On a narrow street in Madrid’s Bohemian Chueca district, there is a smart, renovated apartment block that should be teeming with trendy young urbanites. At the peak of Spain’s property boom between 2005 and 2006, similar properties were being sold off-plan to first homebuyers and speculators, the latter of which would flip them for quick profit.
However, the block is largely empty, its entrance papered with “To Let” and “For Sale” notices. Two large developers’ banners hang from the building’s shuttered balconies, more than a year after the renovation was completed.
