy this city for the same price as a house

The town of Salto de Castro in Zamorano, in the northwest of the country, made headlines last year when it went on the market for just €260,000, less than the average price of an apartment in Barcelona.

Businessman Oscar Torres Gallego bought it for around €300,000 and planned to redevelop the area to boost local tourism. The owners were before Torres bought the town in the early 2000s and also proceeded to turn it into a city Tourist enclave.

Twelve months later, the device was back on sale for almost double the price it was purchased for. Torres has done some architectural work on the buildings and submitted documents to the local government, but is unable to complete the planned development due to his business strategy, according to real estate marketplace Idealista.

What does the sale include?

For 580,000 euros, the lucky buyer will receive 44 houses, a bar, a hostel, a swimming pool and a sports area, as well as a church and an old barracks building that used to house the Civil Guard. There is also a pharmacy and a police station: everything you can find in a rural Spanish town.

Close to the border PortugueseIt is located in the heart of the UNESCO Iberian Plateau Biosphere Reserve.

Salto de Castro also has stunning views of the Duoro River and enjoys around 135 days of sunshine per year.

However, interested parties will have to act quickly, as there has already been some interest in purchasing Abandoned village A bidding war could push the price above 600,000 euros.

When it was put up for sale last year, estate agents estimated it would cost around €2 million to make Salto de Castro viable and start attracting visitors.

Why was Salto de Castro abandoned?

Salto de Castro was built in the 1940s by the Iberdrola electric company to house workers building the nearby dam. In the 1980s, people started leaving the city due to lack of work and by 1989 there were no residents left.

It has now been uninhabited for more than 30 years.

The financial crisis of 2008 paralyzed the plans of the previous owners, who decided to put Salto de Castro up for sale in 2022 in the hope that someone could turn their tourism project into a reality.

Many rural Spanish cities are suffering from an aging population, with younger people moving to the city or having fewer children than previous generations.

For this reason, some local governments encourage foreigners to settle there with subsidies.

Just a few hundred kilometers away, lies the city The Rubiana region in Galicia has offered expatriates up to €150 a month to live there. The local government hopes to increase the number of students in local schools by encouraging families to move to the city.