A town in western Sweden has suspended land sales, overwhelmed by the Global interest generated by the offer of land for around 10 cents per square meterthe mayor told AFP on Monday.
“We launched this campaign in mid-April. It was a bit of a crazy idea, also a bit of a joke, to be honest. It was a marketing operation,” said Götene Mayor Johan Mansson.
In this town of 5,000 inhabitants, Some thirty plots of land had been abandoned for decades and the local authority decided to put them up for sale for one Swedish crown per square metre, about 10 cents.
The idea was to build housing in a low-density area to develop the region, he told the mayor.
However, buyers must commit to building a house within two years, which entails several additional expenses, such as a building permit (30,000 crowns) and the costs of connecting to water (170,000), electricity (40,000) and internet (30,000).
A few weeks after launching his campaign, Götene managed to sell three plots, which the mayor describes as a “success” for a small town like his. “We could not have imagined what awaited us,” he said.
Then, a local television station ran a report at the end of June that sparked a furor and the topic was taken up by several Swedish media outlets.
Then came the TikTok videos, and then the English-speaking media jumped on the story and millions of people around the world discovered this village.
Since then, The municipality received a flood of emails and calls from potential buyers and had to temporarily suspend sales in order to be able to consider all the offers.
“We have interested parties from Europe, Asia, mainly from India and Pakistan, but also from the United States, Australia and even South America,” said Mansson.
“We have managed to put Götene on the map,” said the mayor.
Source: Ambito
