neos·village looking for €3m in next week
Planned ecovillage and retreat center in portugal with new paradigm orientation seeking funding urgently
neos·village is an ambitious vision for ecovillage and wellness centre on 410ha of land 75m from Lisbon at Herdade de BatePé (Google Maps). You can read more about the project here.
UPDATE: they have pledges for €2.2m
UPDATE: 2025-04-14: they have received pledges for 2.2m and so now need a further 900k plus those pledges to turn into reality. See this post for more info. You can pledge anything from €10k to €500k …
They need to raise their remaining funds urgently (€3m of €4.4m)
See this post for their call for funds as well as this post with more details.
We are faced with losing the neos·life land next week.
Over the past year, we have developed the project as if we had certainty, because there was a constant carrot hanging over us in the form of investors and loans (even this past week we thought we found the most aligned investor yet), and because our commitment was all in.
Yet we are now at the end, and this really is the end this time — the sellers have a competing buyer with whom they’re ready to hit the green light if we don’t provide a significant downpayment next week and a clear road to completion.
…
We are open to all suggestions and ideas, for example, someone else could acquire the land for the remaining €3M (at €0.75/m2) and allow 12-18 months of exploration together. After which if you want to be bought out we will have raised funds through EU grants, bank, community etc, otherwise you can sell at a profit. The land as is is worth at least €4.4M — as per three independent valuation reports.
Details
As they acknowledge there are quite a few details to be worked out. With that caveat emptor noted …
Last week we drafted a newsletter to the community with a proposal to buy a homesite and become collective co-owners of the southern residential land, yet didn’t send it out because we knew that — quite rightly — people want precise clarity on all manner of things, that we cannot provide. You can read our draft here.
When will you get to live there …
If you are on the top of the waitlist, we target to start building the first homes in 2026. The full development will require an extensive permitting process with a larger amount of houses targeted to being built in 2027. However, if you are excited to (initially) live in a mobile Tiny House (like Karen and me), you could be with us as early as late 2025.
How will the community governance and decision-making happen?
From experience we know that in consensus decision making, it can take forever or never just for a community to decide on where to put a garden shed. Like many eco-villages around the world, we will adopt an inclusive yet fast Sociocracy-based decision making model. Proposals will be made by those with expertise and who champion the values and mission of the land, and everyone’s voice will matter.
This is ‘community light,’ e.g. there are no rules about how people can live their lives outside of being respectful to each other and the land. After this acquisition we will implement an onboarding process to filter and facilitate future residents to ensure alignment with neos·life’s values.
More info
Key links: https://www.neos.life/links
Pitch deck: https://neos.docsend.com/view/2zrc7sk93szycyez (strong emphasis on wellness industry for the business model)
Flyover of the estate
Founders video
Thank you for sharing this project, it has interested me. Especially it's realistic government system.
I also love your teal estate project and would love to share with you a new apartment building architecture I designed that makes coliving and communal living easier, comfortable and more sustainable.
I shared a link to an article talking about it in your inbox. You can check it out and we can have a discussion afterwards if it's fine by you.