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Politics are making it more complicated. Many countries are taking a less friendly stance on foreigners occupying valuable real estate and pushing prices higher

Politics are making it more complicated. Many countries are taking a less friendly stance on foreigners occupying valuable real estate and pushing prices higher without assimilating the culture. Like anything, the real answer is, “it depends”.

exasperaited 1y ago
And so they should. It looks like a fun trend until you realise how little digital nomads give back and how much they take.
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago
  It doesn't matter what they contribute to the government and local communities, the digital nomad visa wasn't built with that in mind. Digital nomads make landlords and property owners richer so there's a high chance the system will be allowed indefinitely since a lot of Croatians are property owners so they directly or indirectly benefit from this gentrification. The system will only be challenged in politics once enough young Croatian voters find themselves priced out of their own cities like in Barcelona or Lisbon.
  - willvarfar 1y ago
    The local economy also gains from the small but continuous spend on restaurants and cafes etc, and the spend is encouraged to be year-round and not just in peak holiday season.
    - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
      >The local economy also gains from the small but continuous spend on restaurants and cafes etc Speaking as someone living in Austria ATM, that's the worst kind of industry you want to boost if you want more money in the community, as it only creates dead-end low wage unskilled jobs(often taken by seasonal immigrants who send that money home) and is rife with cash-driven tax evasion, leading to more wealth and income disparity. If you get more and richer tourists, you won't get better paid baristas or waiters with better pension plans, but wealthier business owners who will buy more properties and flashy cars while still hiring the cheapest most desperate labor possible from abroad. As a government, you should do the opposite, focus on attracting or creating highly skilled innovation jobs (like NL or Sweden did) and the hospitality jobs will follow naturally. There's a reason countries where the tourism industry is a big part of the GDP, are low income countries.
      - Grimburger 1y ago
        > There's a reason countries where the tourism industry is a big part of the GDP, are low income countries. Unreal that you can't see the obvious logical flaw in this argument.
        FirmwareBurner 1y ago
        As opposed to your bad faith comment that argues nothing and just breaks HN rules?
  - mschuster91 1y ago
    > The system will only be challenged in politics once enough young Croatian voters find themselves priced out of their own cities like in Barcelona or Lisbon. Outside of the direct coastal areas that already struggle with this issue from tourism, the brain drain that followed the 90s Independence War still left a sizable amount of empty real estate just sitting around. And even in the direct coastal areas... a place to live is cheap. In doubt, just buy it, usually young people pool together some cash from relatives and some from bank loans to get started. Or they build it piece by piece, floor by floor, just like my grandparents did. Work a few years in a good job abroad, return to the homeland, build a house.
    - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
      >In doubt, just buy it With what money? Doesn't matter, just buy it bro! >young people pool together some cash from relatives Where's my cash from my relatives? Guess I should have picked better parents. >Or they build it piece by piece, floor by floor, just like my grandparents did. Yes I'm sure building a house today is like in the 1950s. Same rules and regulations. I buy a small piece of land in the city and can just start laying bricks after work and then live in them.
      - mschuster91 1y ago
        > With what money? Doesn't matter, just buy it bro! Work in Germany, set aside money, go back to Croatia. Land and construction costs are really cheap compared to Germany. It's a common thing in Croatia. > Yes I'm sure building a house today is like in the 1950s. Same rules and regulations. I buy a small piece of land in the city and can just start laying bricks after work and then live in them You still can do that today and extend an existing structure after the initial permit/inspection. All you need is the lower stories be solid enough statically, and you can't use that to get around zoning limitation on building height/story count. And yes, you can even do that in the motherhood of bureaucracy that's colloquially called Germany.
        FirmwareBurner 1y ago
Grimburger 1y ago
This is a ridiculous claim probably very biased by a local worldview given that the number of DN visas has exploded in the last 2 years. I've been working remote for 8 years now and it's never been easier and the amount of options worldwide is unreal.
- mattmanser 1y ago
  I don't think it's ridiculous, you might even argue we're at "peak" digital nomad. There's definitely pushback building, here's an example from recently: ‘There’s an arrogance to the way they move around the city’: is it time for digital nomads like me to leave Lisbon? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/27/lisbon-portugal-digital-nomads-foreign-remote-workers-integration https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/27/lisbon-portuga... I know the guardian can be very hand wringy, but digital nomads are going to get swept up in the general anti-migration narrative that most populaces are now feeling. Anti-mass-migration in most populations, anti-tourist in Venice, anti-nomad in Portugal. Locals are feeling betrayed by their politicians and foreigners are an easy target to point at and say "why is this happening". The Lisbon example is especially egregious, with the digital nomads being taxed less than locals. Locals are subsidizing their lifestyles.
  - Grimburger 1y ago
    > but digital nomads are going to get swept up in the general anti-migration narrative that most populaces are now feeling Can you name one digital nomad visa that has been scrapped in the last year or two? I can name a few dozen that have been implemented. When I started in 2017 there was maybe 3 or 4 places you could move on Earth with a six figure USD salary as a remote worker, it was always a grey zone to go places on tourist visas but that's how people rolled and countries knew how good a deal it was for them compared to raising/educating/supporting locals so let it slide. There's over 70 legal valid options now for remote workers in 2025. The easily proven evidence doesn't stack up with the narrative people and newspapers likes the Guardian are trying to push for clicks. I personally couldn't care less if locals don't like me. My own countrymen are jealous about me having a good paying remote job too.
  - 1y ago

exasperaited 1y ago

And so they should. It looks like a fun trend until you realise how little digital nomads give back and how much they take.

