Greek Village Cohousing

We are an international group creating the first multigenerational cohousing village in Greece! www.GreekVillageCohousing.com

Who we are: multinational, multilingual, multigenerational, friendly, skilled, experienced, communitarians!

We are a multigenerational, multinational, and multilingual group. While we do not share any particular ideology or religion or political opinion, we all share a dedication to community and to the mission of creating Greece’s first cohousing village.

A few of us have significant experience living in cohousing and eco villages. This can lay a strong foundation for a healthy community. A few others are Greek or have significant experience living in Greece, and they will be a great bridge to the wider community. Still others are coming from all walks of life, with a rich mix of skills, talents, and backgrounds that make this group special.

We are lucky to have the entire world from which to choose each other, and as a result, we have a really impressive group of people. Everyone is dedicated to working collaboratively toward making this mission a reality. You can find some of our bios HERE

Where we are: Physical Location- Peloponnesus

After searching throughout Greece for a year, we settled on the gorgeous Peloponnesus because it has it all- snowcapped mountain ranges, vineyards and olive groves, beaches and seaside villages, cozy mountain villages, modern cities, best food and culture in the world, and ancient UNESCO archeological sites.

Peloponnesos is relatively free from mass tourism compared to the islands, and ,we do not need to fly or ferry in all our food and goods to a from an island. Very importantly for us, we can easily hope in the car drive to Athens, to airports, and into Europe.

Our Location in Peloponnesos: Laconia

People fall in love with our Laconia location in Peloponnesos. We have land amidst pristine nature, with a breathtaking view of the Taygetos mountains – ancient, majestic mountains associated with wellness and mentioned in the Odyssey. The snow caps and perfect pyramid of the highest peak is ever present and inspiring.

Our land is in the lower foothill mountain region of the Taygetos, with expansive arid forests as far as the eye can see as well as farms and orchards. It can be called an “agrihood.” We look forward to gardening and using our produce to cook delicious meals together in our Common House.

Despite feeling enveloped by nature, we are very conveniently close to a major city just 20 minutes down the road. In Sparta we have lots of services, including quality health care and education, a lively nightly taverna life, and wonderful farmer’s markets. Just 30 minutes the other direction takes us to a picture postcard seaside village and beaches of Gythio.

You can find out more about our location HERE

Where we are: Stage of Development – Formation Stage.

We have an incredible site, awesome developer, beautiful preliminary design and preliminary budget.

We formally chose our developers and location in January of 2022. We are moving quickly and accomplishing a lot. We enjoy our workshops on the land and enjoy cohousing’s participatory design process. You can see photos and watch a little of one of our design workshops HERE

Our Vision and Some Details:

Our community prioritizes traditional cohousing values and design as articulated in Charles Durrett and Katie McCamant seminal book on Cohousing- design for connection and high socially high functioning community.

We are surrounded by natural beauty and will reflect our value to live more connected lives supporting multiple generations and each other, and living lightly on the land.

We envision a sociable and farm to table culture with permaculture edible landscape. Our main shared activity is cooking together with fruits and vegetables from our gardens and orchards. We will live an outdoor lifestyle with hiking trails in the forest steps away and 30 minutes from fantastic beaches. Yes we are close driving distance to a major city with all the services we could want.

Our village will also be within a larger community- a “Wellness and Lifestyle Community” that spans an entire mountain and valley. This larger community will be developed over the years and will include small agricultural micro businesses such as an olive mill and winery as well as several resort amenities such as a spa and restaurants.

Aesthetic: Our village aesthetic will mirror the charming village architecture around us as well as the landscape. We are inspired by the UNESCO world heritage site and village of Monemvasia. We seek to use local materials as much as possible.

Multigenerational Needs & Green Features: We plan to balance our strong desire for eco features such as photovoltaic cells and eco-friendly sewage and water systems with the need to accomplish our mission of creating cohousing. This means our budget prioritizes initially spending to support multigenerational needs: strong internet and coworking spaces for remote professionals, ageing in place and equity by design features, and nurturing spaces and equity by design features for children.

We will be all solar for both homes and commons, will have a grey water and possibly a black water system, and will have smaller footprint homes with a generous Common House for shared resources we don’t use daily. Our architectural design prioritizes elements that focus on choreographing connections among people- if it does not work socially it is not worth it!

Outdoor living: We envision generous shared outdoor spaces for an active life lived outdoors.

Who we seek to join us: Those who value community and want to relocate their primary residence to Greece.

Cost: Our home prices and floor plans will likely appeal primarily to those seeking strong community and middle income housing prices by North American/Australian/European standards rather than those seeking high end luxury or low cost housing. We have a strong desire to find solutions for our Greek citizen neighbors who live on Greek salaries, and we are working hard and trying to think out of the box to make this happen.

Golden Visa Permanent Residency: Our non-European members will apply for one of several permanent residency options. The most popular and most frequently used property ownership visa, the Greek Golden Visa. The latter is Europe’s lowest cost permanent residency through property ownership program, providing permanent and all of its benefits for the entire family for a purchase of a property totaling €250,000 or more. Europeans, especially Greeks, will also be able to buy less expensive smaller units roughly as low as €170,000 and larger units will be over 250,000 up to perhaps 400,000. We are working on the preliminary budget and are would like bring down costs for young couples, families, and especially for Greeks.

Golden Visa costs are scheduled to be doubled next year in many places- to 500,000 euro. We do not know if our area will be affected by this change.

What to do if interested:

Visit our Website and read our FAQs page for more details: www.GreekVillageCohousing.com
Attend one of our Information Coffees on Friday: https://www.greekvillagecohousing.com/information
Email our Outreach Coordinator: [email protected]
Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Greek-Village-Cohousing-100948052091127