All the latest news from Valencia Property

I have been noticing a trend online recently especially on Threads, where it seems engagement trolling is key, that people start a thread with "I have been doing x for six months now and here is what I learnt..." You are now drawn in and you click through to all of their relatively mundane observations taken from their own personal experience and applying those observations to the whole more Universal experience. So today I thought we'd do the same but from the point of view of our clients. What have they discovered to be the biggest changes from "back home" when coming to live in Spain?

Here at Valencia Property we have always been fans of quality over quantity. Orange juice made with oranges not Sunny Delight, mature cheese with taste not that "Tierno" rubbery rubbish, the odd ugly building making us appreciate the classical facades even more not Benidorm with its surfeit of hideousness. You get the idea. With property it's the same, why list everything when most is not worth it? We wrote an article a while back about why we don't list everything we are offered, there are plenty of reasons, but today we are going to look at quality control and what it means for listings. We are also going to show you some examples of things we just will not list and give the reasons why.

It's time for a sermon. It's time for something that you might not necessarily want to hear. It's time for a reality check. You may decide you don't want to work with us after reading this because others may sugar coat the truth before you come here but you need to know that truth. However, can you handle the truth? This is how to act in the current Valencia Property Market, mid 2024 in this case but the truth is also... until further notice. And we will give you that notice if the current situation changes. After all, forewarned is forearmed.

Every year we get to the summer and the same thing happens, we close and people ask why. We have written on these pages about why you can't see properties at the weekend and we have mentioned what happens in the summer at length in the past. Today though it's time to let you know what happens in August and why we are mostly closed in the middle of summer. Of course we are not totally closed, a couple of us will be around dealing with things that come up, doing the background work on sales that will be signed in September etc.. and while we are away the company still runs remotely, I myself run the company from a laptop and can do a lot of that work from anywhere, but Spain and Valencia mostly close in August and here's why.

There are so many people deciding to upgrade their life and move to Valencia that it's difficult to keep up as supply of both rental and for sale property drops and that place you have had your eye on for a few weeks disappears off the property portals or a big sold sign appears just as you are about to visit. In order to avoid disappointment and to make sure you have the best choice available, we at Valencia Property have a tried and tested route for those looking to buy here and settle. And today we are going to detail that route for you here on the blog so you know what to expect.

Sometimes a property just doesn't sell quickly for whatever reason. At times we expect something to move quickly and it doesn't and then we get that question that everyone asks about every property which makes no sense but it still gets asked: "How long has that property been on the market?" It's a strange question because if you like the property and are potentially thinking of buying it then it doesn't matter (Except for if you think this will make a difference to the offer you can make and get away with). Today therefore on the blog we thought it time to look at some properties that have been for sale for a time but for whatever reason haven't yet sold but are great opportunities for whatever reason.

On a regular basis we update you with the situation in the market here in Valencia and not having done this after the first quarter it's time to catch up. We posted our last update at the end of 2023 so we are using the same breakdown so you can compare and contrast. We are looking at what's happening on the ground of course, some of which we mentioned in the podcast last week where Gavin gave his thoughts on what's happening. You can listen to that here (The chat with Gavin starts at 9 mins 15 secs in). We'll also look at perspectives for the rest of the year.

Last Monday we had three initial client meetings in the morning. Lots of coffee was consumed and advice given and everyone was surprised at the amount of time we gave them and the information we were able to impart in that time. It's because we are used to it. Ever since we started offering free meetings over Zoom during the pandemic back in 2020 we have been growing and growing and the inital meetings are the most important part of that growth process.

What I'm talking about today on the blog is about what it means to give a service to clients as an estate agency in Valencia and comparing that to what we hear about others. We recognise that you have a choice when you come to Valencia of which buyer's agent to work with, which agency to trust and even which medium term rental agency to book a property with. We know about the online scams and have talked about them on the blog previously. So today it's time to look at what marks us out as different, it's not just Joyce and Kafka, it's not just readable property descriptions and making sure things stay fun... it's professionalism, empathy and understanding from the start

After the arguments over whether we should have listed a property (which we essentially called overpriced and not worth it) I thought it time to give you an update of Valencia Property's rules for listing properties. Now we are no ordinary estate agent, as I explained in the article about why we listed a particular property. Our regular followers continue to be regular followers because of our honesty, general vibe of the listings and heavy sarcasm/sense of humour (Delete as appropriate) as well as the fact that they are interested in moving to Valencia. You can read the article about why we listed a particular property on our Substack (And maybe subscribe while you're there, we'll wait here for you to read it on the new tab and come back to continue here.

