Many rural communities face a shared challenge: empty and deteriorating buildings that lose value over time, while they struggle with depopulation, limited services, and fewer local opportunities. The RurALL project addresses this challenge by helping rural municipalities identify vacant buildings, engage local stakeholders, and develop realistic renovation concepts supported by governance and financing solutions, aligned with the principles of the New European Bauhaus.
Now in its fourth project period, MOBA contributes expertise in cooperative and impact-oriented real-estate, mutli-stakeholder governance, business model development, and financial planning. Within RurALL, MOBA focuses on translating these approaches into tools that municipalities can realistically apply—and download below!
Business model templates for municipalities
Led by BICC Sandanski with support from MOBA, RurALL developed practical Business Model Templates. These templates help municipalities and local stakeholders transform renovation ideas into structured, implementable plans.
The templates guide users through key questions such as governance, stakeholder roles, investment needs, financing options, and expected impacts. They are tailored for residential, commercial, and public or community building uses, making them adaptable to different local contexts.
For municipalities, the templates simplify planning, strengthen funding applications, and support transparent decision-making—helping move from identifying an empty building to preparing a viable project.
MOBA’s financial tool: from ideas to feasibility
To complement the business model templates, MOBA led the development of a simple financial modelling tool.
The tool supports municipalities, community organisations, and project partners in analysing the financial feasibility of renovation scenarios. It enables users to estimate investment needs, explore financing structures, and understand basic financial indicators.
The tool offers two levels of use: a basic mode for quick calculations sufficient for the business model template, and an advanced mode for deeper cash-flow analysis, loan calculations, and scenario comparisons. This makes it accessible for non-experts while remaining useful for more advanced planning.
These tools have been developed after a detailed, region-wide mapping of deteriorating dwellings and a comparative analysis of their revitalisation potential, as well as 10-year depopulation projections for the area complemented with national, regional and EU-level policy recommendations to reverse these trends.