Sweden’s town swamped by global interest in cheap land offers as India and Pakistan take the lead
A town in western Sweden has suspended land sales after being inundated with offers for less than 10 euro cents ($0.11) per square metre, the town’s mayor told AFP on Monday.
“We launched the campaign in mid-April. It was a bit of a crazy idea, and a bit of a joke to be honest. It was a marketing move,” said Johan Mansson, mayor of Gotené, a town of about 5,000 people.
Thirty plots of land that had been abandoned for decades were put up for sale for 1 Swedish krona ($0.095) per square meter (10.7 square feet).
The mayor said the plan aims to bring more housing to sparsely populated areas and stimulate local development. The plots will be between 7 and 1,200 square meters in size.
By purchasing the land, the buyer commits to building a house there within two years, which entails additional costs such as a building permit of 30,000 kronor, water connection fee of 170,000 kronor, electricity fee of 40,000 kronor and internet connection fee of 30,000 kronor.
A few weeks after the campaign began, Gotenet was able to sell three plots.
“It’s a huge success for such a small community,” Munson said, “but we never could have imagined what was to come.”
A local TV report in late June started snowballing: Several Swedish media outlets picked up the story, a video was posted to TikTok, and millions of people were introduced to Götne and its tacky grounds.
A few days later, two English-speaking media outlets broke the story, making it a “global success,” the mayor said.
Since then, the city has been inundated with emails and calls from potential buyers, forcing Gotenet to temporarily halt the sale to consider all offers.
“We’ve seen interest from Europe, Asia (mainly India and Pakistan), the US, Australia and even South America,” Munson said.
With this campaign, “we have succeeded in putting Gotené on the global map.”
Sales will resume on August 7th following a land auction.
