A potential medical tourism location in Sweden?

In continuous use as a spa town for 320 years, its current owners bought it in the early 1990s. 15 locals bought it to preserve it so it was not destroyed. The group has maintained the 62-acre village of 70 buildings for nearly 30 years. They have also built up a programme of regular events and celebrations, including an annual Midsummer party that attracts around 6,000 visitors. But age is telling so they feel it is time for someone else to own and run it,

Christie’s International Real Estate is handling the sale that includes the hotel, the deconsecrated church and pre-school, conference centre, restaurant, and a spa with a pool, gym, and sauna. The 62 acres of village includes an additional 84 acres of forested landscape, ripe for development.

Christie’s has extended the window for bids from its original deadline of May 31, 2020, to a more realistic August 16. There have already been bids and a huge amount of interest. They include traditional developers who want to take on the existing accommodation and commercial enterprises and then expand and refurbish. The village functions as a summer getaway for Scandi travellers and locals and in a region where winter temperatures can reach -10C insulation would need to be added to some buildings to make it year-round accommodation.

There are opportunities to get subsidies from Swedish preservation groups to assist in the refurbishment of the historic buildings, and the forested acres beyond allow the option to add some modern development too.

The site would also appeal to yoga foundations, looking for a calm and peaceful location to host spiritual and education retreats.

Companies specialising in medical tourism are another type of buyer – the village would make an ideal recuperation spot for those travelling to Sweden for treatment.

At the heart is the spring water, as the village’s founder, Dr Samuel Scragge, built the well and the village around it in 1700. It is only one of seven springs awarded Sweden’s highest purity designation and the bottle operation produces two million units a year.