STOCKHOLM: A town in Sweden was inundated with emails and phone calls from Pakistan, India, the United States and Australia after offering land at less than 10 euro cents ($0.11) per square metre, its mayor said on Monday.

The mayor of Gotene had to temporarily suspend sales after the local government was overwhelmed by requests for plots.

“We launched this campaign in mid-April. It was a bit of a crazy idea, but also a joke to be honest. It was a marketing operation,” said Johan Mansson, mayor of Gotene, a town of around 5,000 people.

A local television report late last month started a snowball effect. Several Swedish media picked up the story, a video was posted on TikTok, and millions of people discovered Gotene and its cheap plots.

A few days later, it became “a global success”, said the mayor, when two English-language media outlets covered the story.

“We have had interest from Europe, Asia — mainly India and Pakistan — as well as the United States, Australia, and even South America,” said Mansson.

With this campaign, “we have succeeded in putting Gotene on the world map”. Sales will resume on Aug 7 with an auction of the land.

Thirty plots of land, abandoned for decades, were put up for sale at one Swedish krona ($0.095) per square metre (10.7 square feet).

By buying a plot, the buyer commits to building a house on it within two years. This involves additional costs, including the building permit at 30,000 kronor, connection fees for water at 170,000 kronor, electricity at 40,000 kronor, and internet at 30,000 kronor.

A few weeks after the campaign started, Gotene managed to sell three plots.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2024