Mexico City looks to big cities in Europe and the US for strategies to control rise in digital nomads

Mexico City's mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, asked her team to consult with major cities in the US or Europe to find ways to control the surge of Airbnb. Diana Alarcon Gonzalez, in charge of international coordination and advisors, told El País that the city has spoken with Barcelona and New York.

Alarcón told the local newspaper that the city is searching for enforceable policies by learning from the successes and mistakes of those cities, using examples like the limited permits that Barcelona requests for Airbnb hosts.

Mexico has long been one of the favorite destinations for American tourists, but now Mexico City has become a hotspot for digital nomads. Data shows a shift in the choices of foreigners: most prefer rentals over hotels.

Between 2019 and 2022, the demand for short-term rentals increased by 44%, according to a study by market research company AirDNA, collected by NBC. The number of foreigners landing at its International Airport stayed the same between 2019 and 2022.

Nomad List, a popular website for digital nomads, rated Mexico City as the fifth fastest-growing remote work hub. According to Euro News, the subscribers who check in from Mexico City to Nomad List grew 125% in 2021.

Tourists, including digital nomads, are a great source of income for Mexico City. According to the LA Times, during the first fourth months of 2022, visitors spent more than 800 million dollars on hotels alone. That is one of the reasons Governments build programs to attract remote workers: they are a stable source of tourist money.

Aware of the benefits, Mexico automatically gives citizens from around 70 countries tourist visas that extend up to six months. To renew the permit, foreigners only have to leave and re-enter the country. That policy makes remote working from the country easy for Americans and Europeans.

Mexico City's mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, signed an agreement with Airbnb in 2022 to boost the number of digital nomads. Sheinbaum said that she is not worried about rising prices in the city because remote workers choose to stay in expensive neighborhoods.

But neighbors were not so convinced. According to El País, experts and neighborhood associations interpreted the deal as Sheinbaum delivering the city to the platform without any regulation.

Three months after signing the deal, Sheinbaum told Bloomberg that the city was considering regulating Airbnb to avoid a negative effect in some neighborhoods especially attractive to visitors and digital nomads.

However, according to Alarcon Gonzalez, the city has not experienced profound price changes on a large scale. The city official compared Mexico's case with Barcelona or Lisbon, with a higher percentage of digital nomads and a smaller population.

When confronted by El País about the complaints of neighbors and experts about displacement in some parts of the city, Alarcon Gonzalez argued those were isolated cases. The official claims that the big-picture changes in neighborhood demographics have been minimal.

One example of those displacements happened last year. Euro News reported how a landlord evicted a local family from the sandwich business they had run for 54 years in the Roma district. Noemí Ortíz, the owner, told Mexico News Daily: "We can't go and set up in Roma again; we cannot afford to rent anywhere there."

Image: Daniel Lerman / Unsplash

Displacements are just one concern for locals. McGill University professor David Wachsmuth explained to NBC that digital nomads stay in neighborhoods and spend in local businesses, but they have different needs than permanent residents. "Grocery stores turn into restaurants," Wachsmuth told NBC.

Image: Katie Chen / Unsplash

Changing neighborhoods is one of the reasons that not all locals welcome digital nomads. Many 'chilangos' (as locals are known) are worried that Condesa and Roma, the favorite districts for remote workers, are turning into ex-pat enclaves. Restaurants have their menus in English, and neighbors complain of a surge in nightlife.

One of the main incentives drawing Americans to Mexico is the financial benefit. According to the LA Times, the average salary for Mexico City's workers is around $450 a month. The disparity allows digital nomads to afford a lifestyle that would be impossible in cities like Los Angeles or New York.