Zoë Dahse
FANCY moving to rural Spain? Have a business idea? Why not consider HolaPueblo?
As populations increasingly leave the Spanish countryside and move to urban environments, an initiative called HolaPueblo aims to reverse this population shift by encouraging people with entrepreneurial ideas to move to beautiful Spanish villages.
The HolaPueblo initiative, founded in 2019, has emerged to help with these shifts in dwindling population, and deal with the increasing ‘Espana vacia’ problem of Spain’s depopulating rural areas.
Spearheaded by AlmaNatura, a social entreprise group, and backed by companies such as IKEA, HolaPueblo encourages individuals and families with business ideas to bring new life and entreprise to rural areas through grants and guidance. Applicants can even get paid to live in rural areas to combat demographic decline!
What the scheme most looks for, as their website underlines, is that people have an interest in developing entrepreneurial projects in a rural province.
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In Andalucia, villages that are currently participating in the HolaPueblo initiative are Paymogo (Huelva), Coripe (Sevilla), La Bobadilla (Jaen) and Zufre (Huelva). The main demographic of people that are participating are couples with children (45%) and between the ages of 35 and 50 (67%).
Current businesses that have been supported by the project have mostly looked at local and sustainable tourism initiatives, as well as the creation of a high-speed satellite internet connectivity in rural areas for an affordable price by the end of 2027. Hospitality, artisan food production and tourism are further areas of entreprise the initiative has backed so far.
There are figures to show that the scheme has had an impact. The cycle of 2024-25 was the fifth edition of the HolaPueblo scheme, and within those twelve months, 208 people from 85 families moved to 12 of Spain’s provinces, resulting in the creation of 58 new businesses. Between 2019 and 2024 almost 20 000 people have become involved in the project, and around 200 municipalities have participated.
The scheme has so far been demonstrably successful, with those who become involved even being given the nickname of ‘holapueblers’!
Interested in getting involved? Prospective applicants need to complete a form on the HolaPueblo website. Applications for the year of 2024-25 are currently closed but there is a waiting list, and a mailing list, on their website.
Head over to https://holapueblo.com to find out more.
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