Every month, every week and every day the number of properties available to buy or rent in Valencia and elsewhere drops. In the last three years supply of properties for sale has dropped by 70% and the speed with which properties sell has also dropped, some never even get advertised. This creates a dilemma for buyers, less choice and having to make very quick decisions. It also creates a perfect market for sellers to be, let's say, awkward. Therefore you need to be ready to get your offer in and have the ability to buy and today we are going to go over what you need to do in order to be ready, working hand in hand with us at Valencia Property, because as Bob Dylan famously said "The times they are a changing" and he has never been more right than he is now.
The Background
There were 104,000+ sales of property in the Valencia region last year according to the INE. Only Andalucia had more. In December the market looked like this.
INE SUMMARY DECEMBER 2024 VALENCIAN COMMUNITY
- 8,486 home sales, 51.2% more than in December 2023.
- The Valencian Community recorded the highest number of home sales per 100,000 inhabitants (195).
- Specifically, in December there were 6,810 (80.24%) used home sales and 1,676 (19.75%) new home sales.
- Of the total sales, 92.8% (7,877) were for private housing and 7.17% (609) were for protected housing.
INE SUMMARY 2024 VALENCIAN COMMUNITY
- 104,773 home sales, 9% more than in 2023.
- The Valencian Community recorded the highest number of home sales per 100,000 inhabitants (2,412).
- Specifically, in 2024 there were 85,746 (81.83%) used home sales and 19,027 (18.16%) new home sales.
- Of the total sales, 92.49% (96,913) were for private housing and 7.5% (7,860) were for protected housing.
2025 started in the same way with an increase of 11% in the number of sales recorded in January and the number of available properties fell.
It is estimated that there are over 700 agencies registered in Valencia and if every agency sold the same amount of properties then there would be 0.88 sales per agent per month. Obviously some agents do better than others. Let's look at one of them.
Our Hectic Week
Last week we had seven completions in the notary on properties in Valencia. We should have had eight but one was held over until next week (Or not) We'll see. Seven completions in a week is mad for an agency like ours. Maybe it was just a coincidence of dates, maybe it was something else but for a small specialist agency, not even touching the Spanish buyers market which is 80% plus of the Valencia Property Market, that's a lot. That's effectively many more than the average agency gets in half a year in just one week. But who's buying and who's selling? Let's look at some of the profiles of buyers and sellers.
The buyers were from various countries, the USA, Netherlands, Germany and the UK. They were moving for various reasons but one big fat Mango Mussolini was the important reason given by many. Other reasons were lifestyle and semi-retirement.
From the selling side there was one who had modernised to sell, one trading down as their place was too big, a divorce, an inheritance and the selling off of a second property that was rented out to get the money to pay off the mortgage on their primary home. Most were Spanish but there were a couple of sellers frrom elsewhere, Dominican Republic with an American passport and Belgium among them.
I spent more time in the notary this week than at home and awake. After finishing at the notary each day we had initial client meetings with people starting their journey towards buying a property here and advised people about everything from schools to neighbourhoods to towns around the city to the process of buying.
Now next week is quieter, not every week could have that madness, but we still have a couple of signings and plenty of visits and even more initial client meetings. What I'm trying to say here is that it's busy. Very busy. Therefore you need to be ready and we have talked about how to do that before in these pages, all about getting your ducks in a row and sending us your form with your requirements. Today we are going to take that a step further. Read on.
The Times They Are a Changin'
Normally you arrange everything with us before you come over sending us your requirements, noting your favourites online and we arrange visits for you to them and others that may suit you. There is so little available now that your choice is limited even further so we are quite often seeing people leaving without finding what they are looking for, but don't despair we almost always find people their place sooner or later. Those who leave empty handed mostly are those who think they can do this themselves, those people who get in touch with us a day or two before they leave Valencia after a disaster of a visit. We're good but we can't perform miracles and others who have been working with us for a long time will always have preference. We will most likely tell you to come back as soon as possible and then we can work together.
What you need to do now while you are here is to make sure to get a full background to the city and the areas you want to look at even if the ideal property isn't available on your dates. This is because your ideal property might come up when you are elsewhere and you will need to make a quick decision. You don't have time to arrange a second visit and come and see the property at some indeterminate time in the future, it will be gone. Just in the last month we have sold three properties remotely through video calls after people have initially left Valencia empty handed. You need to be ready!
Valencia is hugely popular with people from all over the World, people all over Spain and Valencians themselves. This is why the supply is dropping while demand continues to grow. There is a fear in the estate agency community that they will have nothing to sell very soon so it's time to get your place as soon as possible.
