Cheaper to rent in Barcelona and commute to London (2013)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Original Premise & Intent

  • Many note the article is from 2013 and meant as a thought experiment to highlight extreme rent disparities and cheap flights, not a serious lifestyle proposal.
  • Several commenters are surprised others are treating a 9–14 hour daily commute as if it were genuinely viable.

Time, Practicality & Quality of Life

  • Daily commuting by plane is widely seen as impractical: long door‑to‑door times, airport hassle, flight delays, and inability to work comfortably on budget airlines.
  • Some argue commute time should be valued at one’s hourly wage, making remote or nearby living more rational. Others note salaried workers can’t always convert saved time into extra income.
  • A common framing: housing/commute is a triangle of cost, comfort, and time – you can optimize at most two.

Rents, Flights & 2013 vs Now

  • Multiple commenters say the numbers in the article no longer hold:
    • Barcelona rents are reported to have roughly doubled in many cases; 3‑bed flats cited around €1,500–2,000+ vs €680 then.
    • Flights Barcelona–London are said to be roughly twice as expensive as in 2013.
    • London rents in the specific area referenced seem relatively flat by comparison.
  • Some add that Brexit and longer passport queues further erode feasibility of frequent commuting.

Housing Market Dynamics

  • Discussion attributes housing cost inflation to a mix of factors: low interest rates, strict zoning, property-as-investment, Airbnb, NIMBYism, concentration in prosperous cities, and limited supply.
  • Barcelona and other “cheap and sunny” cities are said to have been “wrecked” by tourism, Airbnb, digital nomads, and foreign buyers, while local salaries stagnate.
  • Others push back that “digital nomads” are over-blamed relative to retirees and broader capitalist dynamics; building more (often vertically) is proposed as a partial remedy.

Remote Work & Alternative Patterns

  • Weekly or partial commuting (e.g., 1–3 days in London, rest remote from a cheaper city) is described as more plausible and already practiced (e.g., Iberian islands, UK–Spain, cross-border EU cases).
  • Normalization of remote work post‑2020 makes such hybrid setups more realistic than daily air commuting, though still constrained by costs and local housing pressures.