It's genuinely a very nice place to live. Spent a year out there, and have no complaints. Felt my QoL was amazing. I was outside all the time, doing shit, and being incredibly social and involved.
Was trying hard to think of a complaint, but.... ha, nothing. I guess I was truly happy at that point of life. Bravo Spain! :)
If you don't have to live on local salary or employment, sure it's like being forever on vacation. Try living on local salary.
It's a paradise for geo-arbitrager and retirees with higher pension. In recent times with all the hype that it has created among North Americans, it's only getting that much more expensive and unaffordable for locals.
I started my career in Spain and saw it going nowhere. So left for northern Europe as fast as I can. That's what lot of native young population does.
Can anyone speak to the quality of the apartments built too? I imagine a large part of affluent families choosing to continue to live in apartments is because their quality of living doesn't decrease. Whereas I feel the median apartment in the US has issues with noise between walls/windows, low quality flooring/cabinetry, and depending on the area you may not even get the benefits of mixed used zoning.
Depends where you live and what you buy. Older buildings are pretty noisy, and Spaniards in general are loud and less noise-aware than elsewhere.
I live on the canary islands in a new building - modern dry walling has made leaps in sound isolation even though we do no thermal insulation here. Cant complain.
As the article noted, the fact that Madrid has continuously expanded the metro system has led to lower costs for construction since they have maintained the muscle needed for efficient construction.
It's genuinely a very nice place to live. Spent a year out there, and have no complaints. Felt my QoL was amazing. I was outside all the time, doing shit, and being incredibly social and involved.
Was trying hard to think of a complaint, but.... ha, nothing. I guess I was truly happy at that point of life. Bravo Spain! :)
If you don't have to live on local salary or employment, sure it's like being forever on vacation. Try living on local salary.
It's a paradise for geo-arbitrager and retirees with higher pension. In recent times with all the hype that it has created among North Americans, it's only getting that much more expensive and unaffordable for locals.
I started my career in Spain and saw it going nowhere. So left for northern Europe as fast as I can. That's what lot of native young population does.
Why did you leave?
Can anyone speak to the quality of the apartments built too? I imagine a large part of affluent families choosing to continue to live in apartments is because their quality of living doesn't decrease. Whereas I feel the median apartment in the US has issues with noise between walls/windows, low quality flooring/cabinetry, and depending on the area you may not even get the benefits of mixed used zoning.
Depends where you live and what you buy. Older buildings are pretty noisy, and Spaniards in general are loud and less noise-aware than elsewhere.
I live on the canary islands in a new building - modern dry walling has made leaps in sound isolation even though we do no thermal insulation here. Cant complain.
As the article noted, the fact that Madrid has continuously expanded the metro system has led to lower costs for construction since they have maintained the muscle needed for efficient construction.