Get Paid to Move to Spain: 10 Villages Looking for New Residents in 2026

You can get paid to move to Spain, but mostly per child and only once you live there legally. In September 2026 the villages on this list paid €500 to €6,000 per birth and let council flats for about €140 to under €300 a month.

It sounds like clickbait, and most offers that make the news are years old or long since taken. That is why this list only includes villages whose offer is documented as running in September 2026. The phenomenon behind them is called “España Vaciada” (Empty Spain). While coastal regions like the Costa del Sol or cities like Málaga are bursting at the seams, entire inland regions are bleeding population. To prevent the closure of schools, local shops, and health centers, municipalities (Ayuntamientos) are resorting to extreme measures: offering cash bonuses, dirt-cheap rent, or even jobs.

Nobody here is just handing out free money. It’s a transaction. You trade your time, your taxes, and (ideally) your children to ensure a village’s survival. If you’re looking for a free holiday, you’re in the wrong place. But if you’re seeking the authentic, quiet Spain and already work remotely, you will find incredible opportunities here in 2026. Not everyone works remotely: if a full-time local job fits your plans better, our overview of jobs in Spain for expats lays out what non-EU movers can realistically expect from the market.

Residency Requirements for Foreigners in Rural Spain

Every scheme on this list pays residents, not visitors. Legally residing foreigners can apply like Spaniards, and Sant Jordi even says so explicitly in its birth grant for 2026. What counts as legally residing depends on your passport. The rules differ a lot. Before you pack your bags and sell your house in the UK or the US, check which of these rules applies to you, as of September 2026.

• EU citizens: after three months in Spain you register at the Oficina de Extranjeros or a police station and receive the registration certificate. If you do not work in Spain, you need health insurance and sufficient resources for yourself and your family.
• Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV): you prove 400% of the IPREM for yourself, currently €2,400 a month, plus €600 for each family member. The non-lucrative residence permit also requires health insurance and does not allow you to work.
• Digital Nomad Visa (DNV): you earn 200% of the Spanish minimum wage from employers or clients abroad, currently €2,849 a month. Work for Spanish clients may not exceed 20% of your activity, and you need three years of experience or a relevant degree. Our guide to the Digital Nomad Visa (DNV) walks through the file.
• TIE card: with a visa you apply in person for your foreigner identity card (TIE) within one month of entering Spain. Since Brexit that applies to British movers too.
• El Padrón: no grant pays out unless you are officially registered at the local town hall (Empadronamiento). Most birth grants on this list count a year of registration before the birth.

Match the visa to the offer before you apply. A Non-Lucrative Visa rules out every package that comes with a job, from the village bar in Villamuriel de Campos to the council flats in Barracas, which require work within 100 kilometres. Birth grants are open to any legal resident, but only after the year on the padrón. Check the visa first. The village comes second.

Get Paid to Move to Spain: 10 Villages and What They Pay

Note: Budgets for these programs can run out quickly. Always contact the relevant Ayuntamiento beforehand to check the current status for 2026.

As of September 2026, every offer on this list is dated and documented – by the municipal website, the provincial gazette or a current report quoting the mayor. The famous names from other lists, Ponga, Rubiá, Griegos, Almadrones and Arenillas, are missing on purpose; what happened to them follows below the ten villages. What remains are three types: birth grants for registered families, council housing far below market rent, and job packages with a house.

1. Zarra (Valencia) – Council Housing Under €300 and an Open Campaign

Zarra sits in the interior of Valencia province and has 374 registered inhabitants. In 2026 the village is running its second recruitment drive for new residents. The campaign is called “Vente a vivir a Zarra” and was explicitly still open in September 2026.

• What is on offer: council-owned homes for rent at under €300 a month. The town hall also brokers empty private houses and helps owners renovate them, on condition that they then let at fair prices.
• What the village has: a rural school (CRA), a doctor, a pharmacy, a summer pool in the forest and a freshly renovated gym. Last school year three families with eight pupils arrived through the Proyecto Arraigo matching scheme.
• Conditions: a short form with your name, age, current home and work situation. The town hall says so itself: filling in the form guarantees neither a home nor a job.
• Status: open. The latest reports, from 8 to 15 September 2026, quote mayor Raúl Martínez.
• Contact: venteavivirazarra@zarra.org, phone 678 182 026 (weekdays 1 pm to 2 pm).

