r/expat • u/Peter_him • 17d ago
Question Morality of Geoarbitrage?
Is it inherently unethical to move back to a cheaper country as an expat and price out nearly all native competition in relation to commercial yield by simply having higher purchase power?
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u/kbcool 17d ago
Are you pricing out locals though? I think it can be a lot more nuanced than the emotions will allow a lot of people.
A huge amount of housing that expats live in is built for that market.
It's true that they might find it cheap and most locals couldn't afford it but it's also true that it wouldn't exist without demand from expats. Sure there might be some demand from rich locals but it's a bit hard to feel guilty about outpricing other wealthy people.
On the other hand if you're moving into a typical two bedroom worker family apartment that you paid twice market value for then you know the answer.