Town Hopes Cheap Land Will Lure New Residents

A small village southeast of Madrid is offering plots of land for as low as €200, as it tries to stave off extinction.

Olmeda de la Cuesta, in Cuenca province, is down to 35 residents, and already lays claim to the town in Spain with the oldest population, with an average age of 75. Village leaders hope the lure of cheap land will bring fresh blood to the village.

“Olmeda obviously offers tranquility so it’s a perfect spot for anyone from an artisan to a writer,” Mayor José Luis Regacho told The Local.

The most expensive of the eight lots available for sale is €1,300 ($1,725) for 205 square metres. But prices go down to €200, which is “roughly the price of a Samsung tablet,” the Local notes, apparently establishing the tablet as the new international money standard.

However, the town is clearly willing to negotiate. They will refund the initial investment if the buyer is will to register in the village as self-employed for three years, the mayor said.

International buyers are welcome, the mayor said.

“We’d love to have new, young families from other parts of the world to breathe new life into our village,” the mayor told the Local.

But they’ll need to hurry. The town, which is about a 90-minute drive from Madrid, is down to about 15 full-time residents and the local school has been shut down. Even the mayor doesn’t live there, the Local notes

The auction deadline is Sept. 17. More information can be found here.