With its flat whites at 3.50 euros, industrial decoration and an overwhelmingly international clientele, the Right Side Coffee Bar, “roasting and brewing since 2012”, seems transplanted from Brooklyn to the heart of the Gothic quarter of Barcelona. A blonde woman types on her computer. Next to her, a boy in a hipster hat reads poetry in Farsi. He is Iranian and arrived five years ago. A couple of designers, Romanians living in the city, chat at another table. A couple of Korean tourists enter, she wearing a bubblegum pink cap, he a black jacket.
The barista, from Rioja, surveys the panorama and summarizes: “Native? That lady is Catalan, from the neighborhood. And that other man. The rest, from outside. “A mix of tourists and foreigners who live here and are regular customers.”
This is ground zero of the new Barcelona expat. The part of the city that extends around the Palau de la Generalitat, in the alleys of the old Jewish quarter, constitutes the census section with the highest density of high-income immigrants. One in four residents was born in a country richer than Spain, according to calculations by La Vanguardia based on the 2021 INE census.
In all of Barcelona there are now at least 80,000, four times more than three decades ago. More than 83,000 if the latest data from the registry, from 2023, is taken as a reference.
They are the immigrants who find the doors open. Courted with tax advantages and tailored visas, they represent an injection of talent and money… and also gentrification. The proliferation of specialty coffee shops is one of the thermometers. Another, the increase in rent. Although proportionally there are not so many of them, their high purchasing power shapes and transforms the city, its urban geography, and the socioeconomic fabric.
Jule Schwalb, a 27-year-old German, sips a coffee at the Right Side bar. A mixologist, she moved a year ago “for the experience and for work”; Barcelona is “the world capital of cocktails,” she explains in English. She came for six months, but she’s still here. She shares a flat with two Lebanese women, an Italian and a Chinese woman. Although she earns a thousand euros less than in Frankfurt, there are reasons that impose themselves on her pocket. “I am growing professionally. And I love the atmosphere of the city. The food and drink. The weather. People are very open, very international,” says Jule. In her circle, she admits, there are hardly any natives. “One. “I have a friend from here.”
Barcelona, ??like Madrid – and to a lesser extent, other cities such as Valencia or Malaga – has become a pole of attraction for high-income immigrants.
What is an expat? Economist Judit Montoriol, researcher at CaixaBank Research, ventures a definition. “They are those who do not emigrate out of necessity, fleeing a difficult situation in their country, but by choice, in search of an experience. They arrive attracted by what Spain offers: quality of life, good climate, culture, gastronomy. Also important, I think especially about middle and upper class Latin Americans, are issues such as security or access to quality healthcare and education.”
The phenomenon goes beyond statistics. The census does not allow immigrants to be classified by income level, but it does collect the country of origin. Taking as a criterion the foreigners who were born in a country with a GDP higher than Spain, the Barcelona district with the highest concentration is Ciutat Vella, where in some blocks they represent up to 24.4% of the neighborhood.
Other hot areas are the Quadrat d’Or del Eixample, Gràcia, Poblenou, Poble Sec and Pedralbes, with outbreaks exceeding 10%.
If in 1991 there were 18,536 people born in richer countries; In 2021 there were 77,247. They have multiplied by four while the total population has fallen by 1%. In Madrid, they have gone from 31,018 to 68,137 in the same period; an increase of 120% compared to the total increase of 7%.
They are significant data, but incomplete. The rich – or well-off – from poorer countries are left out: a Russian millionaire who buys an apartment with views in Diagonal Mar, an Indian engineer hired by a 22@ technology company or the Venezuelan businessman who walks through the Salamanca neighborhood. The phenomenon is especially blurred in Madrid, which in recent years has attracted a large number of wealthy Latin Americans and is emerging as a small Miami.
In 2023, one in every two homes sold in Barcelona by the Engel real estate agency
They buy more expensive properties: in Barcelona, ??foreigners spent an average of 653,466 euros, compared to 612,120 euros for Engel’s Spanish clients. The difference is more noticeable in Madrid: there they paid 1,067,414 euros on average for 988,447 euros for nationals.
In Madrid, however, Engel has a lower proportion of foreign clientele than in Barcelona: 23%, seven points more than in 2021. Mexicans, Americans, Italians, Filipinos, French and Argentines lead the list.
The pressure is also felt on the rental market. The Amat Immobiliaris agency manages 2,500 apartments, mainly in upper-middle class areas. Their data depicts an expat tsunami: 40% of contracts in Barcelona were signed by foreigners in 2023, says general director Guifré Homedes. The pandemic marks the turning point. In 2019, they represented 15%.
