Spanish Ghost Town, Soto del Henares
A summer breeze blows a cloud of dust through the Spanish town of Soto del Henares. Drifting along the empty streets and deserted playgrounds the eerie silence is occasionally broken by the slow creaking of an unused swing.
Like the housing market right now, little is moving in Soto del Henares. Boom has turned to bust and the wider Spanish economy is suffering.
Lying south of Madrid, Soto del Henares was designed as a major urbanisation for professionals who could not afford city prices.
But there are few signs of life at Soto del Henares, now dubbed the Spanish ghost town. The population of this town did not disappear, they simply never arrived. More than 13,500 apartments were built on this area of scrubland. But less than 3,000 have been sold. So far the number of people living in Soto del Henares can be counted in the hundreds.
