• The National Rural Network locates several towns offering housing and/or employment to attract new residents.
• The pandemic has fostered the creation of digital platforms that track and publish housing and job offers in rural areas.

The possible arrival of remote work seems to have opened a door through which to unite the rural and urban worlds. However, far beyond the idea of moving work from the city to rural areas, new opportunities are emerging to develop other business and community models in towns ( co-living, co-housing , etc.). All these recent ideas are underpinned by new communication technologies, so most of the proposals focus on the digital transformation of rural areas to meet current rural development needs and the demographic challenge.

However, on the analogical level, there are still basic services (hotels, education, restaurants, etc.) that rural Spanish towns are willing to provide by facilitating access to housing and promoting jobs to contribute to the repopulation of their rural areas.

Current offers

In collaboration with Rural Promo – a rural consultancy firm that created the “ Yo me vuelvo al campo ” platform to facilitate the exchange of goods and services in rural areas in Spain and South America – the RRN has identified the following active and fully valid offers for living and/or working in the following rural areas:

• Tabanera de Cerrato (Palencia): The local council is offering housing and work for an enterprising family with children interested in moving there. The house they are offering is a brand-new home that the local council has renovated for this purpose. The business the new tenants will be responsible for is a new grocery store located below the house, which aims to meet the basic needs of this town.

Contact: secretario@tabaneradecerrato.es . Telephone: 979 793 040

• Aýna (Albacete): The town council is offering renovated rental homes for approximately €150 per month to families with children who want to settle in the town. The rental price depends on the tenants' contributions to the municipality, so there's no fixed amount for all interested parties. The goal is to encourage school enrollment to keep the municipal school open.

Contact: ayna@dipualba.es . Telephone: 967 295 001

• Monreal de Ariza (Zaragoza): The town council is offering housing free of charge—rental costs—in exchange for new managers for the town bar . Only the electricity costs will be covered. The council is also responsible for the renovations and refurbishment of the building that houses the bar.

Contact: monreal@dpz.es . Telephone: 976 845 380 / 608 105 576

• Villavendimio (Zamora): The town hall offers house rentals ranging from 150 to 200 euros maximum. These offers are only available to people willing to take up the various job openings offered by the town council: after-school tutors, rural tourism activities, mechanic's workshop, or bar manager.

Contact: aytovillavendimio@gmail.com . Phone: 980 69 50 55

• Villasayas (Soria): The town council is offering jobs to families with children who want to move to the village. Those interested can obtain a part-time contract as a laborer at the town hall. Management and operation of the local bar is also available.

Contact: villasayas@dipsoria.es . Telephone: 975 302 104

• Cantabria: The MSL Cantabria collective, which brings together 26 real estate agencies in the region, and the Spanish Association Against Depopulation have joined forces to find residents for 39 municipalities in the autonomous community at risk of depopulation. To this end, access to housing will be facilitated in some of the Cantabrian municipalities at risk of depopulation for people from all over Spain who are considering settling in rural areas. The agreement involves disseminating the tax benefits that the autonomous community offers to those who decide to live or work in rural areas. The Spanish Association Against Depopulation has received more than a thousand requests from people who want to move from the city to the village, almost half of whom are entrepreneurs.

Contact: Form

In an upcoming installment, the RRN will break down the digital platforms currently facilitating the transfer of teleworking to rural areas.