This week, The Economist magazine analyzed the boom that Madrid is experiencing. One of its main conclusions is that the capital is going through a good time economically and in the brick sector, but this can take its toll on citizens because there is not much developable land and the price per square meter will continue to rise, despite being already at the forefront in Spain, along with other cities such as Barcelona or San Sebastián.
The weekly newspaper reviews that Madrid is having its moment of glory in terms of tourism, sports and society. “Tourists come in droves, but so do potential residents,” he notes. Among the citizens who are arriving in the capital, he highlights that they include “Americans fleeing toxic politics, northern Europeans looking for a big city where they can live comfortably, and, above all, Latin Americans.” In his opinion, “some come to work in construction, healthcare or hospitality. Others are rich Venezuelans and Mexicans fleeing confiscatory populism.
The foreign population has grown 20% since 2016, much of it Latin, making Madrid a growing rival to Miami as the capital of Latin America.” But the British magazine goes even further and assures that “the region of Madrid is richer than that of Rome and not much less rich than Berlin.”
Remember that this is an Autonomy governed by the PP and its tax policy of reducing taxes to attract citizens and investments, compared to the policies of the more continuous and less aggressive central government. Its president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, “the bellicose regional president” has launched a tax campaign to rival Pedro Sánchez.
However, remember that the central government has also contributed its bit to Madrid by maintaining a “golden visa”, which grants residence to those who invest 500,000 euros ($537,000), at the same time that it approved a “digital nomad” law. to attract knowledge workers.
According to José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid, the turning point came “with the pandemic”, when Ayuso clashed with Pedro Sánchez to keep businesses open. “Before, it was the best-kept secret. Now it is the place to be.” Almeida said, pronouncing that last phrase in English, in one of his last interventions.
The Economist emphasizes that Madrid has three museums, the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, which receive more than 7 million visitors a year. It also refers to the museum at the Bernabéu stadium, home of the Real Madrid football club, which attracts more than a million people a year. And remember that Madrid has just announced that starting in 2026 it will host a Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix race. In addition, “the number of musicals in the city has doubled to 14 or 15 since the pandemic.” And it also highlights that gastronomy “is becoming more and more sophisticated.”
The weight of Madrid in Spain, he assures, is also growing. “In 1980 the region represented 15% of Spanish GDP. In 2022, that figure was 19%, expanding even faster than the proportion of Madrid to the Spanish population.”
As a pole of attraction, “between the years 2018-22, Madrid attracted around 71% of foreign investment in Spain.”
To put a few buts, The Economist highlights that Spanish universities “are mediocre”, but business schools are at a very competitive level, with Madrid having “three campuses that occupy high positions in world rankings.”
The biggest problem facing Madrid is the lack of land to build new homes. The region, with 7 million people, is expected to add another million in the next decade. But the city lacks housing, which is why citizens live “in dormitory cities.”
Madrid is going to develop a new neighborhood, Madrid Nuevo Norte, near the Chamartín train station. Where there are currently five skyscrapers, but new ones are planned for 2050, creating a new business center. Around a third of the 10,500 flats to be built will have some type of public protection.
Rita Maestre, spokesperson for Más Madrid at Madrid City Council, worries that “the project could exacerbate the city’s divisions between a rich north and a much poorer south.”
“Can the city remain calm while changing so quickly?” the newspaper asks. Ian Gibson, an Irish Hispanist author who has lived in Madrid since the 1970s, says: “Madrid has never changed, it is always alive, fully.”
