Rural town hall turns into real estate agency to attract more residents

Councillors in the Toledo village of Alcañizo, with a population of 290, have become real estate agents offering empty houses and plots of land

J. M. L.

Friday, 21 February 2025, 16:23

Alcañizo is a small village in the La Campana de Oropesa region of Toledo. Today it has 290 inhabitants, a far cry from the 1,003 it had in 1940. Since then, its population has steadily declined and it is now just another village in empty Spain, where the average age of its inhabitants is 70. Their main concern is whether the village school will remain open, as it currently has just six pupils. "That's the main fear we have, that it will close and with it more services will disappear," admits the town's deputy mayor, Alberto Vázquez.

One solution the town council has come up with is to become a "free real estate agency" for the town. The idea is that those who have uninhabited land or houses in the village contact the council to sell or rent them. The council will act as a link to find people interested in purchasing these properties. "We advertise these houses and plots of land on the town hall website and on our social media to find people who want to come and live here," explains Alberto Vázquez who, like his fellow councillors, is willing to show the houses as if he were a real estate agent.

Despite its small size, Alcañizo has a school, shop, retirement home, medical services, pharmacy and a bar. It also benefits from its proximity to the A-5 motorway, to larger towns such as Oropesa or Talavera de la Reina just 30 kilometres away, and its tranquil setting on the edge of the Sierra de Gredos, famous for its holm oak groves. "We offer a high quality of life and much cheaper property prices than in the cities," says the deputy mayor, who recalls how the work from home boom during the Covid-19 pandemic attracted new residents to the farming community. Since then, the population has continued to fall "and today half the houses in the village have been abandoned".

Alcañizo has a long history. Donated in the 14th century by King Alfonso XI to his wife, Maria de Portugal, it ended up in the hands of the Lordship of Oropesa. Later, in the 19th century, it was the scene of violent clashes between landowners and labourers. The most notorious episode in its history occurred in 1878 when a group of labourers seized the convent and set it on fire. The Guardia Civil caught three of the perpetrators, hanged them in front of the convent and then murdered the families of the escaped farmers by burning their houses. When the other labourers returned they executed the mayor and stabbed the officers. 147 years have passed since those events and these days Alcañizo is a peaceful and welcoming town, ready to receive new residents.

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