Housing

A Symbol of Spain’s Housing Crisis Finds a Community

Rising costs in nearby Madrid and a lack of available supply have driven families further outside the big city and straight to El Quiñón’s notoriously empty apartments.
“The media took us as an example of the housing bubble as if it had only been built in Seseña,” says one El Quiñón resident.Keith Barry

In a small town halfway between Madrid and Toledo, a group of older men sit outside a cafe, their half-finished beers getting warm as they debate the day’s news. On the sidewalk, kids head home from the corner store with lime popsicles in hand, and a young couple strolls to the dog park with a terrier in tow.

Such an ordinary scene is only remarkable because of where it’s playing out: El Quiñón, the so-called “ghost town” residential development in Seseña, Spain.