Cohousing is community-led It is not a developer's vision and design - sold later. It is a village originating and co-created by the people who intend to live there. That is the heart of Taygete Cohousing Village. The work of forming the community — meeting regularly, building trust, learning sociocracy, shaping shared values, working with professionals, and making decisions together — is not a preliminary step before the “real” project begins. It is the real project. The village begins forming long before move-in, because the relationships, agreements, habits of collaboration, and shared sense of purpose are what make cohousing different from conventional housing. We are becoming a village before we move in. Why Laconia Over the past several years, members of Greek Village Cohousing have explored Greece carefully, not simply looking for beautiful land, but asking a deeper cohousing question: Where can we build the kind of community we actually want to live in together? Laconia, in the southern Peloponnese, was chosen because it offers a rare combination: mountains, agriculture, seasons, deep local culture, and a daily rhythm that is not dominated by tourism. Nearby Sparta provides the practical anchor of a working Greek town — shops, services, schools, health care, markets, tavernas, and opportunities for connection with the wider region. Beaches, villages, historic sites, and the Taygetos mountain landscape are all within easy reach. For people relocating to Greece, this matters. Taygete is not being imagined as an expatriate enclave, a vacation compound, or a resort-style real estate product. It is being shaped as a real cohousing village in Greece: private homes, generous shared spaces, sociocratic governance, shared meals, mutual support, sustainability, and a meaningful relationship with the surrounding Greek community and landscape. The design Inspired by the human scale and social beauty of traditional Greek villages — including the nearby UNESCO World Heritage village of Monemvasia — members worked collaboratively with Hillcon Build Group and the project’s professional team to design a village that supports connection in daily life. Pathways, sight lines, front doors, gathering places, and the Common House were all considered through a cohousing lens: how do we make it easy for neighbors to meet, talk, help one another, cook together, celebrate together, and still return to the privacy of their own homes? The private homes are complemented by a substantial Common House, the social heart of the village. It includes a communal kitchen and dining area for shared meals, as well as a remote-professional coworking suite for people who want to live in Greece while continuing meaningful work, creative projects, advocacy, consulting, teaching, writing, or other engaged lives. Taygete’s setting is a mountain-agrihood landscape within easy driving distance of Sparta, beaches, villages, and a wider region rich in beauty, history, and cultural continuity. The aim is not simply to live somewhere scenic. The aim is to create a village where daily life is more connected, more resilient, more cooperative, and more rooted. Taygete Cohousing Village is being co-created for belonging, mutual support, beauty, shared governance, sustainability, and a deeper way to live in Greece — by the people who intend to call it home. Where Taygete Cohousing Village Stands Now Over the past several years, Greek Village Cohousing members have invested deeply in community formation, research, fieldwork, feasibility review, participatory design, and relationship-building with the Greek professionals needed to bring a pioneering cohousing village into reality. Taygete is a new-build cohousing development in Laconia, architecturally integrated into its surrounding mountain-agrihood landscape and adjacent to a developing wellness-oriented resort setting. The physical design process — including the site layout, Common House, private home plans, and core village pattern — has been shaped collaboratively through the community-led process and with the project’s professional partners. According to our developer/builder, Hillcon Build Group, Taygete is in the later stages of development preparation, with studies, permitting, site-readiness, and infrastructure planning moving forward. Hillcon has indicated that initial site preparation has begun, and that utilities and infrastructure work are targeted for late 2026. We will update this page as dates and milestones are confirmed, rather than presenting projections as guarantees. Unlike many cohousing projects, Taygete is not expected to require all 36 households to be fully committed before the broader construction pathway can move forward. According to Hillcon Build Group, major construction can begin once the first group of committed households reaches the required investment threshold. But Taygete is not conventional real estate. It will not be held back as a finished product for people to purchase later without having participated in the community-building process. Cohousing works differently. The founding community forms before move-in. The people who join now are the people who can move deeper into the process: getting to know future neighbors, learning sociocracy, helping shape community culture and norms, supporting one another’s transition to Greece, and discerning together whether there is a strong mutual fit for full commitment. For those considering a move to Greece, this is an important distinction. Taygete is not only a home abroad. It is a chance to help co-create the community you will live in — with private homes, shared spaces, shared meals, shared governance, and a living culture of neighborly care. If you are relocating to Greece on your own Moving to a new country can be difficult even when the paperwork, housing search, and practical logistics are handled well. Many people discover only after arriving that the harder work is slower and more human: building friendships, routines, trust, purpose, and a sense of belonging. A forming cohousing village offers a different path. Instead of arriving alone and hoping community will somehow happen later, future neighbors begin building relationships before move-in. Some people are a few steps ahead, some are a few steps behind, and everyone is learning what it means to create a shared life in Greece with intention. Taygete is not a substitute for legal, tax, immigration, or financial advice, and each household remains responsible for its own relocation decisions. But for people who want both privacy and community, both independence and mutual support, both a home in Greece and a meaningful role in shaping village life, cohousing offers something conventional relocation cannot: a community you help create before you arrive. In other words, Taygete is a village that forms before it is built. Those who wait until the homes are complete may find that the founding community has already taken shape.