Rising cost of living, high taxes and poor air quality concern Barcelona's foreign residents, says study 

The high cost of living – including housing costs and low salaries – the tax burden, and poor air quality are three of the major concerns of foreign residents in Barcelona, according to the 6th edition of the International Talent Monitor by Barcelona Global published on Tuesday. 

On the other hand, the over 1,000 international respondents are most satisfied with the health system and cultural offering, ranking 4.9 and 5.9 out of 7, respectively, although both parameters have decreased slightly from 2019.   

The indicator "affordability of buying or renting a residence" in the city received the lowest score of 2.6 of 7 in the study. Additionally, 74.4% of the respondents answered that they "are not satisfied" with the competitiveness of salaries in Barcelona.

"They say it’s getting more and more expensive to buy a house or to rent a house, for example. Salaries are not increasing. They stay the same, and the tax burden is still big. So, these are the two main problems," Fanny Magini, International Talent Monitor director at Barcelona Global, told Catalan News.

Three of the ten bottom indicators in the study are related to dissatisfaction with the tax system: wealth tax, corporate tax, as well as the income taxes all rank between 3.5 and 3.7 out of seven.

The concern about air quality in the city was incorporated into the study for the first time this year and received a score of only 3.5 of 7 from the respondents.

On the other hand, the overall perception of Barcelona as an attractive, global, and cosmopolitan city for international talent has remained largely positive since 2019. In particular, the study shows, that "the satisfaction of attracting international talent" has increased from 4.9 in 2019 to 5.2 in 2023.

The international residents partaking in the study, having lived in Barcelona for a minimum of two years, responded that they are most satisfied with the public and private health systems, public transport services, as well as the city's cultural offering, ranking 5.4, 5.9 and 5.7, respectively.

"The health system is something that is really positive for the international [community] living here. And the education, too. Barcelona has a very, very good education system. We’re talking about the public system, but also international private schools, [public-private] schools. Only one thing about international schools, though, is that they are really, really expensive," Magini added.

Barcelona Global has proposed six action points to tackle the biggest challenges presented in the latest study, that aside from the aforementioned points also include simplifying and digitalizing administrative procedures like getting a NIE, and pushing for more affordable international schools, although a specific date has yet to be set.   

The 2023 International Talent Monitor was published on Tuesday by Barcelona Global, a private company promoting the Catalan capital among businesses and entrepreneurs.