How to Start a Rural Coliving in Spain: A Step-by-Step Guide
A rural coliving is a community that needs a house, not a property that happens to have residents. The eight steps we'd take again after running Kalart since 2018.
By Roger Riera
In short: a rural coliving is a community that happens to need a house, not a property that happens to have residents. If you keep one idea from this guide, keep that one. What follows are the eight steps we'd take again, based on running Kalart, a rural coliving in an old farmhouse at the foot of the Montseny, since 2018.
Why most guides start in the wrong place
Search for how to open a coliving and most of what you'll find is written for investors: buy a building, divide it into rooms, push occupancy up. That logic can work for some city projects. In a village it usually backfires. Neighbours see a business, residents treat it like a hotel, and the house empties out the first winter. The order matters: people first, then the house, then the numbers.
Eight steps from idea to first residents
1. Write down who it's for
Before you look at a single house, write one paragraph: who will live there, what kind of everyday life they'll share, and what the village gets in return. Remote workers looking for roots? People building their own rural projects? It sounds abstract, but it will settle a hundred practical decisions later, from the size of the kitchen to who gets accepted.
2. Look for a house to renovate, not a plot to build on
The houses that work best tend to be big, old and a little tired: usually 6 to 12 rooms, within reach of a village with a shop and public transport. Renovating keeps heritage alive, costs far less carbon than building new and brings an empty home back into village life. Our own house was a farmhouse long before it was a coliving.
3. You probably don't need to buy it
Most coliving operators worldwide don't own their buildings. Long-term rental, rural masovería (you renovate, the owner charges little or no rent) and use-transfer cooperatives are all real options in Catalonia, and all of them keep the house out of the speculative market. We walk through each one in our guide to legal models.
4. Talk to the town council before you sign anything
Two questions can save you months: what use is this building allowed to have, and does it have (or can it get) a habitability certificate? Then decide whether you're offering homes or tourist stays, because the rules are completely different. In Catalonia, Decree Law 50/2020 created a specific category for housing with shared spaces. Take this as orientation, not legal advice, and bring in a professional for your case.
5. Do the numbers as a pessimist
The industry newsletter Everything Coliving estimates that over 60% of coliving operators close within two years, and the usual reason isn't a lack of interest: costs come in higher than planned. Heating an old stone house in January, the empty month nobody expected, the hours it takes to hold a community together — put all of it in the plan. Our business plan guide goes through it line by line.
6. Design the community before the first person arrives
Decide how people join, what you agree on together and which small rituals hold the group. At Kalart, people apply rather than book, we share lunch at 14:00 on weekdays, and every two weeks we sit down for a community gathering to talk about how things are going. None of it is complicated. All of it needs deciding before day one.
7. Choose a stay length that lets people put down roots
Short stays fill beds; longer ones make neighbours. Our minimum is one month (see the FAQ), and 60–70% of people who come for a month end up extending. The colivings we help start through Kalart Seeds are designed for stays of one to three years: long enough to register in the village and take part in its life.
8. Arrive as a neighbour
Get to know the mayor, the farmers, the shopkeepers and the housing cooperatives nearby before you open. Buy locally. Open the coworking room to people from the village. A coliving that arrives as a neighbour tends to last; one that arrives as a business often doesn't.
Who this guide is for (and who it isn't)
It's for people who want to build something that lasts in one place: founders, community builders, remote workers ready to stop moving, people who already live rurally and keep walking past an empty house. It isn't for anyone looking for a quick return or passive income. A rural coliving can sustain itself and the people who run it. It isn't designed to make anyone rich.
The honest part: it's slower than you think
Finding the right house, earning the trust of owners and neighbours, sorting the paperwork and filling the rooms with the right people can take many months before anyone moves in. After eight years we're still learning. If that pace feels frustrating, this may not be the right project yet. If it feels right, you're in good company.
How Kalart Seeds helps
Kalart Seeds is our learning-by-doing incubator for exactly this journey. Each month, one person lives at Kalart for four weeks, with accommodation covered by a scholarship, and learns the model from inside a community that's already running. We help identify suitable houses and stay alongside each new coliving through its first year.
Ready to go from traveller to community creator? Apply to Kalart Seeds.
Sources: Everything Coliving, March 2026 · COAC on Decree Law 50/2020
