All the latest news from Valencia Property

Now as you know we always tell you the great things to look forward to on moving to Valencia and Spain but you should also know about those little things that will annoy you when you get here, or shall we say may annoy you because not all of these things will be relevant to everyone and also there may be other things that annoy you specifically even more. Nevertheless we thought it was time to tell you about all of those things that make life in Valencia and Spain less ideal, the sub-optimal things about living here. Are you ready? Then read on

Decarbonising the electricity grid is an important step towards helping to at least mitigate the worst effects of climate change, I won't say to save the planet but we may be able to make things a little less worse in the future. One of the main steps we can take is by moving to more renewables in our use of electricity and in Spain we are moving forward quickly more than most other countries. Spain has an abundance of renewable power sources with the main ones being solar (of course) hydro and wind but as you will see later there's a wide mix of sources.

The annual Numbeo macrostudy of international destinations for factors such as cost of living, quality of life and more has just dropped and guess what.. Valencia rocks. Valencia has rocketed into the top five cities in the World for quality of life from number 70 last year and it ranks highly on every metric in the study**. Numbeo takes data from people actually living in the places they study to give an up to date ranking for everything from local salaries to interest rates and even the price of a pint of milk, or litre perhaps. So kudos to The Hague, Eindhoven, Luxembourg and Rotterdam for ranking above Valencia but let me know about the temperature and sunlight there in January (And even in June) then we can talk.

If you want to go native when buying Valencia Property you need to know what makes for the perfect property for your average Valencian. This is why certain properties sell very quickly compared with others. If they correspond to what a Valencian wants then it is likely to get sold quicker because then there are more potential clients in the market. Now of course you don't need to go native when you are looking for a place, the following might not be in your list of must haves for your perfect place (You can send us yours by filling in the form on this post). However, to get to know the local market a bit more, this is what Valencians want*

We have talked before about the rental crisis in the market in Valencia and we have told you that you will have limited options on your purchase if you are clear about what you want because there will never be more than a handful of options available to you at any one time. What if we told you though that those options are reducing even further? And because of this we will now give you the most convincing case ever for using a buyer’s agent?

It's March now and as you walk around Valencia you become a cat on a hot tin roof as you get to learn the words "bombetas", "petardos" and "tracas" and they burn into your mind with all the "fun" of Fallas. All the roads start to get sealed off as they are blocked by huge tents, churros stalls and fenced off areas for kids to start their inevitable journey towards the three fingered handshake, and you wish that you didn't have a cat or dog in your household (Valencian cats and dogs just get used to it I suppose)

Year on year we get more American clients coming to Valencia (We get a lot of Canadians too). The system for buying a property in the States and Canada is very different to Spain so expectations have to be managed before and during a property search. Not only about the process of buying a property though, also about money transfers, where to find information, who and what to trust online and a whole lot more. As a result we find ourselves explaining the same things over and over so thought it was time to put these things into a post which we can refer people to right from the start. Some of these things are important for everyone coming to live in Spain though, especially the first point, so it's worth a read for everyone. Oh and there are eleven not ten... and a bonus ball extra for all of you Facebook fans out there.

We often point out on these pages that Valencia Property has been around for a while. It was started by yours truly, Graham, as a response to the buying process being so difficult. Or rather by my knowing that I could probably do a better job than the huge majority of estate agents that I had dealt with while going through the process of buying my house. We have that whole story on this page in the blog. Therefore I find it surprising that our silver anniversary as a company has sort of sneaked up on me now that we are in 2024 and others in the company have said we should do something to celebrate it. I've been convinced to do something and we will be celebrating in June to coincide with our first rentals back in 1999.

It has been announced that Spain's Golden Visa programme is to be ended, at least the part about it being obtainable by buying property worth over 500k. More details will follow but it's something we have been warning about for some time now and telling people to get their skates on if they wanted it.

