Freeth’m

Freeth’m is a project to build a worldwide network of small, purpose-built towns for people who want a freer, more self-directed life close to nature. Guided by a “live and let live” philosophy, it offers rural and semi-rural living that is independent of, but not isolated from, the wider world. The first town is planned for Portugal, with further locations envisaged elsewhere.

Each town is designed to be largely self-sufficient, with its own decentralised infrastructure and shared facilities such as coworking and community spaces, a library, medical amenities and indoor and outdoor farming. To protect residents’ privacy, homes are detached, and each town is kept deliberately small, on the order of a few hundred houses.

Freeth’m follows a build-to-rent model: the developer owns the housing and acts as the town’s manager, while residents secure their place through a contract covering both short and long stays. The project does not seek autonomy from any government; it aims instead for practical, de facto independence through self-sufficiency. A planned global membership is intended to let residents move easily between the network’s towns across different countries.