It also skyrockets in the metropolitan area: in Sant Cugat and Sant Just the weight of foreigners has gone from 6% to 24%.
The most recurring profile is the young digital nomad, mostly European and with a large proportion of the French, says Homedes. “It’s clearly a problem,” he says. “In a market with so little supply, like in Barcelona, ??the establishment competes very poorly. Foreigners put upward pressure on prices, because they earn European salaries and can pay more. And also when an owner must choose between two tenants, he usually opts for the higher payroll.”
Pedro Sánchez has just announced that he will eliminate the golden visa, granted to foreigners who invest more than 500,000 euros in a property. Introduced in 2013 in the midst of the crisis, it has benefited some 10,000 non-EU citizens, with Chinese and Russians at the helm. It is a minimum percentage of the total sales (there were 583,000 in 2023 alone), but the president highlighted the impact it has on cities such as Barcelona, ??Madrid, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia or Palma. “These are cities that are facing a highly stressed housing market, where it is almost impossible to find decent housing for those who live and work and pay their taxes,” he said.
Experts are skeptical. “It is a market niche that is too small to move prices nationally,” says Judit Montoriol. “It is true that it affects certain neighborhoods a lot, but we have to see how much this factor weighs on others. It is difficult to quantify it and separate it from the fact that all of Barcelona itself, like other cities, is transforming and becoming very attractive both for this type of buyer and for many other people. It is part of a global phenomenon.”
Jordi Asensio, owner of the Can Culleres restaurant in Poblenou, experiences it “with a broken heart.” “On a personal level it feels bad for you. I have grown up in Poblenou and of my childhood friends, I am the only one who can live in the neighborhood. But on a business level, it benefits you,” admits the chef.
He estimates that 40% of his clientele are resident foreigners. The restaurant is largely staffed by expatriates who work in the 22@, with a salary that allows them to eat a la carte during the week. They are good clients. “They don’t look at what they spend. They drink more expensive bottles of wine, they ask for caviar off the menu or if they make a group menu they don’t stick with the basic one…”, explains Asensio. He estimates that they spend about 50-55 euros per head, compared to 30-35 for the national client. However, he emphasizes that he only has the menu in Catalan and Spanish and has not wanted to raise prices so as not to lose local clientele.
Olivier Ramadour, French consul in Barcelona, ??is convinced that the statistics fall short. His consulate has registered some 35,000 French residents in Catalonia, Aragon and the Balearic Islands, of which 20,000 in Barcelona. He estimates the real number to be triple; Registering at a legation is not a mandatory procedure in an EU without borders.
The pandemic marked a turning point and the French who arrive now are of a higher socioeconomic level, maintains the consul. An objective indicator is that in the last two or three years the demand for public aid processed by the consulate has fallen. Not only do fewer families request it, they also deny a higher percentage, because the applicants exceed the requirements in income and assets.
“I observe a certain disconnection with the place,” admits Ramadour. I often meet French people who live here and do not speak a word of Spanish, let alone Catalan. They live in a bubble. It’s an attitude that I don’t like, but it’s also true that they employ a lot of people.”
José de Ros founded Eres Relocation Services in 2007, which offers support services to companies in the international transfer of employees. “We have not stopped growing, even in the worst moments of the crisis,” he says. Among other things, he advises his clients on the tax advantages that they can benefit from as remote workers, entrepreneurs or highly qualified professionals with the recent expansion of the Startup law.
Local authorities also roll out the red carpet for them. In Barcelona, ??the City Council launched the International Welcome Desk two years ago, aimed at this same profile of newcomers.
Liza Nikolova and Alex Gumarov, Russians aged 38 and 36, feel that they have found a refuge in Barcelona to raise their daughter. Liza is a manager in a large multinational and in 2022, after a few years in Turkey, she requested a transfer to Western Europe. They chose Barcelona over Dublin, Paris or London.
They don’t regret it. “Let Alex tell you, he is the great ambassador of Barcelona,” laughs Liza. “We love the sun. The possibility of doing sports outdoors. How open-minded people are. How life comes before work. And tolerance with different ways of living, with sexual orientation. “It’s so different in Russia!” says Alex. “And equality,” adds Liza. In Istanbul or Moscow a worker would never go to the same cafeteria as someone like me. Here everything is mixed and that is something I love.”
The only thing that worries them is insecurity. They have not had any mishaps, but many friends have suffered robberies.
They admit that they deal mainly with Russians. But they take their daughter to a Catalan school. “Anna speaks Catalan and Spanish without an accent. She feels part of this society. “I think it’s a place to stay,” Liza says. And the way Russia is, it’s not like we have anywhere to go back to.”
