This idyllic Swedish town is selling off land for the price of a cup of coffee

By Julia Buckley, CNN

(CNN) — You’ve heard of houses on sale in southern Europe for the price of a cup of coffee. Now one country in northern Europe is running a similar scheme: selling plots for just a few cents.

Götene, 200 miles southwest of Stockholm, is selling 29 plots of land with prices starting at just 1 krona, or 9 US cents, per square meter (11 square feet).

This isn’t just any land, though. It’s land on which the lucky buyers can build their dream home – to live in, or as a holiday home, as the rules currently stand.

So if the heat wave is making southern Europe seem less attractive by the day, this might just be the ticket.

Götene, a rural area with 5,000 residents living in the main town, and 13,000 in the wider municipality, is rural Sweden at its finest. It’s located on the shores of Lake Vänern, not only Sweden’s largest lake but also the biggest in Scandinavia and the entire EU, at around 10 times the size of Lake Constance. Only Russia has larger lakes on the European continent.

For hikers, Götene also has a small mountain nearby – Kinnekulle. It’s also home to two UNESCO-rated sites: the Platåbergens Geopark and Lake Vänern Archipelago and Mount Kinnekulle Biosphere.

So why would such an idyllic town need to stage a fire sale of its land?

‘It’s become a sensation’

Mayor Johan Månsson says it’s a combination of the current economic downturn and dwindling rural populations.

”The housing market is currently very slow in our region and Sweden in general because of high interest rates and a bit of a recession, so we wanted to give an injection into the market,” he told CNN.

”We’re also seeing low birth rates and an ageing population so we have to do something, bring more people here.”

Månsson said they decided to sell off 30 plots for a token fee, choosing land that had been ”on the market for many many years” without selling.

”We thought why not, it’s an extraordinary situation that requires extraordinary measures. So we did it, and now it’s become a sensation, I don’t know what to say.”

The scheme launched last month with about 30 interested buyers, said Månsson. Four of them bought plots at the one krona per square meter price. Plot size ranged from 700-1,200 square meters.

Since then, he says, things have spiraled.

”It went viral and we’ve had thousands and thousands of requests to our telephone exchange,” he said.

”We have two people in our phone exchange in city hall and they have been very sweaty over the past few days. We’re basically in crisis mode.”

Because of the unprecedented request – Månsson says there have been calls from all over the world – the authorities have paused the bidding process until early August to work out how to proceed. When it restarts, it’s likely that there will be a bidding process for the land, rather than selling it for just 1 krona per square meter (the lower price applies only if nobody else wants the land).

Månsson says that building a house usually costs around 3 to 4 million krona, or $280,000-$375,000. Plots of land usually cost around 500,000 krona, or $47,000.

So far, anyone can buy a plot – they don’t have to be resident in Sweden, or commit to living there permanently.

But the town may have to revisit the rules, he said. And of course, building a house doesn’t give you the right to live in it full time. Visa rules are down to the government.

The town’s only requirement is that building of the house starts within two years of buying the plot.

Cheap houses on the horizon

The  Götene fire sale doesn’t end with these 30 plots. Månsson said it’s ”not impossible” that they might do some kind of cheap housing scheme similar to the ”one euro” houses that rural communities in Italy are famous for.

”We have a lot more land, and we’ll have to sit down and see if we can do something to make something more of it other than just these 30 plots. We need something to offer the callers,” he said.

In fact, it might even be a turning point for the remote community.

“This was basically a bit of a stunt – we thought we’d be lucky to sell one or two,” he says.

“With the interest we’re seeing now, it’d be fantastic if we sold all 30.

“We’ve been at a very steady 13,000 inhabitants for several decades. If this goes well….

“If you’re seeking a quiet life in the country, we can bring you a high quality of life. It’s the perfect match.”

There’s just one question: how to pronounce Götene?

It’s Yeur-te-neh, says Månsson. Potential residents may want to add Swedish lessons to the budgeting list.

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