Swedish town selling off land for P5 per sqm to boost population
Dreaming of living a quiet life in Europe? The rural municipality of Götene, Sweden is selling plots of land one krona (P5.59) per square meter (sqm) as part of their effort to boost the population numbers of the idyllic locale.
Johan Månsson, the mayor of Götene told CNN that the said initiative is the local authorities’ response to economic decline and slow population growth over the years.
”The housing market is currently very slow in our region and Sweden in general because of high interest rates and a bit of a recession, so we wanted to give an injection into the market,” he told the outlet.
”We’re also seeing low birth rates and an aging population so we have to do something, bring more people here,” he added. As per the report, the municipality has 5,000 residents in the main town and 13,000 in the wider area.
Månsson said they put 30 plots for sale in May, which have been “on the market for many many years” without selling.
Four have already bought plots at the one krona (P5.59) price, with the sizes ranging from 700-1,200 square meters.
Månsson added that the cost of building a house usually costs around 3 to 4 million krona (P16 million to P21 million). While the plots of land cost around 500,000 krona (P2 million).
Currently, buying a plot is open to everyone—they don’t have to be residents of Sweden or commit to residing there permanently. The only specific requirement is that the building of the house must start within two years of purchase.
The visa rules will also be decided by the Swedish government.
Following their offer, local authorities received thousands of requests from across the world, which made them decide to pause the selling until early August.
”We have two people in our phone exchange in city hall and they have been very sweaty over the past few days. We’re basically in crisis mode,” the mayor said.
Once they resume the selling, the authorities will implement a bidding process for the land instead of following the selling price of one krona per sqm. The lower price will be given only if nobody wants the land.
Apart from selling the 30 plots, the mayor also said that they are looking at doing a cheap house sale similar to “one euro” houses in Italy.
”We have a lot more land, and we’ll have to sit down and see if we can do something to make something more of it other than just these 30 plots. We need something to offer the callers,” he said.