Buy cheap, renovate and live on four dollars. Seems like a good formula, right? Well it depends. Irene Villa bought a house for 9,000 euros in her grandmother’s town, where she spent her childhood summers away from the hustle and bustle of Valencia. The house is boarded up, semi-abandoned and with a leaky roof, so the sellers have wanted it off their hands for years. And that devastation helped him negotiate. Irene estimates that the work will last between three and four years. His case illustrates a footnote in rural Spain: yes, there is plenty of cheap housing, but it’s almost always housing that needs redoing.
Price with an asterisk. There are plenty of empty houses: according to the INE, almost half of cities have fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. There are more than 4 million empty homes in Spain, which is about a fifth of the total stock. Let’s add to this all the housing that is just moments away from completion, developments abandoned due to bankruptcy or ill-conceived contracts that result in naked corpses with faucets but a functional, finished structure and not infrequently with doors and windows.
In the province of Cuenca, the average cost per square meter is 896 euros according to Idealista (as of September 2026). It is up 9.2% in a year. In San Clemente it is still holding up well at 583 euros. There are cheaper places: the 25 cheapest municipalities in 2024 started at 344 euros per metre. And in Villamarin, Orense, they are for 450 euros.
The roof, first. Nevertheless, Irene’s 9,000 euros is much lower because it is not the final price, it is the price of the land where she has to dismantle or redo the bathtubs and containers rented from the city council, both interior and exterior.
And it starts at the top. “In the city they always say that houses sink through the roof,” he says His was made of reeds and tiles. According to a bricklayer, replacing a roof costs 60 to 150 euros per square meter. 6,000 to 15,000 euros, including 100 meters. Up to 1.7 times the cost of the whole house (calculate yourself, although you can go as far as you like by choosing natural slate tiles). Each tile went from 0.49 to 1.10 euros. With about 5,000, about 6,000 euros just not counting materials, scaffolding, wages and other materials.
Date Cuenca. A budget guide puts renovating a town house at between 500 and 1,000 euros per square meter. An architect today is talking more than 850 to 1,200 euros for a comprehensive renovation. Before the pandemic they were between 500 and 700. With 100 meters, two forks give 50,000 to 120,000 euros (own calculations).
We’re talking between six and thirteen times the purchase price. For me, a bathroom with the most basic qualities (even a reused toilet) means a 12,000 euro renovation. The price of these two houses? And if the work touches the structure, an additional project and license is required. The project spends between 4% and 7% of the implementation budget. License, between 2% and 5%.
Then, the bricks. “There are few brickyards in small towns and they are so full that sometimes they refuse to do it,” explains Irene. Or they wait longer, like specialists who also work with insurers and have to prioritize their claims in contracts.
It is not just a rural issue. It is estimated that there is a shortage of about 700,000 skilled workers in construction. Only one in ten is under 30 years of age. About a quarter are over 55. Costs are rising between 3% and 4.5% a year through 2025, and in the original article the roof brick manufacturer said a permit takes more than a year. What’s more, the same architect who helped Irene renovate a 73-meter apartment in four months for around 88,000 euros.
Irene’s rhythm. Of course, he cleaned the house himself: he couldn’t even sit because of the dust and leaves. He polished the walls, painted, treated the garden and the wood. Larger jobs go to specialists, such as roofs or stairs. At the moment there are no lights, doors and windows. He did not ask for loans and advances as much as he could. “I’m in no rush,” she says. Maybe that’s the key.
Because, in addition, the speed is set by the aid. Castilla-La Mancha has assistance for those under 36 who shop in cities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. Covers 20% of purchases up to 10,800 euros. In a house of 9,000 it would be 1,800 euros. These are 2025 data, yes.
Navarra also pays for those under 35 who buy in rural municipalities of up to 5,000 inhabitants or in non-urban towns of up to 20,000. The limit is 1,922.84 euros per useful meter, about 153,827 for 80 meters. It pays between 7% and 16% of the value depending on income. 16% corresponds to income up to 28,078 euros per year. About 9,000 euros, barely 1,440. La Rioja pays more: its Revive plan gives towns with 500 inhabitants up to 40,000 euros, in exchange for housing for five years. Galicia covers 75% of renovations, with a maximum of 30,000 euros in small towns. Almost all of them help to buy, not to renovate.
Cities that pay you to move. “Free house” almost never means unconditional keys, as we recently reviewed. Olmeda de la Cuesta, in Cuenca, sells plots from 6,000 euros to digital nomads. Land only: Construction is at buyer’s expense. They ask for one year of registration and residency. Emergency is 25 km away. In Aguaviva, Teruel, sell houses from 35,000 euros with the help of the municipality to renovate them. Herrera de Oropesa, in Toledo, offers them from 12,000. What’s more, the free houses of Almadrones (Guadalazar) were a fraud that the city council denied in July 2025.
In short, with cheap work, the final price of the house for cheap is about 59,000 euros. Price wise it comes out to around 129,000. The average price of a 100-meter house in the province is around 89,600 (our calculations are based on Idealista data). The €9,000 house wins in the best case scenario and loses in the worst case scenario. And the years are added to that period. Let’s not talk about the APR, because it’s clear that the purchase price is just the entry fee. A long term investment.
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