2. Barracas (Castellón) – Brand-New Flats From €220 a Month

Barracas has fewer than 200 registered inhabitants and sits in the Alto Palancia, in the interior of Castellón province. The municipality has built its own rental homes with money from the Valencian regional government. The target is young people and families who work in the area.

• What is on offer: three brand-new council flats, one at €220 and two at €285 a month. They were built with €315,000 from the regional “Recuperem Llars” programme.
• Conditions: the flat must be your main residence, you must work in the municipality or within 100 kilometres, and household income may not exceed 3.5 times the minimum wage.
• Status: the application window for the three flats closed on 31 July 2026. The town hall has not announced whether more council flats will follow, so ask before you plan.
• Where to ask: Ayuntamiento de Barracas, municipal registry. Applications were also accepted by post.

3. Sant Jordi (Castellón) – €600 Per Child, Renewed Every Year

Sant Jordi lies in the north of Castellón province, near Vinaròs and the sea. The municipality paid a birth grant against depopulation in previous years, and in April 2026 the council approved it again.

• What is on offer: €600 for every birth or adoption between 1 January and 31 December 2026.
• Conditions: the parents are registered in Sant Jordi and live with the child, at least one of them for a year or more. They must be up to date with the tax agency and social security. Foreign residents qualify if they live in Spain legally.
• Status: open until 31 December 2026. The council calls it a continuation of a measure from previous years.
• Website: santjordi.es

4. Aguatón (Teruel, Aragon) – A House and Two Flats for People With a Project

Aguatón is 35 minutes by car from Teruel and has 17 registered inhabitants; in winter about five people live there. In 2026 the municipality joined the Holapueblo platform. It is looking for newcomers with a business idea that works in a village. Grants exist for founders too: Andalusia runs its own scheme for new autónomos, separate from anything a town hall offers.

• What is on offer: three homes renovated by the municipality and let at social, affordable rents from September 2026: a two-storey house of about 124 m² with space for a workshop, and two one-bedroom flats of about 45 and 48 m².
• Conditions: apply through Holapueblo with a business project that works in the village; the platform runs the selection rounds.
• Status: around six projects had passed the first selection round by July 2026, with the decision announced for August. Rents have not been published yet; the town hall calls them “asequibles”, meaning affordable.
• Where to ask: holapueblo.com (Aguatón profile) and the Ayuntamiento de Aguatón.

5. Trabada (Lugo, Galicia) – Living in the Old Village School for About €140

Trabada is in the Mariña Lucense, in the north of Lugo province. The municipality converts closed village schools and teachers’ houses into rental flats. They are let as social housing to people who want to live in the area.

• What is on offer: five flats so far, in Trabadela, Sante, Vidal, Vilapercide and Valboa. The newest, in Valboa, is let at a social rent of about €140 a month.
• Conditions: allocation through a public call by the concello. For the Valboa flat, applications ran for one month after publication in the Lugo provincial gazette, and the criteria are set in the bases of each call.
• Status: the latest flat was handed over on 1 June 2026. The same day the mayor announced a municipal housing plan to expand the scheme. New calls appear on the municipal website.
• Website: trabada.gal

6. Parada de Sil (Ourense, Galicia) – €1,500 Per Child in the Ribeira Sacra

Parada de Sil sits in the Ribeira Sacra above the Sil canyon. Its birth grant has been approved for the whole of 2026.

• What is on offer: €1,500 for every birth, adoption, guardianship or foster placement of a child up to three years old, for cases from 1 January 2026. For multiple births the amount applies per child.
• Conditions: one parent has been continuously registered in Parada de Sil for at least a year before the birth or adoption, and the child is registered at the time of application. After approval, parent and child must stay registered for two more years.
• Status: open. For cases from January to November the deadline is 15 December 2026, for December births 15 January 2027, and applications are accepted only electronically through the concello’s sede electrónica.
• Where it is published: Xunta de Galicia grants portal

7. Villoria (Salamanca, Castilla y León) – €6,000 Per Child, Spread Over Five Years

Villoria is a village in Salamanca province. The municipality pays the highest birth grant on this list. It does not, however, arrive in one go.

