Digital Nomads Are No Longer Welcome In This European Hotspot

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Digital Nomads Are No Longer Welcome In This European Hotspot

For years, Portugal has marketed itself as one of the most welcoming hotspots for digital nomads, especially on the islands of Madeira and cities like Portimão, Lagos, Porto, and of course, the stunning Lisbon, according to data provided by Nomadlist.

Nevertheless, the European country has been slowly enacting laws and implementing a series of measures suggesting digital nomads and remote workers are no longer as welcome, or at least not with the same enthusiasm, as a couple of years ago.

The rise and fall of

Lisbon (2020-2024) Lisbon arrivals have now returned to the levels of 4 years ago, just before it started to explode and suddenly get popular with foreigners and tourists alike Why? The government stopped the NHR program (to attract foreigners to… https://t.co/xp2UBheWw9 pic.twitter.com/QoXTJjGvss

— @levelsio (@levelsio) July 1, 2024

As of today, there is growing social discontent with the supposed issues that digital nomads and their high-spending capacity bring to the locals’ way of life.

In the last two years, Portugal has received more than 16,000 location-independent workers who, by law, must earn more than three times the minimum wage of Portuguese residents.

As expected, gentrification didn’t take long to emerge forcing hundreds of locals out of their lifelong homes.

While newcomers can easily afford rents of over 2,500 euros, locals are struggling to find a one-bedroom apartment for less than 1,200 euros. Here, it’s worth mentioning that a large percentage of the population makes less than 900 euros a month.

Since the arrival of digital nomads (and other expats, we’ll talk about it later), rents have increased by more than two percentage points every year, and home value has doubled in the last six years, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Other sectors such as restaurants, bars, and supermarkets, have also massively increased prices.

Fed up with this situation, locals have started to show signs of hostility towards their new neighbors.

Last year, some graffiti reading: “Digital nomads, you are fucking disgusting!!!” went viral on social media. The sentence “One digital nomad = Many forced nomads,” has become quite popular among demonstrators.

The government has echoed this sentiment withdrawing policies that highly favored remote workers to the detriment of the local population.

In January 2024, the government canceled the famous non-habitual tax residency (NHR) scheme, which offered an attractive fixed tax rate of only 20 percent for remote workers.

Similarly, in 2023, the government approved a law called “Mais Habitação” aimed at regulating the use of properties prioritizing long-term renters over short-term tourists and digital nomads.

re Digital Nomads the Only Ones to Blame?

The number of issues expressed by Portuguese people and some government sectors didn’t start on October 30, 2022, when the country first launched its visa for digital nomads.

For years now, Portugal has been creating statutory conditions to attract high-spending ex-pats who also have the potential to mess up the real estate market and skyrocket the cost of living.

Cited policies include, but are not limited to, the introduction of “Visas for Retirees,” and “passive income earners,” as well as a special tax regime for highly-skilled immigrants, which grants them a 0% tax rate on foreign earnings and dividends.

And we haven’t even talked about the famous “Golden Visa,” which became one of the most popular residency-by-investment schemes while it was in place. With an investment of just €500,000, applicants could even obtain European citizenship in a matter of five years. That attracted hundreds of speculators. The program has not been entirely canceled but it doesn’t offer European residence due to real state investments any more.

So far, the Portuguese government has only sent signals about where things are going, but it hasn’t said digital nomads should stop coming. If that happens, there are still more than 50 countries worldwide welcoming digital nomads with open arms.

The post Digital Nomads Are No Longer Welcome In This European Hotspot appeared first on Traveling Lifestyle.

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By: Viktor Vincej
Title: Digital Nomads Are No Longer Welcome In This European Hotspot
Sourced From: www.travelinglifestyle.net/digital-nomads-are-no-longer-welcome-in-this-european-hotspot/
Published Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2024 12:58:09 +0000

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