A small flat, a studio or even just a room in Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga or Valencia – while owning a house in a Spanish village. What may initially sound contradictory is becoming an intriguing alternative for some young Spaniards faced with soaring rents and increasingly unaffordable property prices.
Spanien Press Editorial Team
It is not necessarily about turning one’s back on city life.
The city is still where the jobs, universities, friends, restaurants, nightlife and everything else needed during the working week are. So people rent there – sometimes making do with remarkably little space.
When it comes to buying, however, the money is invested somewhere property remains affordable: in the countryside.
And suddenly, the so-called España vaciada – Spain’s depopulated interior – is appearing on the property map of a generation that, until recently, might never have considered looking there.
Rent in the City – Buy in the Village
The distinction matters.
This is not necessarily a mass return to rural life. A young person can still work in Madrid, Málaga or Valencia from Monday to Friday, renting only what they actually need there: a room in a shared flat, a studio or a small apartment.
But when it comes to saving and investing, another question arises: why struggle towards buying an almost unaffordable city flat when, in parts of Spain, entire houses can still be bought for a fraction of the price?
The village house becomes a second home in the truest sense.
On Friday evening, you head there. Your furniture, books and personal belongings are waiting for you. You renovate, decorate and shape the house according to your own taste.
In summer, you might stay for several weeks. Those able to work remotely can extend the weekend or spend longer periods there.
And perhaps, one day, it becomes a permanent home. But that does not necessarily have to be the objective.
Finally, Somewhere That Is Truly Yours
This is perhaps the most emotional aspect of the idea.
A room in a shared Madrid flat or a small rented studio in Málaga serves a practical purpose: it allows you to live where your job, studies and weekday life are based.
A house in the village offers something different.
It belongs to you.
Nobody decides whether you are allowed to paint a wall. The furniture does not have to be moved again when the next rental contract ends. Your books stay on the shelves. Your own crockery remains in the kitchen.
You can invite friends, fill a courtyard with plants, restore old tiles or spend years renovating the property little by little.
On Friday, you open the front door and everything is exactly where you left it on Sunday.
It is not simply a property.
It is your property.
Instagram Discovers the Old Village House
The trend is particularly visible on social media.
On Instagram and TikTok, restoring old houses has become almost a genre of its own.
Young people and families document homes that have stood closed for years. They strip away later additions, uncover original floors, restore wooden beams, rescue grandparents’ furniture and turn abandoned rooms into homes once again.
The videos often begin with a house that makes you wonder why anyone would voluntarily take on such a project.
A few months later, you want to move in yourself.
Accounts and projects such as @ro_meiry, for example, document the restoration of an old stone house in Galicia. Rocío Meiriño and her partner turned the renovation of a badly neglected property into a project that attracted a substantial social-media following.
@casadepueblo follows the revival of a historic house in Used, in the province of Zaragoza. It is not simply about walls and roofs: old furniture, ceramics, textiles and other objects are rescued and incorporated into the house’s new life.
At @lacorraladegumiel, meanwhile, family history lies at the heart of the project. Bea and her husband have devoted themselves to restoring a house connected to her great-grandmother and grandmother.
Other accounts, including @una_casita_en_la_montana, @martahouse_s and @reformando_micasa, also show how traditional properties can be restored and adapted to modern life.
These stories are changing perceptions of the traditional Spanish village house.
What once evoked grandparents, old-fashioned furniture and childhood summer holidays suddenly looks surprisingly desirable on social media.
Irene Bought Her House for €9,000
One particularly striking example is Irene Vila, a young woman from Valencia.
She bought an old two-storey house with a courtyard for just €9,000 in a small village in the Serranía de Cuenca, an area to which she has family ties through her grandmother.
She now documents on social media how she is gradually bringing the long-empty house back to life.
She also shows the less romantic side of the experience.
Renovating an old property means work. Tradespeople can be difficult to find in remote areas, materials cost money and behind an old wall there may always be another expensive surprise.
