Portugal’s economy isn’t being ruined by digital nomads
It’s greedy landlords, opportunistic businesses and bad policy.
“Portugal’s digital nomads are ruining the economy!” That seems to be the general vibe across lots of social media and news outlets. They’re the villains behind rising rents, gentrification and economic inequality. But hold your horses for a minute – is it fair to blame a bunch of remote workers sipping espressos in Lisbon? Or are we just too quick to point fingers at people trying to live a better life, while letting greedy landlords and exploitative businesses off the hook? Spoiler: it’s the latter.
Note: I don’t live in Portugal and never have. But I guess I am technically a digital nomad, living in Cornwall with zero clients here. I’ve been thinking about this rage at digital nomad types for a while since folk are so quick to blame the people they can see while completely ignoring the real culprits. Common story that, eh?
Why nomads come to Portugal
I love Portugal. I can see why it’s prime digital nomad territory. Warm beaches, good surf, great food, solid internet and a lower cost of living compared to somewhere like London or New York. The country even rolled out their digital nomad visa in 2022, which means you only need to earn €3,280 a month to qualify – about three times the average Portuguese salary…
So no one should be surprised that a bunch of people free from geographic ties were about to rock up to Portugal, laptop in hand, to live a better life. Portugal actively welcomed this crowd into its bed as part of a broader plan to attract tech startups, foreign investment, and, let’s face it, anyone with cash to spend. And this strategy is paying off in some ways. Sectors (for better or worse) like tourism, short-term rentals and coworking spaces are booming, are creating jobs and drawing investment.
A big draw for digital nomads is what economists call “geo-arbitrage” – earning in a strong currency and spending in a cheaper one. For them, Portugal is the dream. Living in Lisbon is 42% cheaper than London and 54% cheaper than New York. And while they might look like gentrifying invaders, the reality is more nuanced.
A housing crisis with deeper roots
So everyone was super happy and that was that, right? No, of course not. Locals are rightly pissed off because all of a sudden, they’re being priced out of their own cities. Rent for a one-bedroom flat in Lisbon hit an average of €1,200. With a need to point an angry finger, digital nomads look like the obvious culprits – but this crisis didn’t start with them.
Let’s rewind a bit. For years, Portugal’s housing market has been a free-for-all. Golden visas encouraged wealthy foreigners to buy up property, turning homes into investment assets. Airbnb got its initially-clean(ish)-but-now-grubby mits over city centres and turned long-term rentals into short-term cash cows. And landlords, spotting wounded prey— I mean, spotting a financial opportunity, jacked up rents faster than you can say “gentrification.”
The result? A fragmented dual economy where locals earning €1,000 a month are competing with remote workers whose incomes are three to five times higher. That’s some unsustainable bullshit, but it’s also not entirely the nomads’ fault.
This housing mess isn’t about digital nomads swanning in with their cappuccinos. It’s about a system where profits are prioritised over people. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says house prices in Portugal have doubled since 2018. That didn’t happen because 16,000 nomads invaded Lisbon.
The real problem? Greed, not people
Blaming digital nomads is like blaming the wind for a fire started by an arsonist. The real culprits are landlords who hiked rents to cash in, businesses that turned homes into short-term rentals, and policymakers who let it all happen.
Yes, nomads are boosting demand for services and creating jobs, like local restaurants and tech infrastructure, and their presence has sparked economic growth. But it’s not all sunshine and tax-free spending, because their higher purchasing power amplifies demand in an already tight housing market, making life harder for locals.
With incentive and, well, greed, businesses and landlords have capitalised on that by massively increasing the cost of those houses and services. Fuck locals and the greater good, right? It’s easy to point the finger at the thing you can see: the hipster from East London on their Mac sitting in a coffee shop drinking coffee and chowing down on pastel de nata. That isn’t fair. More often than not those digital nomads are just people who have decided to make the best of a remote job and go live somewhere more appealing. Who wouldn’t want that? The implied angry solution is for everyone to stay put. Don’t move around. Don’t travel. Don’t experience other cities, cultures and people. Stay put. And that’s obviously mad.
Actually, it’s bigger than that
While we should probably be holding ready-to-point fingers and sharpening axes for the landlords, the property developers, the big businesses, we need to keep looking upward for blame. Specifically, we need to look to the governments and policies that have incentivised those who can take advantage of this situation at the expense of the cities and communities already in place.
Policies that massively target groups like digital nomads were put in place with full knowledge of the havoc they’d wreak. What they didn’t expect (for some reason…) is the amount of backlash. But being pissed off at policy or a government – at some faceless blob you can’t interact with – isn’t as satisfying as venting rage at people you can see. At digital nomads. And this is a problem that extends way beyond Portugal and digital nomads.
The Portuguese government does seem to be trying to fix things – finally. They’ve scrapped the golden visa’s property perks, capped rent hikes, and banned new Airbnb licenses in some areas. Governments like Portugal’s need to stop catering to wealthier outsiders at the expense of their residents. Maybe focus on affordable housing? Or making sure locals can actually buy or rent without needing to sell a kidney?
Stop blaming people for chasing a better life
Digital nomads aren’t villains – they’re just people trying to live somewhere lovely. Yes, their presence has ripple effects, but those effects are amplified by greedy systems and bad policies. If we’re serious about solving this shit, let’s stop yelling at remote workers and start tackling the root causes: unchecked capitalism, property speculation and a lack of affordable housing.
The problem isn’t who’s moving in. It’s who’s cashing out.