Spain Bets on Bold Ideas to Bring Business Back to the Countryside

MADRID, Sept. 22, 2025 – The hinterland in northwest Spain presents a sparse view, with no facility of public transport and distances between towns too large, making travel by personal vehicle the only option.

During the last three decades, lack of opportunities has led to a mass exodus from regions such as Castilla y León.

Prior to 2014, rural areas in Spain showed the first signs of their population lacking a sense of belonging. However, there was a 4.4 per cent population decline in rural parts between 2014 and 2023, as per a government report.

This dip in the hinterland came despite Spain’s overall population growing by 2.6 per cent.

“In Spain, hundreds of villages are going to disappear due to a lack of younger people who want to make a life there,” Juan José Manzano, co-founder of the rural revitalization organization AlmaNatura, told Bloomberg.

Notably, 84 per cent of Spain’s population is urban, while only 16 per cent live outside cities. A cursory look at population density maps shows buzzing clusters surrounding the coastline and areas between cities, while Spain’s interior has several empty stretches.

These alarming statistics have caused concern that smaller towns and villages, along with their centuries-old histories, traditions and cultures, may disappear. With a limited workforce to take care of forests and vegetation, wildfire-prone regions become all the more vulnerable.

Speaking with Bloomberg, Elvira Fafian, president of Abandonadas, a Spanish real estate agency that specializes in the sale of rural hamlets and villages, said her firm used to handle between six and seven contracts a year, which has grown manifold now.

Elvira said there has been a sudden rise in demand for properties from foreigners and youngsters seeking to avoid high mortgages or shift to a place that offers “peace of mind and is not too heavy on the pocket.”

Last year, the agency sold a rural town situated 40 kilometres from the city of Burgos in Castilla y León to a Dutch couple for €350,000 ($408,870).

Know How Redevelopment Revived Towns in Rural Spain

Tapping Tourism Potential: Like many other buyers, Juan Ansótegui and his brothers purchased Villalibado in 2007, with no foresight of it becoming a tourist hub.

“Originally, the plan was just to build a few houses, a small retirement complex,” Juan told Bloomberg. “But little by little, we got more ambitious.”

From Burgos, it roughly takes 30 minutes to reach Villalibado, a town that was left deserted for more than three decades when the Ansóteguis bought most of its remaining structures. That included a handful of houses and a 12th-century Romanesque church.

The next few years saw Juan and his brothers revive a number of homes and build two swimming pools, a restaurant and bar, and other amenities. They made efforts for scenic landscaping of the grounds and outfitted the village to run on properties and carry out new projects.

This successful model has been replicated in the neighbouring Villadiego, a 1,500-person town and municipality located four kilometres away.

Ángel Carretón Castrillo, Mayor-President of the Villadiego City Council, told Bloomberg that Ansótegui’s project has been “like winning the lottery.”

There is a huge visitor influx from Villalibado as people come to make purchases, visit the six local museums in Villadiego, and spend time in its cafes and bars.

In the form of a considerably larger town, Villadiego plays the role of an administrative centre for its neighbours, offering banks, schools, childcare and healthcare that would otherwise not be easily accessible.

“Without good services to offer,” said Carretón Castrillo, “you stand little chance of attracting and getting people to stay.”

Change of Fortunes: Villadiego continues to face uncertainty as the retention rate for residents is quite low, yet there have been some new arrivals.

Relocating from Madrid to Villadiego in search of a peaceful life proved to be a good decision for Celia, a museum guide in her late 20s. “It just wasn’t for me,” she told Bloomberg, while recollecting her days in the Spanish capital. Six years later, she has no plans to leave.

The peak season in both Villalibado and Villadiego makes these towns abuzz. Compared to the majority of rural towns, which lack a young demographic, Villadiego is full of life with children accompanied by grandparents and parents.

People in the age group of 20 to 30 years can be seen hanging out in the square with drinks and cigarettes, discussing their plans for the rest of the summer.

Initiative for Productive Relocation: Having faced difficulties in their native Venezuela, Ricardo Padín and his family moved to Spain last September.

Their initial stay was with their relatives in Alicante, but their long-term plan was to live in the countryside. Information available on a YouTube video led Padín, an artisanal knifemaker, to HolaPueblo, an initiative run by the AlmaNatura organization that helps small-time entrepreneurs move to depopulated villages.

Between 2020 and 2025, HolaPueblo has helped 85 families resettle across Spain, resulting in 58 new bakeries, bars, art studios and other businesses. The Padíns are now among them.

“Since I arrived in Spain, my greatest wish was to settle in Galicia, since it is the land where my grandparents were born,” Padín told Bloomberg.

Two months ago, the family moved to Placín, a town with fewer than 200 inhabitants surrounded by mountains in Galicia’s Ourense province. They found a rental house with a workshop where Padín can forge knives, and already know all their neighbours.

As per Padín, the transition has been full of challenges as buying groceries and other essentials requires travelling to a nearby village, and their son’s secondary school is several towns away.

With the help of TikTok and Instagram videos, Padín promotes his business, but erratic internet connectivity is a key concern.

“The main drawback is that fibre optic internet doesn’t reach Placín,” he said, adding that uploading videos requires him to drive out of town.

There has been a sharp increase in initiatives like HolaPueblo that are focused on rural revitalization. While there is no mechanism to collect economic data, Manzano, the co-founder, reveals that the arrival of new families in rural areas signals “generational renewal” is starting to take place.

In municipalities with fewer than 10,000 residents, the study found that nearly 10 per cent were foreign-born, and that most were between the age group of 20 to 39.

How Are the Revitalization Initiatives Making a Difference?

Revitalization of Spain’s towns and rural areas by individuals has a localized impact, but experts like Miguel González-Leonardo, an independent researcher on population studies, believe that organized measures are the only way to see a larger impact.

There are efforts at the government level, as authorities in some regions offer grants, subsidies and tax deductions to incentivize people to move there.

Anybody keen to purchase a home in a village in Andalucía with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants gets financial support. On a national level, the government allocated 10 billion euros in 2021 to combat depopulation.

While it is too premature to make a judgement on the impact of these policies, they are relatively small-scale, and González-Leonardo doesn’t expect any dramatic reversals.

“Within a few years,” he told Bloomberg of underpopulated areas, “some of these municipalities will likely disappear. There’s no economic activity, and there aren’t many policies or resources that can realistically be leveraged.”

The attention is panned to regions that have long been overlooked, while people are showing a deep interest in life outside cities.

“People come to visit every day: tourists, curious travellers. It’s generating real interest,” Ansótegui said of his own small town. “It’s incredible to see how an abandoned village can be transformed into a tourist destination that attracts people from all over the world.”

There are efforts at the government level, as authorities in some regions offer grants, subsidies and tax deductions to incentivize people to move there.

Inputs from Saqib malik

Editing by David Ryder