Nevertheless, she owns something that would be almost unimaginable for many people her age in one of Spain’s major cities:
A house of her own.
View this post on Instagram
When Grandmother’s House Becomes Interesting Again
The phenomenon becomes particularly powerful when there is already a family connection to the village.
Millions of Spaniards have parents or grandparents who originally came from rural communities.
Previous generations moved to the cities in search of work and greater opportunities. The village remained the place associated with summer holidays, family celebrations and weekends.
For some of their grandchildren, that connection is now taking on a new meaning.
Well-known figures have begun publicly sharing similar projects. Influencer Violeta Magriñán, for example, bought an old house in Aín, Castellón – her grandmother’s village – and embarked on an extensive renovation.
The story behind it is emotional, but also very contemporary:
The village is part of the family’s past. Why should it not also become part of its future?
From Grand Old Houses to Tiny Stone Cottages
And it does not always have to be a modest cottage.
In towns such as Zafra in Extremadura, as well as in numerous communities across Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Galicia and Castilla y León, substantial traditional houses can still be found – some with courtyards, high ceilings, original tiles and several hundred square metres of living space.
Teresa Furquet and her partner, for example, have bought a small palace in the historic centre of Zafra.
View this post on Instagram
Many such properties require considerable investment.
Yet equivalent houses in historic districts of Madrid, Seville or Málaga would be completely beyond the financial reach of most young buyers.
In rural areas, depending on the location, size and condition, prices can make for an entirely different calculation.
Of course, a bargain remains a bargain only if renovation costs are assessed realistically. A new roof, rewiring, plumbing or damp problems can quickly become expensive.
For many owners, however, the renovation itself has become part of the attraction.
When Renovation Becomes a Life Project
Perhaps this helps explain the popularity of these Instagram accounts.
This is not about buying a finished property and simply turning the key.
The house changes alongside its owners.
This year, the kitchen gets done. Next year, perhaps the bathroom. Then the courtyard.
An old cupboard is stripped and restored. Decades-old tiles appear beneath a modern floor. A wall is opened up to reveal original stonework.
Every weekend, another small part of the house becomes home.
It does not have to be perfect immediately.
It simply has to be yours.
The Enormous Price Gap
Behind the romance, however, lies a fairly sober economic reality.
Property in Spain’s major urban areas costs considerably more than in many rural regions. In some of the cheapest municipalities in the so-called España vaciada, houses can still be found at prices per square metre that would be unthinkable in the country’s major cities.
Of course, Madrid and a small village in Cuenca are not economically comparable.
Employment opportunities, transport links, schools, healthcare, shops and other services can differ dramatically.
But for somebody who keeps their job in the city, the calculation is different.
They do not necessarily have to choose between the city or the village.
They can have both.
Monday in the City, Friday in Your Own House
Perhaps this is the most modern aspect of the trend.
Monday morning: the city.
Work, university, the Metro, friends, appointments.
Perhaps a small rented flat or a room is enough for that.
Friday evening: the village.
You get into the car or take the train – but you are not heading to a hotel, a holiday rental or your parents’ house.
You are going home.
To your own house.
Your belongings are there. Perhaps there is a half-finished kitchen, an old courtyard or another renovation job waiting for you.
Friends can stay for the weekend.
And if you can work remotely, perhaps you simply stay until Monday – or a little longer.
This Does Not Mean ‘Empty Spain’ Has Been Saved
None of this should be mistaken for a mass migration back to the countryside.
The structural problems facing many Spanish villages remain: a lack of jobs, poor transport connections, limited healthcare, schools, shops and other essential services.
Nor will a handful of successful Instagram accounts reverse decades of rural depopulation.
But something else may be changing: the image of village life.
An old house is no longer automatically seen as a burden.
It can be an investment. A weekend home. A family project. Somewhere to work remotely. A future permanent residence.
Or simply the first place in your life where you can look around and say:
This is mine.
Spain’s villages, after all, never lost their particular charm.
Perhaps it simply took a generation for whom 40 square metres in the big city has become unaffordable to rediscover it.
