The Portuguese can no longer afford to live in Portugal
5 years resident here (as a Brexit refugee).<p>Central city locations in Lisbon and Porto have exploded in price, but this is due to AirBnB rather than rich expats. Portugal&#x27;s tourism industry has boomed, which has put money in a lot of people&#x27;s pockets, but has distorted local economies somewhat. Better management is required, for example cracking down on AirBnB and NOT building that new cruise liner terminal.<p>Unfortunately the upper middle class idyll (alluded to in the article) of living a dilapidated (but in a cool way) apartment ten paces from your favourite coffee shop, while doing a socially respectable play job is now no more viable here than in SF, London or Berlin. Indeed, my own favourite &#x27;coffee shop&#x27; got turned into a chain tequila bar.<p>Outside the hot centres, things aren&#x27;t as bad. Public transport (at least in the AML - Lisbon Metropolitan Area) is excellent by any standard, and decent apartments are available for sensible prices well within one hour public transport commute of the downtown. Compare with London, where people are fighting over each rental.<p>&gt; family factor weighs a lot here<p>Yes, and this is a problem, given that Portugal only became democratic 48 years ago and has a large amount of cultural baggage from quite frankly medieval times. Also, the implication of this statement is that family doesn&#x27;t count elsewhere - and in case you missed it it was spelled out a few lines later, which should give you an idea of the residual naivety and insularity of (old) Portuguese culture. Agency - the idea that <i>you</i> can do or think something independently, and then take responsibility for it - is somewhat lacking too.<p>But! There is much that is very good about Portugal and the Portuguese people, I feel that here it is ok to be kind to each other. Furthermore, there are good changes, new opportunities are arising (perhaps in a very small part to some of the more productive visa holders), and I see a great future for Portugal - even if many Portuguese often don&#x27;t.