• What is on offer: €6,000 per birth or adoption, paid as €100 a month over five years.
• Conditions: the parents live in Villoria and are registered there, and the child attends the village school. If you move away, you lose the remaining instalments.
• Status: the scheme was in force in July 2026, as reported by the Gaceta de Salamanca. Other villages in the province pay too: La Vellés €1,000, and Villarino de los Aires €2,000 per child since August 2026.
• Where to ask: Ayuntamiento de Villoria.

8. Villamuriel de Campos (Valladolid) – Village Bar Rent-Free, House Included

Villamuriel de Campos lies in the Tierra de Campos, 14 kilometres from Medina de Rioseco, and has 61 registered inhabitants. The village bar on the Plaza Mayor has been running since 1957 and lost its tenant at the end of 2025. Some take over as a sole trader; others set up an SL company in Spain instead, share capital and annual filings included.

• What is on offer: the 48 m² bar in the civic centre on the Plaza Mayor at zero rent, plus a house rent-free.
• Conditions: running the bar means registering as self-employed (autónomo) or setting up a company. The appeal, as COPE reported it: “We do not want to let it die.”
• Status: the offer went public in January 2026 without a closing date. We found no report of an award by September 2026, so phone the town hall before you plan anything.
• Contact: municipal sede electrónica.

9. Suflí and Almería’s Smallest Villages (Andalusia) – €1,000 Per Child

This is the Andalusian entry on the list. In 2026 the Diputación de Almería pays a baby cheque to families in municipalities with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. The first cheque went to a family in Suflí on 12 September 2026.

• What is on offer: €1,000 per birth or adoption in 2026, per child for twins. It is paid by bank transfer once the application has been checked, without a competitive ranking.
• Conditions: at least one parent has been registered for at least a year before the birth in a municipality with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, such as Bayárcal, Enix, Félix or Suflí.
• Status: open. Since the launch in March 2026, 16 applications from eleven municipalities have been approved, four of them in Uleila del Campo.
• Where it is published: dipalme.org, programme “Estrategia Almería 103”.

10. Valle del Ambroz (Cáceres, Extremadura) – Support Instead of a Cheque, Plus €500 Per Child

The Ambroz valley at the foot of the Sierra de Gredos, with Hervás as its main town, appears on almost every list with “up to €15,000”. That money comes from a regional programme that is currently closed. What the valley itself offers is nonetheless concrete.

• What is on offer: “Vive en Ambroz”, run by the valley’s development association DIVA. It keeps a land and housing register and collects job offers and information on public services.
• What the region pays: a one-off €500 per birth or adoption for families in Extremadura municipalities under 3,000 inhabitants. The 2026 round, for children born or adopted between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026, runs from 7 August to 30 September 2026 and requires a year on the padrón. Hervás, the main town, is above the size limit.
• What is closed: the regional government’s grant for remote workers: €10,000 for under-30s, women or anyone settling in a municipality under 5,000 inhabitants, €8,000 for everyone else, tied to 24 months on the padrón. The window closed on 8 October 2025, and we found no new round by September 2026.
• For founders: the regional “Yo Re-pueblo” plan pays up to €25,000 for taking over a business in villages of up to 300 inhabitants, and smaller sums for shops, local services and social projects in villages under 3,000. The last application window closed in February 2026.
• Websites: valleambroz.org and juntaex.es

Ponga, Rubiá, Arenillas: What Happened to the Famous Offers

Search for Spanish villages that pay you to move and the same names come up every year. None of them made our list. Here is why, checked against the original reports.

