All the latest news from Valencia Property

A few months back we posted about an idea floated by the government here in Spain to tax purchases of property to non resident, non EU citizens at 100% of the purchase price, effectively making a 300k purchase 600K. My response and advice was don't panic... at least not until we see the details. You can see the post here. I said that those reporting it as not 100% tax on property but 100% increase in property taxes to be paid were probably wrong, it was never that. And to think there are legal firms who read the proposals and came up with that! I also said that it will probably never happen. This week the government presented their draft proposal to parliament and my response is still, don't panic. It'll probably never happen and even if it does we already have ways around it.

Valencia is a place that benefits from what the World has become over the last couple of years in general. It benefits because the basics for a good life are here with a more than reasonable climate (one of the best in the World according to many official sources), an excellent work life balance, an affordable place for people to move to from many more expensive areas of Europe and the World, a progressive outlook and from it being a comparatively safe place to settle in terms of personal safety and also safety from natural disasters, potential conflicts and more. Moreover it definitely benefits from homeworking and in this article we are going to explain why.

A few years ago we recommended a lot of places to eat out in Valencia, you can see that article here. We crowdsourced the information from our clients about what their favourite places were and many people found it extremely useful for finding new places to eat out. Then Covid came along and things changed. So it's time for an update to our current favourite places. We chatted about this in the last podcast which you can listen to here but today we will give you more information, links to the restaurants and a few other places that we also like.

One of the things that is growing in popularity as property and rentals become more expensive and lifestyle demands change are coliving projects. Traditionally in Spain only students lived in shared apartments and the quality of those apartments was pretty average as owners thought that students would trash the places through a lack of cleaning and general maintenance. As a student in Spain back in the day I can confirm that they were probably right.

We have spent a lot of time in our posts recently looking at the property market, interest rates and even international geopolitics but in the end the reason people want to come and live in Valencia is the lifestyle isn't it? So today we are going to look at what is happening in the upcoming extended summer in and around Valencia. Why do people come and live here? To experience some of these things along with the day to day experience of living in a vibrant, safe and interesting country with a fantasatic climate. So let's go.

Finally it has arrived. It was time to step up. We are setting up the new Valencia Property Business Division for buildings, commercial properties, land sales and joint ventures. This is due to the growing demand from our clients for projects in which to invest and take forward in both real estate and other areas. Our version of the art of the deal differs from the well known book for which the Orange Sh*tgibbon is known, as we control it and actually do the work, we don't just put our name to it and take credit. You get to use the knowledge and experience of Valencia Property in the Valencia region to help guide you to a successful conclusion.

With the introduction of the new so called Spanish Digital Nomad Visa or Remote Worker visa as we prefer to call it we are getting lots of enquiries as to which visa option is best for people. Now obviously there is not a single "one size fits all" answer to this question. Everyone's circumstances are different and therefore the required visa may be different for each person. Therefore today we are going to look into the different visas for coming to Spain and who they may suit. Apart from that we have some news from Valencia Property about our opening hours for Fallas and we look at what's happening with prices and availability of properties and why 200k is the new 150k, ie the minimum required for buying in Valencia right now if you have standard criteria.

One of the things that we have clearly stated over the years is that Valencia offers great value for money when you are looking to buy a property. This has been true through all price points but we have never really concentrated on what that actually looks like at the higher price points. To be honest it has been a blind spot for our business as we concentrated on getting great deals for people at excellent prices in fantastic locations. 80% of our sales in the last few years have been in Valencia City itself but prices have been rising and the number of sales we have made outside of the city but within touching distance has been increasing slowly, from the obvious places such as top suburbs, L'Eliana, Ribarroja and Godella to more affordable places like La Pobla de Vallbona, Betera and Naquera.

It's that time of year again when everything is "best of" lists, looking back on the year and more. We will look back on the Valencia Property market in 2024 in the next blog on Monday next week in the last post of 2024 but today we are giving away our new book in PDF format. The Valencia Property Collection 2024 is a look back at our most inspired property descriptions of the year (and a few earlier ones) and we have put it out there because we know you love our property descriptions and blog but we have never collated a collection of either of them.