I don't know whether you were around in the sixties, I myself was a late entrant into the decade so can't remember that much about it. There is one thing that stands out about Spain from that time when Franco was still around polluting the country with his Catholic Fetish based Fascism and that is the opening up of the country through the country's tourism minister Manual Fraga and the most inspired advertising slogan ever, "Spain is Different". I remember this slogan still being around when I first got interested in Spain in the 80s it was so successful.

Before we really get into the meat of this article let's start with a big caveat, this is not true of all first floor flats just the majority. And let's also start with a clarification for our North American readers, first floor is not ground floor. First floor is the first one you see when you look up. And finally before beginning, some first floor flats are absolutely excellent, it all depends on the design of the building. Most buildings are not designed to have a great first floor flat but some lend themselves to excellent first floor flats especially more modern buildings.

Last Friday we had a Whatsapp Q+A where we answered questions for everyone on our Whatsapp list. Our whatsapp list is where we send out notifications of new listings, price drops, blog posts, podcasts and more so that people can keep up to date with the market here in Valencia. If you want to join the list just let us know, you can find out how at the end. The Q+A was going really well until I used the word "Bribery" as a joke answer to a question. At that point things got a lot quieter and I found out later that people had stopped receiving the messages after that point. I am working on the assumption that Whatsapp throttled our messages after this point because every time I sent a message over 200 people received it.

We often get asked by people about how you can get to know people in a new city after moving here. We get asked this by all ages and by people in different relationships and also by those coming here alone. In fact it was one of the questions asked last week in our Q+A too by quite a lot of people. So it was a nice surprise when I got a request for a guest post on the site by Tom Norman who has set up a meetup group in Valencia for introverts*. As a natural introvert myself who often feels overwhelmed in group settings it felt a natural fit for the blog. So here we are. Take it away Tom.

Last week on the blog we promised to look at what will happen over the next couple of years in the Valencia property market according to "experts" in this area. Since then I have been asking questions, looking at recent articles from said "experts" and taking stock of what we are seeing at the moment to come up with a finger in the air and see which way the wind is blowing prediction for the property market in Valencia and Spain for the next couple of years or so.

Spain gets hot in the summer, no sh*t Sherlock, and thanks to our worldwide proclivity for burning fossil fuels willy-nilly not only is it geting hotter in the summer but those summers are lasting longer. Last week for example the temperatures hit 36 degrees in Seville and Cordoba whilst Valencia was at a nice and comfortable 24 degrees (It's now around 30 so we know it's coming). So today we are looking at how to keep cool in and around Valencia in the Spanish summer. What you can do in Seville, Cordoba, Murcia and Extremadura? I haven't got a clue but maybe as many as possible of the following at the same time.

Valencia, the third-largest city in Spain, has long been known for its rich cultural heritage, beautiful beaches, and the renowned Las Fallas festival. I mean, if you are a regular reader of this blog you will know so much about all of that and more. Recently, however, it has gained recognition for something far less traditional but equally transformative: a booming tech scene in which there are certain jewels in the crown such as the lanzadera project by the Marina for start ups pushed by Juan Roig, the boss of one of Valencia's huge success stories, Mercadona.

It's been a long, hot and absolutely wonderful summer. At least I think it was hot, I was away for a month in Northern Spain and most of our team have been away for at least a part of the month visiting various parts of Spain, the Olympics in Paris, Albania and various major cities in Europe. Those who stayed in Valencia and southern Spain or were here for a short time told us it was hot. We are all back now and up and running. Some of us have been working with people the last couple of weeks preparing things for this really mad September. So yes, we are back, we are working and we are ready... but... we are a bit full.

So... Airbnb... The answer is no. The truth is with us at Valencia Property the answer has been no for some time in the vast majority of cases especially since we opened our Stepping Stone Rentals sister company. But we can no longer look on as Airbnb has such an effect on the housing market around the World and more specifically Valencia. We have been writing on this blog for years about the End of the Airbnb Economy, the fact that Airbnb isn't as profitable as people think and more. We actually started calling for people to stop buying places to Airbnb in 2018 as it was having too great an effect on the city.