• Ponga (Asturias): the council approved €3,000 per couple plus €3,000 per child in 2013, for two years and with a five-year stay. By 2015 the money had stopped, and the current mayor told Escudo Digital in 2023 that the bases lacked a proper legal footing. There is no Ponga relocation application today.
• Rubiá (Ourense): lists quote €100 to €150 a month plus social flats from €50. Time Out corrected its own report in 2023: no such scheme existed in Rubiá. We found no bases in an official gazette either.
• Griegos (Teruel): in 2021 the village offered families with children a job and a rented home, three months rent-free and then €225 a month, minus €50 per school-age child. We found no current call.
• Almadrones (Guadalajara): in July 2025 a post promised a free house and €1,600 a month. The town hall called it fake, said the village has no homes to rent and took 100 calls a day. A pregnant couple had already sold their car to pay for the journey.
• Arenillas (Soria): in February 2026 the village of 40 residents offered one family with school-age children a free home, a job as a mason and the village bar. More than a hundred families applied in the first week.

The pattern repeats itself. One house, one job, hundreds of applicants, and a story that keeps circulating long after the offer has closed.

How to Check an Offer in Ten Minutes

This list will go out of date, just like every other one. Which makes the checking routine more valuable than the list itself. Five steps before you plan anything:

1. Find the date of the source. If an article carries no date and quotes no authority, it is worthless as evidence. Ponga’s grant ended in 2015 and Griegos’ offer dates from 2021, yet both still circulate.
2. Check the official gazette. Real grants have bases reguladoras and are published in the Boletín Oficial of the province or region. Search the municipality name plus “bases reguladoras” or “subvención”. If nothing comes up, the scheme does not exist in that form.
3. Phone the town hall instead of writing. The number is listed in the Diputación’s municipal directory. Small municipalities often never answer email, and the addresses circulating in old lists are frequently wrong.
4. Ask how many applicants there are. In practice a “free house” means one property, dozens of applicants, a specific trade you have to prove, and a commitment to stay for several years. Santiago de Calatrava in Jaén received more than 8,000 applications for seven cheap flats in its old Guardia Civil barracks, and Arenillas in Soria more than a hundred in one week for a single house.
5. Sell nothing before you have something in writing. That is precisely where the Almadrones case went wrong.

You don’t need to cold-call every town hall in Spain. There are fantastic, reputable platforms acting as matchmakers. Check out Holapueblo (supported by IKEA) or Volveralpueblo. These databases match your skills and family size with villages desperately seeking people right now. Holapueblo also runs the selection in Aguatón from this list, and Proyecto Arraigo brought the families to Zarra.

The ten villages and what they offer, at a glance.

3 Survival Tips for Rural Spain

An old Spanish proverb says: “In the village, everyone knows everything, but nobody says anything.” If you take this step, you need to be prepared.

1. The Internet Problem

You cannot work remotely at all if your Zoom call drops every ten minutes. Always check network coverage before moving. Many villages now have fiber optics (Fibra Óptica), but in extremely remote valleys, you must budget for Starlink.

2. You Are Stranded Without a Car

Forget public transport. Having your own vehicle isn’t a luxury; it’s a survival requirement for grocery shopping at the nearest Mercadona or visiting the Centro de Salud (Health Center). For your first few months, long-term rentals from local providers are your best bet.

3. Health Care & Spanish Bank Accounts

Every grant form asks for an account for the transfer. A euro account in another EU country must be accepted under EU payment rules, but a UK or US account is outside that protection, so open an account with a Spanish IBAN (ES) before you apply. Furthermore, for non-EU citizens applying for visas, a comprehensive private health insurance policy is legally required anyway. It also saves you hours of driving to the nearest provincial hospital, as rural clinics are often understaffed.

Without the right residency, the grants are out of reach, and for non-EU movers that means a visa file first. If you would rather not assemble it alone, a specialist agency can prepare it with you.

FAQ: What You Need to Know

Verdict

The money is real. It is also small and slow: €500 to €6,000 per child, and Villoria’s €6,000 arrives as €100 a month over five years. The larger saving is rent, with council flats like Trabada’s at about €140 a month, and those go to people who already live in the area or work nearby.

Moving for an offer before your residency is sorted leaves you with nothing. Without the right visa and a year on the padrón no village pays a cent, and the families who sold up for the Almadrones post found nothing waiting. Sort the paperwork first. Then choose the region, and treat any grant as a bonus.