I saw lots of similar locations through my young years in Spain. Ultimately, it's just a somewhat damaged weather containment in the form of a pile of stones and mortar, with no other utility advantages than a dirt road, maybe a nearby river and some flat lots for home farming.<p>The only real advantage over any other random off the grid country side location is that building permits are a lot easier on existing constructions, even if they are crumbling and they have to be completely rebuilt.
I live in Galicia (Spain), near some of these villages. I've been to some of them personally and they are beautiful. Creating a tech community in one of them has crossed my mind several times.<p>Positive:<p>- Calm and beautiful places, surrounded by hills, forests, rivers... a good place to think and to develop new ideas.<p>- Affordable houses and terrains.<p>- Galician goverment gives money and help if you want to move in.<p>- Airports nearby, London is 3-4 hours away by plane.<p>Negative:<p>- Most of these buildings are in ruins.<p>- Poor infrastructure or none at all: you'll miss water, electricity and phone lines. No mobile communications, for sure. Phone companies don't help much either.<p>- Roads that lead there are often difficult and dangerous.<p>- No other villages or cities are close, so no hospitals, supermarkets or other services nearby.<p>Hope this helps.
I always joke with the idea of starting a new town with select people. Whether it is tech people, or just smart folks in general, I think it would be a fun experiment. What types of issues might come up with such a commune? I expect most low level work would have to be contracted out to people outside the town, until they can be automated.<p>An alternative idea is to buy one of the many abandoned malls in the US and turn that into housing, common space, and shops. Is anyone doing this?
Here is an article that has a bunch of photos of specific towns for sale,
<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2576711/Buy-ghost-village-50-000-Thousands-abandoned-Spanish-hamlets-sale-price-London-garage.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2576711/Buy-ghost-vi...</a>
The article is essentially about falling Demographics, its a giant issue looming in not just Spain, but most of the EU, Japan and China. Three generations now where birthrates have been below replacement level. The affects are already seen in Greece and other places like these villages, in ten years time when most of the Boomers are over 65, we have some very serious issues.
If I had the money, I'd buy all 400 of these villages, and demolish them (save for a few historic buildings). Let them turn back into forest.<p>Then I'd identify one village that was a good candidate for development. Start a new town with high density housing, walkable streets, and greenways. Require a green building code. Design great public transit. Eventually, ban cars. I would name this great city "Normville," after myself.<p>399 villages spared from sprawl!
Italy has some too: <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/07/13/this_entire_italian_village_is_for_sale_on_ebay_partner/" rel="nofollow">http://www.salon.com/2014/07/13/this_entire_italian_village_...</a><p>I have some daydreams about places like that, but I think I'd quickly get bored in most of them.
A whole airport sold for 10.000€ even:<p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33578949" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33578949</a>
It won't be too long before the cycle reverses.<p>Once the majority of people can work remotely, and network infrastructure is accessible in these areas they will instantly become desirable replacing suburbs and leaving the cities for the young, free and single.