Lots of estate agents are worried about going out of business very soon if supply doesn't pick up as they have nothing to sell, and there is no sign of an uptick in supply. New build numbers in the pipeline are low and construction is slow as builders are struggling to find workers who are not up to their eyes in work (Due to the demand factors and the repairs post the Dana at the end of last year) Planning regulations take time and we always say to people if a property is an 8 out of 10 then maybe think of going for it and it can always be adapted to make it a 10. Now maybe consider the 6s and 7s too.
How to Get Ready
Come to Valencia as normal and make sure you use our expertise with our initial consultation calls and have a "ducks in a row" morning where we take you to a bank to open an account, to a lawyer to appoint them to act for you, to a notary for a Power of Attorney for that lawyer along with an application to get you your NIE number and if required to speak to a currency company about the transfer of your funds into your newly opened bank account.
If you are going to need a mortgage for your purchase then you will have to have a pre-approval in place from a bank as owners will not take a deposit on a property if that deposit is dependent on mortgage approval. They will just sell to a cash buyer or someone who is already pre-approved for mortgage. Therefore you contact a mortgage broker such as Mortgage Direct and make sure to get that pre-approval asap.
Now I know what you are possibly thinking if you are new to these pages, this is just an agent talking up the market. Believe me it's not. Read our posts over the last few years on this blog and then take a look at the following graph. That is a comparison of sales of properties in January over the last 17 years. The last three years have been the highest ever and this year is the highest. But once you have taken a look I want to demonstrate something that is important and it involves numbers.
In January there were almost 9500 sales of properties in the Valencia Region. At the moment in the whole of the Valencia Region there are just over 21000 properties listed for sale on Idealista and again as always we take this number with a pinch of salt as there are many properties listed multiple times through various agencies as single agency is rare here, so in reality there are probably around 10000. This would mean all stock would disappear in just over a month if no new supply were to reach the market and new supply is slow, agents are reporting huge problems in getting new listings. Therefore month on month supply reduces.
In Valencia City alone here are the numbers of advertised properties for the last five years. And this is in a boom market where the number of agencies advertising has also increased susbstantially by over 50%. Therefore the number of properties per agent has rediuced significantly. As we always say to people, each agent at any one time may have only one or two "good" properties for sale and they will list absolutely anything without even looking at any sort of quality control.
Properties For Sale in Valencia City
June 2019: 13,634
June 2020: 10,139
June 2021: 8,841
June 2022: 7,542
June 2023: 5,939
June 2024: 3,953
Monday, March 24 2025: 3,384
There is an important thing people are missing here and it was brought home to us in a conversation with an agent we met this week. Lots of properties are not even getting to the stage of being advertised online. They are selling to their list of potential buyers who have been contacting them for months and in some cases years. They are selling to those who have just sold their place through that agency, two operations for the price of one, and they are selling to other agents' clients whom they know and trust to have people who can buy and are here on the ground.
So if you are not working closely with an agent like us here at Valencia Property then you don't even get to see things especially if you are not here physically and in a position to buy. You need someone here to be your eyes and ears and we are that agency and have been for years. We made our first sale through a video sent to a client over 15 years ago! We have made plenty via video calls since.
The Problem For Walk-In Clients
As a walk-in client to any agency in Valencia you are not dealt with, full stop. There's the language issue at times, the fact that all of their agents are busy and the fact that they do not know you, don't know whether you are in a position to buy and don't know if you are serious or just a bored holidaymaker looking for some afternoon entertainment in terms of property porn! They have the list of potential buyers and clients already in place and they get preference. It's always the same, has always been the same and always will be the same when a property market is hot.
At Valencia Property we don't even have an office for you to walk into except online. There would be no point. We would never be there. We wouldn't be able to serve you anyway as we are all booked up almost always well in advance. Just last Monday I had a conference call with 82 participants online talking about moving to Spain. At least thirty of them are interested in Valencia. Many of them have started working with us already and one has just had an offer accepted yesterday.
We are a remote, distributed company and have had just two full staff meetings in the last three years (Both Xmas meals) and yet we all know what is happening, what others are doing and all about the market because our internal communications work so well.
If you want to succeed in your Valencia Property search you will need to work with the best. We think that's us because of course we do. But don't just take our word for it. Look at our reviews.
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An ugly duckling right slap bang in the centre of #Valencia on Calle del Mar. Let's face it and tell the truth, 1960 wasn't a great year for aesthetics as regards building facades buff.ly/a2LHK6I
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In this episode of the Valencia Property podcast we delve into the top ten tips for those moving to Valencia and Spain. What to do and how to do it and we take a listen to our clients' reviews of us at Valencia Property. buff.ly/AYMT8Hv #valenciaproperty #valencia #podcast
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