Valencia mayor slammed for luring digital nomads despite property crisis

Ferran Puchades, a Valencia City councillor for left-wing party Compromís, has denounced the city mayor right-wing mayor María José Catalá for investing public money in promoting policies to attract digital nomads, which according to municipal and academic reports, has led to an increase in housing prices.

Puchades reports that the Las Naves municipal foundation, part of the City Council, has spent €112,400 to create a digital nomad support office.

The service, with an initial duration of 12 months, aims to "increase the visibility and international positioning of Valencia as a leading destination for digital nomads," offering them personalised support in areas such as accommodation, mobility, and co-working spaces.

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Puchades finds this unacceptable during the current housing crisis many cities in Spain, including Valencia, are experiencing.

“It is incredible that, after years in which Valencia has been promoted as one of the best cities in the world to live in, which has created pressure from tourists and digital nomads … it is the City Council itself that, with public money, is actively dedicating itself to incentivising this phenomenon”, he explained.

According to the councillor, the reports drafted by the City Council on tourist apartment licences, already warned of the correlation between the arrival of digital nomads with high purchasing power and rising housing prices, making it difficult for the resident population to access housing.

“On the one hand, Catalá claims to want to improve access to housing, and on the other, she allocates public funds to making life easier for those who contribute, at least in part, to the rising cost of rents and apartments," Puchades stated.

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Puchades has also criticised the "speed" with which the municipal government has processed licences for co-working spaces and co-living spaces designed for remote workers and digital nomads.

According to the latest stats from property portal Idealista, the average price to buy an apartment in Valencia is €3,017 /m2 and the city has seen an increase of 19.5 percent in the last year.

When it comes to renting, the price is currently €15.7 /m2, which as increased by 10.9 percent since 2024.

In order to be able to legally live in Spain, digital nomad visa holders from outside of the EU need to earn at least €2,762 per month.

Recent data shows that Spain has issued 14,255 of these DNVs over the past couple of years (27,875 including their family members) but this doesn't include the many thousands of EU digital nomads who have also moved to Spain since remote working became a mainstay after the Covid-19 pandemic. According to ABC, some reports say there could be as many as 100,000 foreign digital nomads in the country.

According to Spain's National Institute of Statistics (INE) report, the average gross annual salary in the Valencian region is €25,632, which is €2,136 gross per month, much less than what foreign remote workers are earning.

While the rise in the number of digital nomads has no doubt contributed to this increase, it can’t wholly be to blame.

Housing costs have been skyrocketing across Spain due to a combination of inflation, speculation and the rise in the number of tourist apartments, among other factors.