All the latest news from Valencia Property

We get this question often "Do you have any bank properties?" The truth is "not usually, no". "Why not?" Well, there's a short answer and a long answer to that so let's go with the long answer and an example property and you may get an idea of why. For those of you who just want the quick answer... well, they are usually a steaming pile of cr*p.

Having been asked the question about the best places to invest in Valencia innumerable times in the recent past it's time to put on record my answer. Just before we start though, a few caveats. As with everything involved in real estate the true answer, the short answer which is always correct is "It depends!". It depends on your definition of the word "investment", it depends what you want to achieve from the "investment", it depends on your own use case scenario, it depends on whether it's a short, medium or long term strategy and it depends on a host of other factors which we will go into later.

One of the things that surprises people on coming to Valencia is the variety of shops, cafes, restaurants and the rest. Only yesterday a client commented that it was so refreshing to not come upon a Starbucks on every corner. I had to admit there are four or five but told her that one had closed down because nobody ever went there. Years ago I remember a friend's daughter being so excited that a Starbucks was going to open in Valencia because... well she couldn't explain why exactly... it was just it was something different. She wasn't even a coffee drinker.

As a company we have been around for over 20 years now. We have seen trends come and go, a financial crisis or two, people move to Valencia and move out, Valencia become the favourite destination for the international crowd and even a little known pandemic called Covid19. Valencia Property started in the very early 2000s and when we set up the company with a snazzy looking website, everybody who came to look at property in Valencia wanted a villa with its own pool, garden, garage etc... We couldn't have given away apartments in Valencia to tell the truth because that wasn't what people wanted at the time.

We have been asked many times about the process of getting a mortgage in Spain. Whether that is in regard to Valencia or any other parts of Spain it's essentially a standard process. However, it may not be like the process of applying for and getting a mortgage in other countries so today we are looking at the process of getting a Spanish mortgage from start to finish.

If you believe everything you read on Facebook and other social media I'd say you had recently had a lobotomy or at least you would be on your way to one, but there does seem to be an expectation on social media totally divorced from reality. Newbies to the Valencia Property world seem to think that they will get 20, 30 and even 40% off the asking prices of Valencia Property just because they make an offer. Allow me to disabuse them of that notion with a simple question, "Is that happening where you are from?" Because if it isn't why on Earth would it be happening here?

You don't just arrive in Valencia by accident when you are born in Widnes. It takes time, application and at least a bit of planning. It was a conscious decision based on education, life circumstances, family and hundreds of other factors meaning that moving here made sense. The lovely thing is that the majority of Valencia Property clients have now come to the same conclusion, they are not looking to buy in Valencia by accident, it's a conscious choice and more often than not a lifestyle choice.

The latest of our 100 tips for moving to and living in Spain is now up on our Facebook page. Go to Valencia Property on Facebook to see it here. This one talks about swimming pools in Spain and what you should be thinking about when you are buying a place with a swimming pool. Do you know how to look after it?

We have our own website which we keep up to date at all times of course. As soon as a deposit is left on a property we mark it as under offer or sold and then once the final signing comes we take it off the site. Unfortunately, the property portals are not as quick as us. They use a system of feeds taken from individual websites which show properties and we pay for the privilege of putting our properties on their sites because in theory they have greater reach and we should get more enquiries

This may not seem very important at the moment when you are locked down and unable to travel but it looks like Spain will be opening up for the summer perhaps with a vaccine passport, perhaps through travel corridors. Most people are talking about being able to go on holiday safely but others are waiting to be able to come to Spain and buy their new home or holiday property.

I wrote something on Facebook last night about what is happening in the Valencia Property market and I promised to expand on why I think this is happening. Let's get the caveats out of the way. We are sure to be called liars and typical agents talking up the market and stuff but, as Rafa Benitez once said, here are some facts: Today we tried to arrange some visits for a client for Friday. Out of the ten properties we wanted to see five have sold in the last week. All have deposits left on them and mostly at asking price!

This time last year we were well into the first week of our severe lockdown. The Fallas fiestas had been cancelled on the 10th of March after quite a few Mascletas had already happened, Levante had played their last home game on the 8th of March with 3000 fewer fans than normal, many choosing to avoid the match due to fears about the new virus and on the 14th of March the Spanish government ordered lockdown... and it started to rain in Valencia...

We have been asked to explain a bit more about the "Community". The majority of people in Spain live in apartments and if you want to join them then you need to get used to the idea of "The Community" (Homeowners' Association in the States). Today we look at what the community is, what it does and what issues you may have with the people you live with. This is not just for people buying apartments though, oftentimes you will find that there are community costs with houses which we shall also look at.

Described by many as Valencia's bohemian heart, by others as Valencia's Soho and by East Coast Americans as Valencia's Greenwich village, Ruzafa has long been on our radar as a great place to live due to its proximity to the centre of Valencia, the vibe of the area and the classical facades amongst other reasons. However there are others who describe it as overhyped, too noisy and a bit grotty. Of course the truth lies somewhere in between but on a scale you would get closer to the former descriptions rather than the latter. Today we are going to explore some of those reasons.

After receiving a few enquiries about whether it's better to rent or buy a property in Valencia I thought it time to put together a post comparing the two options in terms of costs and what your "get out position" is at the end. Obviously there are other considerations apart from monetary costs but we will focus here on the costs and then look at those other considerations at the end. We are going to go with a similar property in both cases and look at five, ten and twenty year horizons. For the numbers we are going to use an example from last week where the client took on a mortgage at a fixed rate over 20 years.

Not the usual type of post today but just to let everyone know that a new activity starts up in Valencia today. After a few weeks of evening practice under the Alameda bridge in Valencia, cricket comes to Valencia at the baseball pitch in the riverbed from around 2.30pm onwards. A touring team comprised mostly of Aussies and New Zealanders but based in London is in Valencia for a game of cricket against the Levante Select XI. Our first game. We may have to ask them to go easy on us.