The ‘laptop’ class voted for the Democrats in the U.S. election, and celebrities have been threatening to move abroad in the event of a Trump victory. In theory, that means we could see an uptick in the number of affluent Americans moving to Spain.

Watching from afar the impression I get is that many Democrat voters despise Trump and the America he represents, with the feeling wholeheartedly reciprocated by the other side. College educated Americans, especially women, voted in large numbers for the Democrats, so I assume they are not happy about the prospect of living in Trump’s America for the next four years. Retirees also swung to the Democrats. These groups are some of the most mobile in the population. Some of them might now vote with their feet.

Many celebrities have certainly threatened to do just that, including Cher, Barbra Streisand, Sharon Stone, Whoopi Goldberg, Miley Cyrus, Bruce Springsteen, and Cardi B (never heard of her, but my daughter has). Robert De Niro is sitting on the fence. Richard Gere is already on his way to Madrid, though that might not have anything to do with politics (his wife is Spanish).

If more, affluent Americans moving abroad in the light of the election, Spain is bound to get some of that business. American buyers are already number one or two amongst non-residents investors in the Spanish regions of Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, Castile & Leon, La Rioja, and the Basque Country, up from almost nothing before the pandemic. However, the biggest markets for American demand are likely to be Malaga province (Costa del Sol), Barcelona, and Madrid, in that order, although official data is lacking for these specific areas.

Spain offers attractive schemes like the Digital Nomad Visa and the Beckham Law that help the ‘laptop class’ live in Spain for a good number of years on attractive fiscal terms, although the curtain is now coming down on the Golden Visa scheme, which will be wound up by next January. So just because you are a U.S. citizen that doesn’t mean you can’t easily move to Spain to sit out the Trump presidency, if that’s what you want to do.

All Americans moving to Spain will need somewhere to live, and some of them will end up buying a home in Spain. More than 1,300 did so in the first half of this year, and the estate agents I talk to say many of their American clients cite escaping the poisonous political climate at home as one of their motivations for moving to Spain.