Galicia works for remote workers — but only if we don’t break it
Why north-west Spain is attracting remote workers, and why how you arrive matters as much as why
Yesterday, I was scrolling through Instagram when I came across this post from El País Opinión: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUYIwY4gPbr/
The headline was blunt: “Los ‘expats’ desembarcan en las ciudades españolas.” The caption paired two figures that, placed side by side, explain much of the tension currently surfacing across Spain. More than 1.5 million people born in other EU countries now live in Spain, it noted. And the average Spanish salary is roughly €6,000 lower than the European Union average.
You don’t need to agree with the framing — or even the word “expats” — to recognize what those numbers point to. Independent Eurostat comparisons confirm the substance of the claim: Spain’s average gross annual salary sits materially below the EU mean, by approximately €5,500–€6,000 per year depending on the dataset and year. That gap is not abstract. It translates directly into differences in purchasing power when people arrive with externally anchored incomes and enter local markets shaped by much lower wages.
That dynamic matters everywhere. But it takes on particular texture in places like Galicia.
Understanding Galicia's complex reality
Galicia is often described as “cheaper,” “less saturated,” or “still under the radar,” but those labels flatten a much more complex reality. The region is home to roughly 2.7 million people — about 5.5 percent of Spain’s population — and produces approximately €81.6 billion in GDP. It is also one of the oldest regions in the country demographically: more than 26 percent of residents are over 65. This is not a blank slate or a boomtown. It is a society with deep local roots, modest wages, and ways of absorbing economic pressure that do not show up neatly in market statistics.
Yes, Galician wages are low. Average gross annual salaries hover around €24,000, and rental and purchase prices have jumped sharply in recent years. But there is another side to this picture that rarely appears in remote-work discourse and is worth naming without judgment.
The hidden economics of Galician life
Much of everyday economic stability in Galicia has historically rested on intergenerational ownership. Many older residents own several assets acquired decades ago: houses, apartments, small plots of land. Among long-established families, renting is often the exception rather than the norm. Housing is inherited, shared, or built on family land. That reality takes enormous pressure off households living on modest wages and changes how rising prices are experienced. Those most exposed to the rental market tend to be younger people, newcomers, returnees, and families without inherited property.
Intergenerational support further reshapes the picture. Older family members often contribute pensions — pensions that younger generations are unlikely to receive at the same level — as well as unpaid labour that underpins daily life: childcare, cooking, elder care, and shared household management. Multi-generational living, or at least close proximity, remains common. Even when people consciously choose not to live that way, its existence helps explain how lower wages remain livable for many households.
Vacancy, tourism, and housing pressure
Vacancy adds another layer. According to data referenced by the Observatorio da Vivenda de Galicia, Vigo alone accumulates around 22,000 dwellings classified as vacant by the National Statistics Institute. This is not a new phenomenon tied to recent international arrivals. In coastal areas such as O Morrazo, large numbers of homes have sat empty for decades — owned by families from Vigo or other parts of Spain and used only for a few weeks each summer. Economically, it makes little sense. Socially, it leaves villages hollowed out most of the year. But it predates Galicia becoming “trendy” and reflects long-standing patterns of second-home ownership rather than a sudden influx of foreign residents.
At the same time, short-term tourist apartments — particularly unregistered ones — do intensify pressure by actively removing housing from year-round use. Both realities coexist: long-standing seasonal vacancy and newer, more extractive short-term rental dynamics. Treating the issue as if it had a single cause obscures the structure of the problem and risks turning a complex housing ecosystem into a simplistic blame narrative.
Where newcomers can strengthen communities
There is also a quieter counter-current that rarely gets mentioned. Galicia does not have a large, self-contained “expat bubble.” In many areas, schools actively seek new students because there simply are not enough children. For families arriving with kids, local public schools are often not just available but welcoming — provided there is genuine respect for language, culture, and integration rather than an expectation of parallel systems. In that sense, newcomers can strengthen local institutions when they engage fully rather than remain socially separate.
All of this complicates the story suggested by a single social-media headline. External demand and wage differentials matter. Rental prices have risen faster than incomes, and that pressure is real. But Galicia’s housing landscape is shaped just as much by inherited property, intergenerational support, seasonal vacancy, and demographic decline as it is by recent arrivals with laptops.
How to be mindful of the market
Being mindful of the market in Galicia, then, is not about assigning blame. It is about understanding where pressure actually falls and how individual choices interact with long-standing structures:
Long-term rentals matter when you are staying long-term
Avoiding aggressive overbidding helps prevent rents from drifting even further from local wages
Flexibility about neighbourhood choice reduces pressure on already saturated zones
Spending locally, year-round, supports the networks that make lower-wage living viable in the first place
Above all, there is a difference between integrating into a place and consuming it. Galicia is not a lifestyle product. Its apparent affordability has long been underwritten by family networks, shared resources, and forms of care that do not show up in market comparisons.