We take a lot of people out to see Valencia Property and when we do we field a host of questions from the most obvious "Where are we now?" to the left field questions such as "Why has that cat not got a collar?" Now we can always answer the first but the cat question... When you are looking at property with us you will also have questions and some of them will be left field but they are all usually valid questions when you don't know a place too well. However, if you have that question then it's almost certain that somebody else has asked us the question beforehand and also the answer will interest other people. Therefore today we are looking at the most common questions people ask. We will put the answers in here too so that when you visit you don't have to ask these questions and we can concentrate more on more granular issues such as speculating on the cat's collar.

We have an extra blog this week as we thought it would be worthwhile explaining exactly what happened on the 29th of October in Valencia, a day that will be remembered forever here, why it rained where it did, for so long, and the physical consequences of that. So say hello to Gavin who put this guide together for us and if you want to know more then mail us on information@valencia-property.com. The political and social consequences are still playing out, and they are worth getting into too (Listen to this the Valencia Property podcast, and to this, the Sobremesa Podcast), but here we will discuss the bare facts, as a reference for anyone thinking of buying a home in the Valencia region from now.

Sometimes circumstances force us to reevaluate our potential choices in life and that moment might well have arrived for many people looking to relocate to Valencia. This week the number of properties for sale in the city dipped to a new historic low, under 4000 listed properties and as we have explained before on these pages that number should be taken with a pinch of salt; expired listings, sold listings, double listings, the same place listed ten times through different agents etc... 4000 is essentially 1500 more or less. Equally, outside the city in the suburbs there are fewer properties available but in today's post we are going to look at what other choices are available and go back to that major concept of lifestyle design.

As you may well know we recently celebrated 25 years of Valencia Property with an event at the Líndala restaurant and hotel in the Cabanyal. We are still awaiting more photos and videos but today we thought it time to take a look with you at our first video of interviews with our clients and show off a few photos.

Before starting let's just say that not "everyone" wants the same thing. Some people want the standards that we will talking about in this post and some people want a wreck at the end of a rutted track away from everyone else and they are good to go (as long as they can get really fast internet). What we are talking about here is managing expectations. If you want the type of property that we get asked for typically, how much will it cost in different areas in and around Valencia? We'll talk about apartments, villas and townhouses and take a look at what you might expect to pay in different places and then take a quick look at alternatives.

When you are moving to Spain you have three options really for your accommodation (or four if you bring a tent); 1) Purchase a property 2) Rent a property 3) Rent a property with a purchase option The first option is fine, the second suits a lot of people too but the third presents problems peculiar to this type of contract and make coming to an agreement that suits both parties rather difficult at times. Let's look at the issues that can come up:

As you may well know it's August so we are on holiday with just a couple of us holding the fort back in Valencia during the month. Nevertheless, we will still be putting up the weekly blog which I am writing in Asturias (Northern Spain) and we also have quite a few intial client calls lined up in the next few weeks so we can make sure to give the best service possible when we get back in September. Today is a short blog post though with details about a new mortgage deal available through our partners at Mortgage Direct which is very interesting for those of you looking to buy a place that requires modernisation or those of you who have already bought a place and are looking to modernise it now.

Here at Valencia Property we love working with our clients. We generally get really nice people to work with who we click with and we work very well together. This is probably because there is a natural filter on the website in the descriptions of the properties and the tone of both the descriptions and the blogs, irreverant, tongue in cheek, cheeky and light. It's not for us to be the suited and booted agents you find elsewhere dry and without any defined personality. Some people may prefer that and as a result we might not see them as they won't get in touch with an agent that describes a house to the tune of a Mariah Carey song, one that is described as An Ecumenical Matter or one that talks about my semi-obsession with Baileys.

Is it possible to have offers accepted on property in Valencia? It's a question we get asked often and it's a statement "You can get offers accepted easily in Valencia" that people with too much confidence in their own opinions make consistently on Facebook. However as anyone with a little bit of common sense knows making offers and having them accepted involves a degree of knowledge about the property market, the owner's situation and a whole lot of intangibles, some of which we will talk about in this article.