PROVINCIA DE ZAMORA – Do you regularly dream of starting over in another country? In a natural environment in the mountains with lots of greenery around you? Perhaps now is your chance: for the price of a small apartment in a larger city, you can now buy an entire village. In the province of Zamora, there is an entire village for sale.
It is an abandoned village in the province of Zamora. Located on the Duero River and borders Portugal. Salto de Castro was built in Francoist times by Iberduero (now Iberdrola). It was created to house the families of the workers who worked on the construction of the Castro Dam. In the late 1980s, mechanisation and automation of maintenance work replaced the workers who subsequently left the town.
There are houses, a church, a school, a sports complex with a swimming pool and barracks of the Guardia Civil. Furthermore, the whole village costs just €260,000. Salto de Castro is for sale in its entirety at the real estate platform Idealista.
Tourist complex
The current owner is a family who bought the village in 2000 from the energy giant Iberdrola. Moreover, the idea was to do something similar to what happened with Salto de Saucelle (Salamanca). A town with the same origins that is currently owned by a hotel group, which has turned it into the Aldeaduero Tourist Complex. However, the houses are now rented out to tourists, there is a hotel, a restaurant, a shop and a hostel.
However, the 2008 crisis put an end to the owners’ plans for Salto de Castro. Now that the family has withdrawn from the Spanish business circuit, they want to pass the baton to other entrepreneurs and put their abandoned village up for sale.
Salto de Castro is located near the Natural Park of Arribes del Duero, on the River Duero, a reservoir and a stone’s throw from the border with Portugal. The village has no fewer than 44 homes, five of which are self-contained. There is a bar and a school, a hostel with a project to build 14 rooms. According to the owners, a permit can be obtained to create a total of 184 places for rural tourism.
Government subsidies for a new owner
According to the owners, the person who buys the village is eligible for subsidies from the government and the regional government of Castilla y León. A previous survey by the owners, showed the total investment the village needs to become fully operational and profitable does not exceed €2 million.
According to El Independiente, several parties have expressed their interest, including at least one private university, two NGOs and several foreign investors.
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