Gentrification in Puerto Rico

The Impact on Displacement and Local Livelihoods

“Puerto Rico for Puerto Ricans” written on a banner at a protest against gentrification in San Juan. Photo credit: Adriana De Jesús Salamán / Twitter

Walking through the cobbled streets of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, I admired the colonial architecture, the ocean’s faint smell and the smell of alcapurrias, bacalaítos, and various other fried foods. I smiled at the familiar feeling of returning home. In the seven long years since I last visited the island, everything had changed.

I couldn’t help but notice that the streets of every major city were overwhelmed by the presence of expensive hotels, Airbnb’s and other home rentals that catered to non-Puerto Ricans. An unsettling amount of “for sale” signs riddled the streets of San Juan, Arecibo, and Ponce, making it hard to ignore the absence of locals in these communities.

A street in San Juan, the town most affected by outsider gentrification and development. Photo credit: BENEDECK, Getty Images

Puerto Rico, one of 14 U.S. territories, has seen a growing number of wealthy outsiders moving to the island in the past decade. According to a study by the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, about 4,500 individuals and businesses relocated from the mainland United States to Puerto Rico from 2012 to 2019; this number has only continued to rise.

Since 2012, the Puerto Rican government has offered wealthy mainland Americans a rare deal: move to Puerto Rico and pay no taxes on interest, dividends, capital gains or crypto assets—all while living on a beautiful island in the Caribbean and maintaining their U.S. citizenship.

Under Act 60, the combination of Acts 20 and 22 passed in 2012 with hopes of improving the economy, these outsiders–mainly finance and tech investors–can potentially reduce their current federal income tax of ~39.6% to a 0% – 4% income tax rate. Thousands of high-net-worth individuals have moved to the island looking to profit from these tax breaks.

Accompanying this surge of outsiders entering the island, waves of incredibly intrusive gentrification in numerous communities have resulted in the displacement of local Puerto Ricans, many of whom were born and raised in these areas.

“You have rich people, mostly from outside of Puerto Rico, that in some cases are buying entire blocks or three, four, [or] five buildings at the same time,” says Federico Cintrón-Moscoso, an educator, researcher and community organizer born in San Juan who is the program director at El Puente, a human rights organization based in New York and Puerto Rico.

Many of these investors who move to the island, or choose to invest from the mainland, buy and remodel properties, eventually reselling them at substantially higher prices. These properties are usually made into expensive vacation rentals that cost travelers hundreds of dollars per night. Property prices around Puerto Rico have been driven up to unfathomable rates because of these newly owned properties; locals have had immense trouble keeping up with this rising cost of living.

“One of the biggest challenges to renting is that prices keep going up but the salary and the power of people to buy and rent houses stays the same,” says Moscoso. This recent rise in property prices has proven to be very challenging for locals and has resulted in mass displacement of Puerto Ricans around the island, many of whom make drastically less than what these properties are being sold for. For perspective, the average household income was about $38,227 in 2022, individuals from the ages of 25-65 on average make less than $30,000 a year, there is an unemployment rate of 9%, and about 41.7% of Puerto Ricans are living in poverty; the median listing home price in the capital city of San Juan was $905,000 in January 2024.

“People have to leave those places and move to other areas or even go to the U.S.,” says Moscoso. The exodus of Puerto Ricans from the island numbers in the millions, largely because of the economic burden of gentrification—unemployment, lack of affordable housing and a scarcity of opportunities. “I have two friends of mine who are professionals, one of them works in movies here in Puerto Rico and one of them is a nurse. They have been looking for places to rent for the past three months. It’s been very difficult for them to find any place to live. These are people who have money [and] who have well-paying jobs! And this is happening in most parts of the island.”

The effect of gentrification on Puerto Rican culture leaves many locals worried that Puerto Rico will soon be an island not for Puerto Ricans but for tourists.

“More and more you are starting to see areas where they don’t speak Spanish in Puerto Rico. When you go into a restaurant or bar and you speak Spanish, someone replies to you in English and says, “I’m sorry can you please speak in English so I can serve you?” Moscoso says. This is a common experience for many Puerto Ricans living in cities like San Juan where the growing influence of tourism drives establishments to hire non-Spanish speakers to cater to tourists. He adds, “The stores they open, the things that they sell, the music they play, are all symbols and things that don’t represent the local culture. They also don’t invite locals to experience it; they are made to exclude Puerto Ricans from being in those spaces.”

A mural of an all-black rendition of the Puerto Rican flag which represents freedom and independence has become a popular tourist attraction in Old San Juan.

Despite these challenges, many Puerto Ricans hope for a future where the right to proper housing access is prioritized. There is hope for changes in government with the upcoming election for governor in November 2024 which could bring about more representation and action against the injustices occurring around the island. A great deal of locals, however, have taken these issues into their own hands.

There have been numerous waves of resistance against this gentrification where Puerto Ricans have made a point to establish their culture in places where it has no longer become welcome.

“There’s an effort to really showcase and stamp the Puerto Rican identity on activities that maybe before it wouldn’t seem so explicit. Because now we have to,” Moscoso exclaims. This resistance has taken many forms, but he mentioned one of the most creative forms of protest: art. “You see it in different ways. [There are] more showings of Bomba y Plena, one of Puerto Rico’s traditional forms of music. You see more cultural activities like local markets and concerts or performances that are showcasing and discussing these issues, integrating art and culture into it.”

This resistance is nothing new. Whether it was the Grito de Lares–a pro-independence revolt against Spanish rule in 1868 led by the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico, the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico led by Pedro Albizu Campos in the 20th century or modern demands for justice, opposition to colonization and gentrification has always been present in Puerto Rican culture.

In addition to artistic resistance in recent years, Puerto Ricans have also taken to the streets with more traditional forms of protest, calling for “gringos to go home” and for Puerto Rico to be a land for Puerto Ricans, not tourists and other outsiders.

“Throughout every wave of displacement, there’s always resistance… local resistance. You get strongholds of culture and practices that fight that displacement and fight that colonization of Puerto Rico. You are [always] going to find locals who are fighting back.”