Nearly all of the partitions in Medellin, Colombia’s Provenza get together district, have been coated with the posters: “I’ll commerce an Airbnb for a neighbor and a house.” “Medellín will not be on the market — cease gentrification.” “Digital nomads, short-term colonizers.”
Ana Maria Valle Villegas, a resident who lives in one of many neighborhoods most affected by the massive inflow of digital nomads, was the one doing the flyposting. She spent a Friday afternoon in April placing up the posters all through the neighborhood, sparking a dialogue that ranged from offended native expats complaining concerning the posters’ resonance with the general public on the Medellin Expats Fb group, to Medellin Twitter, and even the opinion sections of regional newspapers.
“I dwell in a zone the place rents have been going up, and we’ve seen renters requested to maneuver out as a result of landlords wish to flip their properties into Airbnbs or allow them to to foreigners for an inflated worth,” she instructed VICE. “Mates, household and myself, we’ve all skilled it.”
In Mexico Metropolis, residents are additionally expressing dissatisfaction with exorbitant rental costs, significantly within the areas widespread amongst foreigners, sometimes called “gringos” – a time period beforehand related to People however now generally used to explain white foreigners (particularly those that put on flip-flops, sombreros, and make misguided makes an attempt at humor by to not converse Spanish).
The Mexican authorities launched a partnership with Airbnb and Unesco in late 2022 to market town as a “international hub” for distant employees. Gonzalo Vazquez de Icaza, a lawyer and content material producer who was born and raised in Mexico Metropolis, says this can be a method for the federal government to lift cash. “Cash is coming into the nation and it helps governments, particularly native governments, so there’s an financial profit. However there’s sure zones in Mexico Metropolis the place you possibly can see a rental disaster, the place individuals who had been renting for years have been pushed out by their landlords as a result of renting their property out to a foreigner is extra profitable.”
Within the final three years, rents in Mexico Metropolis have elevated by about 30%, however in hotspots for digital nomads like La Condesa, they’ve elevated by greater than 60%. However the impression goes past rents or the value of a espresso cup. Town has a special sound.
Puerto Rico is especially affected by this. Since 2012, when tax exemptions for non-Puerto Ricans have been authorized, the island has skilled gentrification. Locals declare that the inflow of digital nomads has solely exacerbated the state of affairs.
The northern coastal group of Rincón, now informally often called Grincón (a mix of gringo and rincón), is a chief instance of the digital nomad impact. Due to its repute as a browsing mecca, Rincón has been visited by gringos for years; but the digital nomads have solely exacerbated the gringo-fication of the city.
This phenomenon has not solely been on the rise in Central and South America but additionally throughout the globe. Locations comparable to Lisbon, Barcelona, Bali, and quite a few different main digital nomad hotspots are experiencing a outstanding surge following the shift in direction of distant work prompted by the pandemic.
