Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain • Hacker News Board

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#41

Post by Mediterraneo10 » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 1:56 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #38

If you want a village plus broadband, buy one in Romania. Still in the EU, less developed (but for this scenario, who cares?). Heck, it's probably going to be cheaper!

I agree. As someone from Romania who works remotely, I moved from the big city to a village about 50 km away, seeking a quieter life. Even there fiber had been run out. It only took a few days for the ISP to show up and run some fiber from the pole to my home, and then I was enjoying speeds as fast as I had previously had in the heart of the city.

Romanians are lucky that this country saw an early broadband boom in the 1990s and early millennium, and fiber was run out everywhere. Sadly, the neighbouring countries tend to emphasize mobile internet for getting villages connected instead of physical links, but that means that in villages there you cannot, for example, torrent Bluray images to your heart’s content.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#42

Post by rorykoehler » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 1:57 PM UTC

Am I the only one who sees depopulation of rural areas as a good thing? It's an opportunity to rewild large parts of the continent. We don't need humans dominating every last square metre of the globe. That's part of what is causing most of our problems in the first place.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#43

Post by flippyhead » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 2:08 PM UTC

rorykoehler wrote: post #42

Am I the only one who sees depopulation of rural areas as a good thing? It's an opportunity to rewild large parts of the continent. We don't need humans dominating every last square metre of the globe. That's part of what is causing most of our problems in the first place.

https://gizmodo.com/what-if-the-entire-worlds-population-liv...

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#44

Post by Scoundreller » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 2:17 PM UTC

pavlov wrote: post #4

”The company recently got a boost after Gwyneth Paltrow flagged one of its villages on her website as a good Christmas present.” I thought this was a joke, but clicking on the link reveals that a $172k village in Spain was indeed listed in “gift ideas” alongside such more traditional items as a $7700 Hermès surfboard. As fitting a portrait of our present era’s wealth distribution as any. Future generations may look b…

This is the premise of the TV show Schitt’s Creek.

A wealthy family bought a small village called “Schitt’s Creek” as a joke in 1991 and it ends up being their sole remaining asset after losing everything and they have to move there.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#45

Post by rdl » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 2:18 PM UTC

atomical wrote: post #16

ez7r6i wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rural areas of Spain usually have decent 4G service. Good luck getting hired for remote work in Spain, though. Edit for the guys below: obviously I meant working for a Spanish company.

I think parent comment was referring to foreigners buying a place and working remotely.

Yeah. I am planning to get Portuguese residency through property purchase along with some friends, although we might not go for rural. Only need to spend 14 days/yr there, though.

It is a 350-500k EUR investment. If you rent the property out you should be able to cover the debt service. (Obviously it exposes you to Portuguese RE risk, as well as EUR currency risk, and requires good credit, but a 500k piece of property is a lower bar than, say, a 150k fee, and a Portuguese passport is a whole lot better than most citizenship by investment programs.)

I’d probably spend 2-3 months/yr in Portugal if I had a nice small house or apartment somewhere. It is a good country.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#46

Post by rdl » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 2:19 PM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #22

rdl wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technology has advanced. You can do reasonable off-grid utilities (solar/battery/water/waste/internet) for 25-100 people at grid-level prices.

That does not make up for the lack of services in the area.

What services do you want? I can handle my own police/medical/fire in a small settlement. Same with k-12 schools.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#47

Post by LifeLiverTransp » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 2:21 PM UTC

Another sign that industrialized civilisation consumes its inhabitants. All to the citys, to sit in tiny cubicles and apartments, waiting lonely for ones demise. What a triumph, what a archivment.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#48

Post by wickedsmile » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 2:22 PM UTC

veryworried wrote: post #6

Yes, how dare somebody buy something expensive with their own money!

It's funny that the ones who complain about wealth distribution the most are the ones who have insanely more wealth that includes pretty much everyone on HN.

It's a pool club where only rich come.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#49

Post by Scoundreller » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 2:22 PM UTC

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #41

oblio wrote: post #38

If you want a village plus broadband, buy one in Romania. Still in the EU, less developed (but for this scenario, who cares?). Heck, it's probably going to be cheaper!

I agree. As someone from Romania who works remotely, I moved from the big city to a village about 50 km away, seeking a quieter life. Even there fiber had been run out. It only took a few days for the ISP to show up and run some fiber from the pole to my home, and then I was enjoying speeds as fast as I had previously had in the heart of the city. Romanians are lucky that this country saw an early broadband boom in t…

Meanwhile, in Canada, the providers are starting to market 5G, but the data pricing is so terrible, 3G is more than enough and still requires ample rationing.

I have to be careful not to stream too many podcasts. Forget music or video.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#50

Post by kgwgk » Sat, Mar 30, 2019, 2:24 PM UTC

iagovar wrote: post #40

kgwgk wrote: post #31

I think people overestimates how "remote" those "ghost villages" are. They are very small settlements (the article mentions six houses) which may be a few hundred meters from the next inhabited place. It's likely that there are at least ten thousand people living in a 10 miles radius. (I'm refering to the regions that the article talks about, population is much more sparse in other regions in Spain.)

That's a bit of a strech. You can definitely be 50km away of everything in Galicia, and probably way more in Castilla. It's true that population is more dispersed in the northwest though.

I don't say that there are thousands of people around any random point, I meant that I would be really surprised if any of the places being talked about in the article is really isolated.

It also depends on your definition of being "50km away from everything". What place are you thinking of?