Rural coliving

How I opened a rural coliving and coworking space in Spain

Agustin J

A tight group hug of about twenty people in a dark woodland clearing, with a small dog in front

The beginning of a rural coliving in Spain

I think the story about the opening of Anceu Coliving is worth telling. Not because I came up with the idea, but because of what people have told me so far.

Back in 2018, a lot of news came my way about Galician villages being abandoned and left empty. So I started to think about opening a rural coliving and coworking space in my region, Galicia, as an economic engine to rebuild and reconstruct a village.

After months of searching, I ended up just finding two places that were kind of what I was looking for. The first one is an amazing 9000 square meters oak forest with 6 old buildings to be restored. The second one, a 3000 square meters rebuilt village. I did my numbers, and even though the restored buildings were more expensive, on the oak forest everything would have had to be rebuilt, and it’d have taken me ages to actually open (plus the hassle of rebuilding).

So, after talking about it with my family and friends, I did make the decision to pick the restored one. I offered to the owner what I thought it’d work out for both parties, and she agreed, so, I kind of started what today is Anceu Coliving, a rural coliving and coworking space in Galicia_._

Aerial view of Anceu Coliving on its wooded hillside above the river Anceu coliving aerial view

Negotiations and opening preparation

The negotiations took place in November, and we signed by the end of January. So, I could start with the project by the beginning of February. I signed everything needed at the beginning of February, and one month after… COVID happened.

In the beginning, I gotta say that I was pretty down because of the situation, because my idea was to open on May 1st, and everything got delayed. But being as optimistic as I usually am, I looked at the bright side: more and more people would be working remotely in the years to come, and I now had more time to prepare the space for the opening.

After a couple of months of COVID, I set a soft launch date ( July 1st ), borrowing Cloud Citadel’s idea: a contest where people had to send a one-minute video telling why they had to be one of the first colivers in Anceu. I ended up inviting over 40 people from all around the globe. Thanks to them we’d get all the feedback we needed and fix the last-minute things.

Meeting Arroelo community

In the meantime, I got a visit from Arroelo people, which had contacted me through Instagram. We thought of inviting #ArroeloFamily to Anceu before the soft launch, where I had the chance to fix several things that people saw.

The experience of the soft launch was amazing, and actually reinforced the idea that I just had. It was possible for people to enjoy Galicia’s nature while working remotely. I understood that community is so important for this kind of space. After several fixes in the space, daily operations, and logistics, Anceu coliving was ready to open.

On August 1st, 2020, I officially opened, with bigger success than expected: several bookings in August (mostly from my own network), and people booked in through to the end of September.

In the weeks after the official opening, I learned a lot of things about being a house manager in a coliving space.

I hope you enjoyed the article and follow me for future posts.