News, One Country So Broke, It's Giving Away Villages. (life, places, people)

[JD59]

Want to buy a little vacation house in the Spanish countryside? Thanks to Spain's economic downturn, some buyers have picked up entire villages for as little as zero euros, AFP reports. Thousands of villages have been abandoned across Spain, often by residents seeking city life or better farmland, and officials are open to serious buyers who present development projects to preserve the towns.

AFP: Abandoned Spanish villages, given away for free

[iNviNciBL3]

Its because.... city life > rural life
happening all over the world, probably over half the small towns in America are borderline ghost towns but the Cities and the Suburbs are thriving. Same thing is happening in China on a much bigger scale.

[Litri]

There are deserted villages all around western Europe; UK, France, Spain, Portugal. It's not related with the crisis, but to the massive immigration to the cities during the 50's and 60's.

[cmptrwlt]

There are deserted farms and small villages in Norway, especially in the Northern part of the country.

[scobby]

It's a different issue, in Spain it is bankrupcy which is the sole cause of this.
Few years ago, this phenomena did not exist in Spain.

[Litri]

Oh, yes, it did. During the 60's was even more extreme as entire regions became deserted.

You can buy "caserios" and "aldeas", that are not real towns but rather hamlets, in Galicia, and I guess Northern Portugal because population follows a spread pattern, so there are deserted "aldeas" everywhere in places with a lot of immigration in the past, first immigration to America, more than 10 million from Galicia, until the 50, and later, during the late 50's and 60's, to Germany.

In richer regions like Catalonia, many empty villages are taken by the provincial council.

[victus]

Originally Posted by scobby

It's a different issue, in Spain it is bankrupcy which is the sole cause of this.
Few years ago, this phenomena did not exist in Spain.

You have no clue about Spain, as usual.

Few decades ago, this phenomena was even worst in Spain, it's thanks to the crisis that most villages are recovering.

[John-UK]

Originally Posted by Litri

There are deserted villages all around western Europe; UK, France, Spain, Portugal. It's not related with the crisis, but to the massive immigration to the cities during the 50's and 60's.

The UK? Where? I know of no deserted villages. People are effectively barred from the countryside, it being the preserve of the rich. We are herded into urban areas whether we want that or not.

[Litri]

All England is not South England.