Here's more information on Seseña and the background http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102074/Spain-haunted-ghost-towns-built-boom-years-unemployment-tops-5million.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9087498/The-ghost-towns-of-Spain-Images-that-are-desolate-symbols-of-collapsed-property-market.html
A lot of Brit Ex Pats got caught out trying to buy their "Dream Home in the Sun" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7584097.stm
From the finalgear.com episode thread
I don't have any names, but some background: In order to profit from EU subsidies, local politicians and construction companies created demand for housing by selling appartments as tax-deductable investment oppurtunities. Of course that bubble bust when the investors found out that they have been tricked into investing in houses that could will never find tenants. But by then, most of the Spanish coast was already ruined with low-quality appartment blocks and lots of local businessmen and politicians got rich while everyone else got burned.
and the airport
About the airport, yes, it's closed, they didn't make anything up. It's the Aeropuerto de Ciudad Real (1.100 million € to the bin). The worse thing is that there are a lot of airports like that in Spain. The Aeropuerto de Castellón cost 150 million € and has never really operated, has never seen a plane. And there are more airports all over Spain without flights, or with only 2 or 3 a week.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Real_Central_Airport http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18855961
Time to re-read Boomerang I think.