Nestpick encounter millions of users on our accommodation platform seeking a change of location that better matches ...
Nestpick encounter millions of users on our accommodation platform seeking a change of location that better matches their work and lifestyle needs. Even before the pandemic, advances in technology and digital connectivity prompted many companies to adopt a work-from-anywhere policy, allowing employees to choose a living/working arrangement that suits them best.
The pandemic has accelerated this trend rapidly over the last 12 months, however, very few countries have enacted legislation designed to attract foreign-employed workers. Instead, they only offer visas to those who take jobs on location, therefore missing the opportunity to bring high-wage earners to their cities without the need to generate new jobs. To find out more about this phenomenon, they decided to investigate which cities are not only the most attractive and welcoming to foreigners, but also have the infrastructure and legislation in place to make it easy for remote employees to live and work there.
“The last year has really proved to many companies that remote-working is not only a possibility, but actually something that can be beneficial to everyone involved. The technology has been available for a while now, but it’s taken seeing it in practice for the idea to really take hold,” comments Omer Kucukdere, Founder and CEO at Nestpick.
Nestpik began the study by selecting a list of 75 major global cities often cited as ‘most livable destinations. They then analyzed these cities according to three broad categories – Costs & Infrastructure, Legislation & Freedoms, Livability – that combined make them a good place to both relocate and work remotely from.
For the first category, they looked into the basic costs and set-up requirements needed to work comfortably with minimal extra expense, such as the price and availability of adequate home office space and the speed and capacity of the internet in each location.
For the second category, they appraised the ease to which a foreigner was able to work remotely in each location, investigating whether countries offered a special visa for these employees, as well as specific remote-working infrastructure such as tax deductions and regulation. Being able to live safely and freely is often a deciding factor for potential migrants, so we analyzed the extent of basic human rights and freedoms in each location, as well as the levels of safety and support for gender equality and inclusivity of minorities and the LGBT+ community.
After evaluating these structural and legislative elements, they turned our attention to the factors which make a city a great place to live, such as access to culture and leisure events both before and during the pandemic, as well as the general weather and levels of air, noise and light pollution.
Finally, since the Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact the livability of many metropolises, they took note of the percentage of the populations that are fully vaccinated in each location, as well as those that had low infection rates.
The resulting ranking offers an overview of the best cities worldwide for those seeking the perfect home base from which to live and work remotely from, as well as those with the potential to attract this new breed of workers in the future.
If you want to see the global ranking and the methodology click here