The latest property market data confirms what we've long known at Valencia Property: we're the undisputed leader when it comes to helping American buyers find their perfect home in Valencia. Whether you're searching for a spacious house in the leafy suburbs of L'Eliana or a vibrant apartment in the heart of Ruzafa and Ensanche, our agency consistently delivers more successful purchases for American clients than all other agencies combined. Yes you heard that right, ALL OF THE OTHERS COMBINED. You can see our previous post about this here. Our position has now been cemented even further.

A decade of transformation has made Valencia more popular than ever. In today's post we are going to look at what it means for people looking to call the city and indeed Spain their home. Something remarkable happened in Valencia over the last ten years. While Madrid and Barcelona grabbed headlines with soaring prices, Valencia quietly evolved into something special: a major European city where normal people could still afford to live well. Not just survive, but truly thrive.

We get a lot of questions at Valencia Property. We always say there are no such thing as stupid questions (Even though at times there are) and we answer them all. However, we always think that if you are asking a question then others are also wondering about the answer even if they haven't directly asked us the same thing. So in this week's blog post we are looking at the most common questions we have been asked recently and giving you our answers. It's a series we update regularly here on the blog so let's look at the most common recent questions.

We saw an article last week (in Spanish) about how all new build apartments look the same; large, imposing, white cladding and small terraces, the same materials, the same sizes, the same... everything. There's even an Instagram account for these type of blocks @bloque_cebra because they have been baptised here as "Zebra blocks" for obvious reasons. When you see them you know why. They proliferate among the new builds shooting up all over Spain. And Valencia doesn't miss out, in fact certain areas are at the forefront of this building surge. Today we are going to look at this phenomena and investigate what it means for neighbourhoods all over Spain but especially in Valencia.

September has started hot both in terms of the weather and the numbers of clients completing on Valencia Property they have bought and also starting their journey towards getting their own place here in Valencia. Over the last two weeks there has been a major uptick in terms of the numbers of people making their initial contact with us here at Valencia Property and enquiries for properties listed on our homepage. This might be correlated to our new publications which we are putting out on a regular basis (It may be partly because we are back off holiday too or maybe even because we fixed our forms on the website!!) On today's blog post we are looking at our new publications, our previous ones and how you can follow along as we increase those publications to satisfy your demand for reliable information.

We have written before about the rental crisis in Valencia and that continues to be an issue for many people here. Finding a long term rental is fraught with difficulty in various ways. Supply, pricing and acceptance are just three of the issues and we will talk about them today on the blog. We are also going to talk about medium term rentals and our ongoing solution to that issue, Stepping Stone Rentals, how they differ to long term rentals and what is and isn't included in both and then we'll look at short term rentals and the issues caused by Airbnb and other platforms in the housing market.

Valencia has long been celebrated as one of Europe's most progressive and welcoming cities, but what does daily life actually look like for LGBTQ+ residents? We get asked this question all the time and the truth is It's a question we always feel slightly uncomfortable answering, as no matter what we say or how much we believe Valencia to be a progressive, tolerant and safe place, at the end of the day it's always in the back of our collective minds - how would we really know?

You come to Valencia and you start existing on a diet of Paella, (or rice with things as Valencians call anything that isn't just traditional Valencian Paella with chicken, rabbit, green and white beans). Don't you? Although that was mostly true when I got here in the late 1990's, that's not the truth these days. Picture this. You're sipping morning coffee on your private terrace, gazing across the rooftops in Valencia or perhaps even the sparkling Mediterranean Sea, knowing that within a 15-minute stroll or taxi ride from your Valencia apartment, you could be dining at not one, but numerous Michelin-starred restaurants. This isn't a fantasy, this is the reality of calling Valencia home. And in today's blog we are giving you the links you need to book that enticing dinner this evening*