On a Spanish hillside, overlooking the Castro dam and Douro River, sits the village of Salto de Castro. Its 44 homes, hotel and church have lain empty for more than three decades.
The entire town is on sale for €260,000 (£227,000), which is less than half the average amount spent by first-time buyers in London (£476,248).
Salto de Castro is in northwest Spain on the border with Portugal, inside the Arribes del Duero Natural Park.
It was built in the 1950s by the electricity generation company, Iberduero, to house families of the workers who built the nearby reservoir. But with increasing mechanisation slowly putting workers out of jobs, it was abandoned in 1989.
The town’s current owners, a family from Galicia, bought it in the 2000s, intending to capitalise on its touristic potential and turn it into a hotel resort.
After the recession in 2008, however, those plans were disrupted.
"The owner had the dream of having a hotel here but it was all put on hold," said Ronnie Rodríguez, of Royal Invest, the company representing the owner.
Mr Rodríguez told the BBC that the owner “would still like the project to come true” but, now in his 80s, the owner’s heirs are attempting to sell the property on his behalf.
On the Idealista website, where Salto de Castro is listed for sale, the owner wrote: “I am selling because I am an urban-dweller and cannot maintain the upkeep."
According to the listing, the “magnificent town” covers 6,600 square metres and includes 44 homes, a bar, church, school and hotel.
There is also a barracks that used to house the civil guard, a swimming pool, sports area and the potential to turn part of the reservoir into a tourist boat service.
Yet years of dereliction have taken their toll on the village. Its buildings have been graffitied, windows and doors removed, and their contents looted. In 2012, three people were arrested for stealing cables from the barracks, local news outlets reported.
According to Idealista, the village would need an investment of €2million (£1.75million) to become workable again.
Salto de Castro “constitutes an industrial heritage,” wrote environmental organisation Ecologistas en Acción Zamora in September, defending the town against destruction. “The demolition of a heritage that could be restored for different uses is not justified, as it is located in an area of undeniable scenic and environmental value.”
Facing the threat of demolition, this is the third time Salto de Castro has been listed for sale — although now at a significantly reduced price. In 2017, it was advertised for €1.75 million (£1.49million), jumping to €6.5million (£5.6million) in 2019, when the owners claimed to have Russian and Arab interest.
Since being listed this week, Mr Rodriguez claimed that 300 people have expressed an interest in buying the settlement, with inquiries from Russia, France, Belgium and the UK.
Local media reported that two NGOs and a private university are among the interested parties, with the NGOs looking to use the village as a place to resettle Ukrainian refugees, who would also help to rebuild the town.
The university, on the other hand, is supposedly keen to establish a campus there, being an important natural environment and biosphere reserve.
Interested? You’ll need to move quickly.
