Empty houses
When I first came to Spain, in the summer of 1967, I used to play football with some Spanish lads on the deserted beaches of Gandia and Dénia. Over the years, I saw things change (you wouldn’t find either beach deserted now). The biggest changes, however, seem to be happening in this century.
I came to live on the Costa Blanca six years ago, in a house some one hundred metres up a steep hill, about five kilometres from the centre of Calpe. I used to drive to my house through vineyards, round hills with ancient terraces, and up and down an empty valley in which the only building was a ruined farmhouse.
In 2007, I drive through houses. There are rows of terraced houses where there used to be vineyards. There are houses out of a Renaissance Italian painting right up what used to be terraced hills. There are houses in the valley.
The odd thing is, I see so few people around these houses. There are so few lights on at night. The obvious answer is that they are being bought by foreigners and Madrileños who only come here in the summer. So why are there so few signs of life in the middle of August?
The pattern is repeated in the centre of Calpe. Huge skyscrapers have gone up—but at the height of the summer, only a few windows twinkle. Entire floors are black. And the town streets are quiet. Business picks up a bit in August, but there is no sign of a huge influx of population.
I’d love to know who has bought these empty houses. If they have been bought by speculators, isn’t there a real risk of supply exceeding demand? Or has anyone bought them? Is the whole enterprise just a way of laundering drug money?
Anyone with inside knowledge is welcome to comment.