Buy an Entire Picture-Perfect European Village for Just 350 Million Won?

'Salto de Castro', located 3 hours by car from Madrid, Spain's capital
Once a company housing complex, but abandoned since the late 1980s

Property listing for 'Salto de Castro' posted on a Spanish real estate website. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] 44 houses, a hotel, a church, a school, a swimming pool... What if the price of an entire European village, including even barrack buildings, is 350 million KRW?

British BBC introduced the story of a Spanish village, once intended to be developed as a tourist destination, now listed for sale at 260,000 euros (about 356 million KRW). This village is Salto de Castro, located in the northwest of Spain, about a 3-hour drive from the capital Madrid, near the Portuguese border in the Zamora region. The decisive reason why this village is on sale at a bargain price is that there are no "residents" in this village.

Salto de Castro is a ghost village abandoned for over 30 years. Originally, it was a housing complex built by a power company in the early 1950s to accommodate the families of workers who constructed a nearby reservoir. After the reservoir was completed, the residents moved away, and by the late 1980s, the village was completely deserted. The current owner, an octogenarian man, purchased the village in the early 2000s with hopes of transforming it into a tourist spot, but the plan failed due to the Eurozone crisis. As time passed indifferently, the owner aged and the listing price steadily declined. The real estate website posting the listing stated the reason for sale as "the owner is a city resident and cannot maintain or manage the village."

According to the real estate agent, more than 50,000 people have viewed the listing since it was posted a week ago, and 300 people from Russia, France, Belgium, and the UK have shown interest in purchasing. One person has even placed a purchase reservation. The village was once listed at 6.5 million euros (about 8.86 billion KRW), but no buyers appeared at that time, and as time passed, many buildings were damaged, causing the price to plummet. The current price of 260,000 euros is not even enough to buy a one-room apartment in affluent neighborhoods of Madrid or Barcelona.

Real estate agent Roni Rodriguez said, "The owner dreamed of having a hotel here, but everything is on hold," adding, "He still wants the project to be realized." The real estate sales company estimated that "the investment needed to make this village fully functional and profitable would not exceed 2 million euros (about 2.726 billion KRW)."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.