A tiny Spanish village battling depopulation is offering rent-free housing to a family willing to breathe life back into the community by running its local bar.
The offer comes from Arenillas, a hamlet in the province of Soria, where decades of rural exodus have left fewer than a dozen homes occupied year-round. In a bid to secure its future, the municipality is searching for a hard-working family with children prepared to settle permanently and take charge of the village’s social hub.
In return, the chosen family will be given a fully renovated house completely free of charge. The only conditions: they must have school-age children and agree to manage the village bar — a modest business that locals admit is more about community life than profit. An additional job opportunity for a bricklayer is also available in the area.
Arenillas has been fighting decline since the 1950s, when residents began leaving for larger towns and cities. In the 1980s, the village invested heavily in restoring abandoned buildings, converting the old school and former doctor’s house into seven social housing units — a major effort for a settlement with fewer than 100 houses. While most of the homes are rented for around €100 a month, one is now being offered entirely rent-free to attract new blood.
Although the village school closed 30 years ago, the council will provide free daily transport for children to a school in nearby Berlanga de Duero, around 20 kilometres away.
Locals say the strategy is working. While services remain limited, the population decline has slowed, weekend and summer residents continue to return, and many once-derelict homes are now fully restored.
With an economy based on livestock farming and a mix of shepherds and retirees, Arenillas offers a quiet rural lifestyle — and a rare chance to live in Spain without paying a single euro in rent, in exchange for helping keep a village alive.
