What the Expat Influx Did to Lisbon (And What It Could Not Touch)

Between 2015 and 2025, Lisbon’s population of foreign residents roughly doubled. The NHR tax regime, remote work, the weather, the relative affordability that has since disappeared — all of these drew people. The city absorbed this and was changed by it in ways that are still ongoing.

I am Portuguese, born here, and I find myself with genuinely mixed feelings. The arrivals brought money that restored buildings that were crumbling, opened restaurants that are genuinely good, and created cultural energy the city lacked. They also drove rents to levels that made the city unlivable for large numbers of people who were already here. Both are true. Neither cancels the other.

What could not be changed: the light. The specific Atlantic quality of afternoon light in Lisbon operates on everyone equally regardless of how long they have been here. Ingrid, the Austrian writer who lives in my neighbourhood, mentioned it to me once in a way that showed she had felt it too. You arrive with a different city in your head and the light reorganises your expectations within a week.

The tiles also could not be changed. The azulejos on the walls of the older buildings are not decorative in the tourist-poster sense. They are insulation, weather protection, a centuries-old local technology. They will outlast every wave of arrivals. The city that made them is still here underneath the one being sold online.

The Museu Nacional do Azulejo (museudoazulejo.pt — Rua Me do Deus 4, Beato) is the place to understand this properly. Worth half a day. The building itself — a former convent — is as interesting as the collection.