If you are looking for a place to live within striking distance of Valencia but not in the city itself there are plenty of options within twenty minutes. We have already written in these pages about our love for Naquera and Olocau (And many other places) and today it’s time to focus on La Eliana which can be considered as Valencia’s commuter town par excellence but sort of without the negative connotations that the term “commuter town” has in other countries.

La Eliana is 16km away from Valencia and it’s even closer to the airport. You go straight down the CV35 motorway and in fifteen minutes you are in the city. Even during rush hour it will only take five minutes more usually. Equally you can go into the city on the metro, more of that later. The population of L’Eliana is 17760 and the town keeps growing slowly giving it a permanent population all year allowing shops and restaurants to remain open not just in the summer.

In the summer, richer Valencians move out of the city and spend a couple of months living in La Eliana (And Ribarroja) and commute in and out of the city as required. This means the summer population peaks at around 20,000. Because of this tradition, there are many very large family houses in La Eliana, it’s the closest thing you will find to suburbia around Valencia. Houses come up for sale when the families lose that tradition of spending weekends and summer in La Eliana because the children have fled the nest.

What is it then that people like about the town of La Eliana? Let’s take a look.

Firstly, we really love the park in La Eliana. Semi tropical gardens, outdoor swimming pool and summer cinema, a social club with esplanade for cycling, skating or skateboarding, a great kids park and even a Japanese pagoda and pond. It’s probably the best looking park in the local area and isn’t really bettered by any I have seen before. It’s also in the centre of the town so is enjoyed by everyone. The theme of the park is literature and the tiled seats you can see below name famous authors from all over the World.

La Eliana also offers great value for money in apartments if you want to live among the cafes, shops, bars and restaurants of the centre. You can get a three bedroomed apartment in La Eliana for as little as 70,000 Euros requiring a little work and this fully modernised apartment at 110,000 Euros is right in the heart of the town.

One of the main attractions for living in La Eliana though is not apartment living in the centre, it’s the number of houses that are within walking distance of the town centre and metro line. Plot sizes tend to be large from 800m2 up except in the Montesol area where houses have been built on as little as 300m2 and the houses range from small three bedroomed one floor older properties all the way up to huge mansions set in lush gardens.

One of the issues for people wanting to buy a house in the Valencia area is that they want it to be walking distance to the facilities such as bars, cafes, shops, medical attention etc… This is difficult to find in general as houses were built on estate outside the towns requiring a car at all times and the towns and villages tend to be more populated by apartments. La Eliana offers this type of living though and to a lesser extent you can find this in Naquera too. 

Take a look at our La Eliana property page here and also make sure to take a look at Ribarroja here as many of the properties featured there really are closer to La Eliana than Ribarroja.