Flats from €20,000: the race to be Spain's 'bubble town'

Ferrol, Bembibre or Eibar: where to buy bargain flats

Buying a flat for 20,000 euros and living off the rent. That is the plan of those chasing the unofficial title of Spain's most bubble-prone town, and the shortlists already have favourites: Ferrol, Bembibre and Eibar, alongside other names that keep coming up such as Langreo, Torrelavega or Ponferrada. The premise is simple: get into property in emptied, post-industrial Spain with little capital and squeeze out the returns. The problem comes when the chosen town looks too much like a dead city, or when industry returns and makes the deal more expensive.

The prices being discussed in this search explain the interest. In Bembibre there is housing at 20,000 euros according to one forum user, although the description that comes with the figure is not encouraging: it looks like the Soviet Union. In Eibar, the figure rises to 100,000 euros for a decent flat, an amount its proposer considers a steal in Gipuzkoa, and a later comment puts flats with a lift and garage at 170,000 euros. The map is completed by Langreo, Torrelavega or Ponferrada.

Why has Ferrol become the favourite?

Because it combines what no other candidate offers: cheap housing, jobs and scenery. According to one forum user, Ferrol has just won the installation of an MG car plant, an announcement that changes the city's equation. Add to that a housing stock with low costs, fields, forests, beaches, lakes and cliffs and, as is repeated throughout the thread, the coolest summer climate in Spain.

The paradox is that this very success disqualifies it. If Ferrol gets industry back, it stops being devastated post-industrial Spain; and where there are jobs, prices stop being a bargain. Some argue that the city has lived for decades on shipyard pensions above 2,500 euros and on the civil servants of the naval base. With the factory up and running, that picture could change fast.

The exclusions: Seseña, Alcorcón and Móstoles don't count

Much of the exercise consists of drawing the boundaries. Seseña appears out of bubble tradition, but it is in Madrid's metropolitan area, like Alcorcón or Móstoles, and the thread rules them out for not being emptied Spain. La Sagra, on the other hand, does appear on the shortlists, with Chozas de Canales flagged as an unforgivable oversight. And some rule out Medina del Campo for another reason: neighbourhood tensions attributed to the arrival of migrant population, an argument thrown out without any data.

Against the exclusions, the list of minor candidates keeps growing: Almansa, Puerto Urraco, Frescomán, Peine, Peleas de Abajo and its twin Peleas de Arriba. These are municipalities where the price per square metre collapses, but also where services, transport and, above all, solvent tenants are lacking. Buying cheap is easy; collecting the rent, not so much.

Quality of life, the variable almost nobody looks at

Climate and surroundings matter more than it seems. Ferrol boasts cool summers; of Elda, in Alicante, the thread says it inspired Lovecraft's story The Colour Out of Space, with its cursed wasteland. In Eibar, its proposer wonders whether parking problems persist even with a garage. Extreme industrial aesthetics also count: some recall there the motorway passing over the buildings, as in Mieres or the bridge at Sama. For some it is a charm; for others, a reminder that the industrial restructuring never quite closed.

Is living off rent in emptied Spain worth it?

It depends on what you miccionan by living. The model, known in these circles as hacking the system, requires external income —crypto, investments or skilled remote work— and not depending on the local job market. With that cushion, the thread's bet is that a 20,000-euro flat and a modest rental will yield returns hard to match. Without it, the buyer is left with an illiquid asset in a municipality that is losing population.

One question remains open. If the window of low prices closes as soon as a factory arrives, and without a factory there is nobody to rent to, what is the exact point at which a town is cheap enough to buy in and alive enough to collect?