All the latest news from Valencia Property

Tired of all of the sniping at Spain? Hating the way Spain is presented in the press? Like to point out the good points about Spain? Me too. Therefore along with a group of friends, Writers and Bloggers about Spain (Our Facebook group) we created the hashtag #SpainIs... on twitter in order to promote the positivity about the country despite all of the problems. And guess what? It was a major success. Here is a report in Sur in English newspaper about it

Last week, tragedy hit the Valencia region. You may have heard about it and you may not but over 48500 hectares of interior Valencia was burnt by wildfires. How does this compare with other fires? Well you may have seen that Obama visited the scenes of the Colorado wildfires and have been horrified by the images presented. Valencia’s fires covered an area five times greater

It has been over 40 degrees which is very unusual but it looks like it will be ten degrees less tomorrow which is when the practice starts for the Valencia Grand Prix. Who will win this year? Well whoever gets to the first corner first probably ;-) Let's hope we at least have a Mark Webber moment to liven things up. The point of all this of course is that this is the last year when Valencia will have a Grand Prix every year. In future it will take turns with Barcelona. However this shouldn't effect the real estate market in the Cabanyal area of Valencia as it has fallen a long way on the back of broken promises to gentrify the area and extend Blasco Ibañez Avenue down to the beach.

I don't want to sound like a vulture here but the current malaise brought on Spain by the markets is having a positive effect in certain ways. The banks are being forced to lower their ridiculously optimistic prices on their stock of properties in many cases and there are finally some decent prices around. In the last few weeks we have sold various properties from various banks but among them are a couple of well positioned apartments in Valencia that we have managed to get for clients at bargain prices. The majority of the stuff from banks continues to be overpriced, which may change, badly located, which will never be changed and badly advertised, which again will probably not change.

The nineteenth issue of Spain is Different is now out. It is a cornucopia of posts from a Facebook group I have of Writers and Bloggers About Spain. Of course on the suggestion of Yolanda, one of the members of the group, we should rename it as "Writers Against Bullsh*it About Spain" due to a lot of the rubbish being put out there at the moment especially in the Mail and Telegraph.

So you wake up every morning and you open your blinds or curtains to this. It's a traditional image of Spain of course, an apartment or house overlooking the Mediterranean with endless blue skies and bright light getting rid of the memories of the shocking slate grey skies over most of northern Europe most of the time. However you pay for views. A comparable property but without the views may cost just half of what a property with view will cost. The question is of course how much of a premium are you prepared to pay to have your own little view of paradise?

"It's Bucharest Stupid" and a load of other stories from the last two weeks in Spain. Follow the Athletic Bilbao fans on their odyssey around Europe and find out why it doesn't pay to get a geographical illiterate to plan your trip of a lifetime. Stories this week include 1) Black Economy news 2) Why Spain WILL leave the Euro (According to one economist)? 3) The robot fish sniffing out pollution in Asturias 4) Social Media in the Canary Islands

I have witnessed a great debate in my "Writers and Bloggers About Spain" Facebook group this week. It related to what to do when a teacher calls you in to point out that your child is probably working too hard and getting everything right and is a “bit independent”. Nothing wrong there I hear you say. Well obviously the teacher thought it relevant to flag it as a problem.

Sometimes a property gets offered to be placed onto the books at Valencia Property and I seriously cannot believe the price, either one way or the other i.e, too high or so low! I have one on the site now (Among many other excellent places) which is a beach apartment for sale in Valencia just a two or three minutes walk from the beach for just 70k Euros.

One of the major things that people come over to Spain for is the Spanish lifestyle. What is it that actually constitutes the Spanish lifestyle though? Is it the cafe society of being able to sit outside a bar in a pavement cafe with a "cafe con leche" or a "caña" while watching the World go by and doing some serious people watching? Is it the laid back attitude to life and the constant surprise of yet another local holiday due to the fiesta of some unknown saint in the rest of the country? Is it the chance to relax in the sun or even the ability to go into work every day in the sun giving people a more positive attitude to their work when they get there?

This week I have been searching out different properties from banks and also talking to some owners of houses already on the Valencia Property site. An owner of a house in Villamarchante has told us that they will consider any offers on the property below. The original price of this property was 285000 Euros back in the day. It is a nicely put together house in Villamarchante with four bedrooms, two reception rooms, open plan kitchen and two large terraces, one covered and one open on a 720m2 plot. There is a pool and storeroom as well as an outside kitchen and all just a couple of kilometres outside the town of Villamarchante.

I realeased Spain is Different 16 a week and a half ago but didn't put it onto the site, I was a tad overwhelmed with work. So here it is in its full glory featuring stories about: 1) The European Kids Association 2) Why Facebook Discussions Rock (A discussion about why Spain is a great place to live still despite everything) 3) How to Avoid Chicken Pox Spanish Style

There are many options for getting to Valencia apart from simply flying into Valencia airport as there are not that many flights from all parts of Europe. That shouldn't stop you from getting here though and in some cases you can get here in style. You can fly into Barcelona, Alicante or Madrid for example and then get a train, hire a car or even use the bus service to get to Valencia.

A video that I made last week taking you through the current situation in the Spanish Property Market, at least from my point of view. What is happening? Who is buying and what is the reaction?

I have a question for you if you are already living in Spain or if you are thinking of moving to Spain. Spain isn't for everyone but for those who are here I would really like to know what you find great about living in Spain and which part of Spain you are in and also if you are thinking of coming to Spain what are you really looking forward to? Which part of Spain will you be coming to?

My last post on the site was about why spanish property sells. What to look for as both buyer and seller. You could say that the reasons why a spanish property doesn't sell are directly and inversely proportional but that isn't exactly the case. However the first reason for not selling a Spanish Property given below is very common and a huge impediment. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Last week I had a situation that even surprised me. I try to get Valencia Property and properties in Spain that are extremely salable. Sometimes this means that the speed of the movement in the market can surprise even the quickest of clients. On Sunday last week I went to take pictures of a property in Valencia. It was an apartment in Valencia that was large, with good views at a very decent price. The owner had placed it at 125000 Euros for an apartment with lift half way between the beach and the city centre in a nice area. (You can see it here) Now as you can see it is nothing to write home about in the aesthetic sense but it does the job and per square metre the price is good.

We missed a week I know but life was just so busy with clients and then also the holidays and visits so this week I thought it would be right to make the Spain is Different Magazine a compilation of funny! So to read about the Mayor who banned passing wind, the man who paid a fine for a dog he hasn't got, how a minor member of the Royal Family shot himself in the foot and how a Madrid company is willing to pay you €2000 to watch the grass grow