FirmwareBurner 1y ago
It doesn't matter what they contribute to the government and local communities, the digital nomad visa wasn't built with that in mind. Digital nomads make landlords and property owners richer so there's a high chance the system will be allowed indefinitely since a lot of Croatians are property owners so they directly or indirectly benefit from this gentrification. The system will only be challenged in politics once enough young Croatian voters find themselves priced out of their own cities like in Barcelona or Lisbon.
- willvarfar 1y ago
  The local economy also gains from the small but continuous spend on restaurants and cafes etc, and the spend is encouraged to be year-round and not just in peak holiday season.
  - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
    >The local economy also gains from the small but continuous spend on restaurants and cafes etc Speaking as someone living in Austria ATM, that's the worst kind of industry you want to boost if you want more money in the community, as it only creates dead-end low wage unskilled jobs(often taken by seasonal immigrants who send that money home) and is rife with cash-driven tax evasion, leading to more wealth and income disparity. If you get more and richer tourists, you won't get better paid baristas or waiters with better pension plans, but wealthier business owners who will buy more properties and flashy cars while still hiring the cheapest most desperate labor possible from abroad. As a government, you should do the opposite, focus on attracting or creating highly skilled innovation jobs (like NL or Sweden did) and the hospitality jobs will follow naturally. There's a reason countries where the tourism industry is a big part of the GDP, are low income countries.
    - Grimburger 1y ago
      > There's a reason countries where the tourism industry is a big part of the GDP, are low income countries. Unreal that you can't see the obvious logical flaw in this argument.
      - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
        As opposed to your bad faith comment that argues nothing and just breaks HN rules?
- mschuster91 1y ago
  > The system will only be challenged in politics once enough young Croatian voters find themselves priced out of their own cities like in Barcelona or Lisbon. Outside of the direct coastal areas that already struggle with this issue from tourism, the brain drain that followed the 90s Independence War still left a sizable amount of empty real estate just sitting around. And even in the direct coastal areas... a place to live is cheap. In doubt, just buy it, usually young people pool together some cash from relatives and some from bank loans to get started. Or they build it piece by piece, floor by floor, just like my grandparents did. Work a few years in a good job abroad, return to the homeland, build a house.
  - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
    >In doubt, just buy it With what money? Doesn't matter, just buy it bro! >young people pool together some cash from relatives Where's my cash from my relatives? Guess I should have picked better parents. >Or they build it piece by piece, floor by floor, just like my grandparents did. Yes I'm sure building a house today is like in the 1950s. Same rules and regulations. I buy a small piece of land in the city and can just start laying bricks after work and then live in them.
    - mschuster91 1y ago
      > With what money? Doesn't matter, just buy it bro! Work in Germany, set aside money, go back to Croatia. Land and construction costs are really cheap compared to Germany. It's a common thing in Croatia. > Yes I'm sure building a house today is like in the 1950s. Same rules and regulations. I buy a small piece of land in the city and can just start laying bricks after work and then live in them You still can do that today and extend an existing structure after the initial permit/inspection. All you need is the lower stories be solid enough statically, and you can't use that to get around zoning limitation on building height/story count. And yes, you can even do that in the motherhood of bureaucracy that's colloquially called Germany.
      - FirmwareBurner 1y ago

Grimburger 1y ago

This is a ridiculous claim probably very biased by a local worldview given that the number of DN visas has exploded in the last 2 years. I've been working remote for 8 years now and it's never been easier and the amount of options worldwide is unreal.

mattmanser 1y ago
I don't think it's ridiculous, you might even argue we're at "peak" digital nomad. There's definitely pushback building, here's an example from recently: ‘There’s an arrogance to the way they move around the city’: is it time for digital nomads like me to leave Lisbon? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/27/lisbon-portugal-digital-nomads-foreign-remote-workers-integration https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/27/lisbon-portuga... I know the guardian can be very hand wringy, but digital nomads are going to get swept up in the general anti-migration narrative that most populaces are now feeling. Anti-mass-migration in most populations, anti-tourist in Venice, anti-nomad in Portugal. Locals are feeling betrayed by their politicians and foreigners are an easy target to point at and say "why is this happening". The Lisbon example is especially egregious, with the digital nomads being taxed less than locals. Locals are subsidizing their lifestyles.
- Grimburger 1y ago
  > but digital nomads are going to get swept up in the general anti-migration narrative that most populaces are now feeling Can you name one digital nomad visa that has been scrapped in the last year or two? I can name a few dozen that have been implemented. When I started in 2017 there was maybe 3 or 4 places you could move on Earth with a six figure USD salary as a remote worker, it was always a grey zone to go places on tourist visas but that's how people rolled and countries knew how good a deal it was for them compared to raising/educating/supporting locals so let it slide. There's over 70 legal valid options now for remote workers in 2025. The easily proven evidence doesn't stack up with the narrative people and newspapers likes the Guardian are trying to push for clicks. I personally couldn't care less if locals don't like me. My own countrymen are jealous about me having a good paying remote job too.
- 1y ago