The provinces of Spain are extremely rich in impressive landscapes. There are views of rivers and springs, water meadows and mountain peaks, forests, game reserves and small country paths. In the real estate market, where location is one of the main criteria for evaluating the purchased goods, such views always attract great demand and create high prices for the offer: apartments, private houses, and land plots.
Some of the largest land plots offered for sale can be found in the autonomous communities of Andalusia and Castile. However, Spain's most expensive land plot is located in an unexpected place: Galicia. This is a site in the province of the community, covering an area of 4,500 hectares. A space that can compete with the area of some of the country's municipalities, for example, the Galician Oleiros.
The current owners, for now, refuse to disclose the exact location of this offer, but it is known that the price does not exceed EUR 8,000,000. The final cost is difficult to predict, since prices with six zeros are always the subject of hot bargaining. The sale ad on Aldeasabandonadas.com indicates that the land is in a fairly good location, close to all necessary public amenities, which usually means good infrastructure, access to medical care, schools, shops, etc. The size of the plot allows mixed use, up to agriculture and forestry, and creation of a hunting reserve.
Business persons and entrepreneurs are increasingly turning their attention to the provincial regions of Galicia. According to Aldeas Abandonadas real estate agency: “Rural real estate is an object of interest for large investors and investment funds, who are quite demanding buyers. [Thanks to this] real estate and land plot prices in this segment have not yet experienced significant price increases.” They have a lot of units to choose from, as the opportunities on the market are extremely diverse: forest plantations, livestock farms, game reserves, fishing grounds, golf courses, go-kart tracks, horseback riding trails, and so on.
The pandemic has turned Galicia into the most attractive real estate market for large investors. At first it was Spanish pazos, castles, mansions, and estates, and now land comes first. Elvira Fafian, manager at Aldeas Abandonadas, points out that today investing in Galicia is more than just looking for profit. This is fashion. And the pandemic has only increased this interest, this fashion, in the provinces and cities’ outskirts.
For families looking to escape the hustle and bustle of large urban areas, and for large-scale investors and investment funds looking to start a new business, everything has taken a completely new look at the province just after the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the pandemic which broke the traditional, narrowly focused interest in large cities and popular tourist areas.
Settlement and Jobs
Five years ago, prices in the local market could be called practically fixed. Low demand did not allow sellers to differ widely on the issue of pricing. Today, however, the situation has changed, although many sellers are still willing to provide large discounts on expensive offers. It all depends on the specific conditions in each case. The maximum discount on offers reaches 20–25%.
Fafian adds that there are plenty of extremely good commercial land plots in the Galician community that are attracting large investments. And investment projects create new jobs, from site clearing to permanent production. This revitalizes the region and encourages migration. And all this makes it possible to break the existing stagnation in the provincial lands of Spain, their long extinction.