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by jsdwarf 476 days ago
IMHO the crisis is fueled by the fact that more people want to enjoy the beauty of barcelona short-term (tourists) AND long term (digital nomads moving and working from there). Short term stayers "pay" with increasing hotel&airbnb prices, long-term stayers with low salaries. According to Glassdoor, a software engineer in Barcelona has a 30-40% lower salary than the same position in e.g. Vienna or Berlin. And believe me, hiring in Barcelona is easy.
2 comments

Finding good talent is hard. Spain is filled with low grade coders. A bit unrespectful, but I have experienced it already for many many years. And not only tech. Also sales etc. Quality output is hard to find there.
> Spain is filled with low grade coders.

Are you hiring junior or lower-budget developers? That might explain your experience. I've worked with great engineers in Spain, but of course, like anywhere, quality varies.

The way I see it, the biggest factor that is amplifying the crisis is that the investors (mostly American companies and individuals) and nomads (Apparently 50% of them American or something), have much more usable cash compared to Europeans due to the bloated investment tools and high cost of living in the US. As a result, they buy the housing under the house of Europeans in multiples, swiftly gentrifying neighborhoods with short-term rentals or just parking cash on housing to make a quick buck.