Rooting, not scaling
In a recent interview on Radio Galega, I spoke about entrepreneurship in Galicia as rooting rather than scaling — building professional lives that strengthen, rather than hollow out, the places they depend on. The same principle applies to remote work. The question is not whether people should come. It is how they arrive, how they stay, and whether they are willing to understand the systems that already make life here possible.
Galicia still offers something many remote-work destinations have lost: balance. Real life alongside professional possibility. Community that is not performative. Infrastructure that supports work without dictating how life must be lived. That balance is not guaranteed. It is maintained — or it is broken.
So yes: come to Galicia. Work from Galicia. Build a life here if it fits. Just don’t treat it as a market that can absorb unlimited demand without consequence. Because when the host community thrives, remote workers thrive too.
Bibliography / Sources
Primary reference (contextual trigger)
El País Opinión. “Los ‘expats’ desembarcan en las ciudades españolas.” Instagram reel.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUYIwY4gPbr/ (Used as the narrative starting point of the article; figures independently corroborated below.)
European salary and mobility data
Eurostat. Earnings structure statistics; mean and median income by country.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (Basis for the €5,500–€6,000 annual wage gap between Spain and the EU average.)Euronews. European salary rankings and comparative wage analysis.
https://www.euronews.com/business (Secondary synthesis of Eurostat data.)
Spain and Galicia socio-economic context
CaixaBank Research. Autonomous Community Profile: Galicia.
https://www.caixabankresearch.com/en/publications/autonomous-community-profiles/galicia(Population size, GDP, economic structure.)Instituto Galego de Estatística (IGE). Population ageing and demographic indicators.
https://www.ige.gal (Percentage of population over 65; demographic pressure.)
Connectivity and infrastructure
Xunta de Galicia – OSIMGA. Más del 91 % de los hogares rurales de Galicia tienen contratados servicios de Internet.
https://www.xunta.gal/es/notas-de-prensa/-/nova/020110/mas-del-91-los-hogares-rurales-galicia-tienen-contratados-servicios-internet
(Rural broadband penetration.)
Housing market, vacancy, and structural supply issues
Observatorio da Vivenda de Galicia. Evolución do prezo do alugueiro en Galicia.
https://www.observatoriodavivenda.gal. (Rental price growth relative to wage growth.)Observatorio da Vivenda de Galicia (citing INE). Vigo acumula 22.000 viviendas consideradas como vacías.
https://www.observatoriodavivenda.gal/es/actualidade/vigo-acumula-22000-viviendas-consideradas-como-vacias-por-el-instituto-nacional-de
(Vacant housing stock; long-standing second-home patterns.)Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE). Censo de viviendas y viviendas vacías.
https://www.ine.es (Primary source for vacancy classification.)
Short-term rental regulation — current framework (2025–2026)
European Union. Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on short-term accommodation rental services — data collection and sharing.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu
(EU-wide framework requiring registration, data sharing, and oversight of short-term rentals.)Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE). Real Decreto 1312/2024 — Registro Único de Arrendamientos de Corta Duración.
https://www.boe.es (Establishes the mandatory national registry and the Ventanilla Única Digital; effective January 2025, mandatory for listings from July 2025.)Cinco Días (El País). Nuevo registro obligatorio único de arrendamientos de corta duración.
https://cincodias.elpais.com (Explains implementation timeline, scope, and enforcement.)Ministerio de Vivienda y Agenda Urbana (MIVAU). Retirada de anuncios sin número de registro oficial.
https://www.mivau.gob.es (Removal of tens of thousands of unregistered listings; enforcement escalation in 2025–2026.)Xunta de Galicia. Decreto 12/2017 sobre viviendas de uso turístico.
https://www.xunta.gal/dog (Regional regulatory framework still in force alongside national registry.)
Contributor
Ángela-Jo Touza-Medina, M.A., LL.M., is a global nonprofit and social impact consultant, workforce strategy and DEIB advocate, as well as a recognised immigrant integration facilitator. She is the author of A Single Mother by Choice: A Journal for Solo Moms and founder of LiveGalicia, a platform supporting digital nomads, foreign residents, and returning Galicians as they build lives rooted in community and belonging. With over twenty years of experience guiding organisations and community-driven initiatives, her work sits at the intersection of equity, migration, and organisational resilience.