A Power of Attorney is something that we have been recommending at Valencia Property for a long time. And not just any type of Power of Attorney, no señor, a full, all singing, all dancing General Power of Attorney allowing the lawyer to do anything for you… absolutely anything, essentially allowing them to be you in Spain. We get a lot of clients who are reticent to do this of course as it’s not normal in other countries. Powers of attorney tend to be for specific things rather than for general matters. And people don’t trust lawyers… I wonder why. So when we recommend a full General Power of Attorney we are often confronted with reticence. Therefore, today we are looking at why you may want a Power of Attorney, how it may save your purchase and what else it can be useful for.
Tag: Moving to Spain
The Best Of Valencia Property 2022
Yes, we know it’s Xmas time and many of you are looking forward to eating and drinking far too much over the festive period so today we thought that rather than giving you more to think about we’d look at our greatest hits from 2022 on a month by month basis. A post you can dip into and out of as you wish to read the most important or sometimes the most popular posts we have produced on the blog this year and also a look back to some images we have taken this year. Without further ado therefore, let’s look at 2022 on Valencia Property month by month.
Which Type of Client Are You?
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.
How To Get a Good Tenant For Your Spanish Property
For any number of reasons you may have a Spanish property that you are currently not occupying and you may want to rent it out short, medium or long term. However many properties remain empty when not being used by the owner as it may be impossible to get a licence for short term rentals, there remains the sad fact that some owners fear tenants who overstay their contracted time period or fail to pay the rent, or sometimes the owner just can’t be bothered with all of the potential problems and hassle that may come up with a rental when compared with leaving a house or apartment empty.
The Market and The Weather Are Hot Hot Hot
Summer has arrived in Valencia with the accompanying heat both of the weather and the property market. The hot weather, well, the truth is we expect it in Spain but maybe not when it’s this hot. Equally, the market we often describe as hot in the summer but maybe not this hot. Even though banks are starting to raise interest rates bit by bit to try and make more money from the current situation in the market, they have just announced record quarterly profits too, buyers are still buying and many are still quite happy to apply for a mortgage even though interest rates are 1% higher than a month or so ago. So in this post we are going to look at the heat of the market and the weather and how to keep cool in both of them.
Comparing Living in Valencia, the UK or the USA in the Year 2SC
Many years ago, back in the dim and distant past of 2017, in the before days, I wrote an article on this blog about the fact that we are not “lucky” to be living in Valencia or Spain but we have planned it and it’s all part of Lifestyle Design, you can read it here. Today I want to expand a little on that blog post and emphasise what a good decision coming to Valencia was and still coming to Valencia can be for you. Let’s call today the year 2AC (After Covid) And yes I know Covid is still around and causing major misery to people all around the World so maybe better to call it 2SC (Since Covid) In 2SC the consequences of the Pandemic and mad decisions made in 2016 are coming home to roost around the World but today we are going to compare Valencia with two places that made especially mad decisions in 2016, the UK and the USA.
The Reserve Payment. Why It’s Becoming Normal
This isn’t going to be an epic long post like some of our recent ones but it is quite important as it explains a concept that we have mentioned in passing before but as it is now becoming more the norm you should know more about it. We are talking here about the concept of the reserve payment to take something off the market while the owner considers an offer.
Traditionally the process of buying a Spanish property, which you can read more about at the link, was simple, make an offer, wait until it is accepted or negotiated and then put a deposit down in the Arras contract. Things have changed because of the market which is blowing really hot.
Are You Getting Value For Money?
Today’s post looks at whether you are getting value for money when buying a property in Valencia. To decide this we must look at what we mean by the term value for money because it means different things to different people. What is the measure we are going to use? To determine this we are going to use four metrics.
1) Reference Values
2) Comparative Methods
3) Space and M2 Price
4) National and International Comparisons
Spring Has Arrived In Valencia and Summer Plans
Finally, we have arrived in Spring in Valencia and the sun is out and the temperatures have risen. It’s unusually late this year but we are now looking forward to a long warm spring and summer. Here at Valencia Property we are really busy as always and we start the week tomorrow (Because today, Monday, is yet another holiday in the city) with a day at the notary and afternoon visits to properties.
Why Valencia Benefits From The Homeworking Revolution
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.
All or Nothing. Choosing a Townhouse
We are getting a lot of interest in townhouses at the moment as many of them offer that perfect blend of space, facilities, value for money and character. On Friday I went to show the townhouse featured in the main image here just to the South of Gandia and I’ve got to say it was rather stunning. Totally modernised in a stylish way retaining the original features such as the original floors and the arched doorways.
However, I also went to see a similar property around the corner but this one required a modernisation. It had a nice facade requiring a bit of a paint but also a litany of issues inside. Read on about the difference because you get all or nothing.
2022 Starts and It’s Complicated…
Welcome to 2022 and Valencia Property. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible with long form blog posts and more but Spain remains on holiday at the moment and Epiphany arrives on the 6th and nothing gets back to normal this year until the 10th when the kids go back to school and the majority of people go back to work.
When Perfect is the Enemy of Good or Great
I recently wrote an article about the Paradox of Choice, you can see it at the link. In it we talked about there being less choice in the market but that is not necessarily a bad thing. We talked about positive constraints and knowing what you want when you are buying property or, to put it bluntly, anything really. When you are sure about what your requirements are then it is a lot easier to find what you are looking for. However, this is a follow up, this is a warning and it’s important when looking for property or anything, sometimes perfect is your enemy because perfect doesn’t exist, sometimes good enough is great!
December 2021 in Valencia Property Land
Normally you get articles on Mondays but today is a Tuesday post because it was my birthday yesterday and I decided to do no work. Now the truth is that December will mean not doing anything on many days because that is what happens in December in Spain. In this post we will tell you about the latest news from Valencia in terms of property, mortgages and inevitably, and unfortunately, Covid, news about holidays this month and our Golden Visa Property of the week too. We will also talk about illegality. Enjoy.
What Makes a Valencian Village (or Town)?
With the move towards townhouses and towns and villages outside the city, whether caused by the pandemic or otherwise, we have been asked many times what is it like to live in a Valencian village or town. Today therefore we thought we would take a look at the aspects that make up a Valencian town.
Civic pride is a big thing with Valencian towns and villages and any local council that doesn’t work on the physical aspects of a town, and even more importantly the fiestas, will have little chance of being re-elected when the next turn at the urns comes. There are many common themes that we can see in what makes a town so let’s look at them in turn.
Apartment, Villa or Townhouse?
For years we have been pushing the claims of townhouses as alternatives to villas or apartments for living in and around Valencia. Not many people have agreed with us as apartments, especially those in the city, and villas have continued to make up well over 90% of our sales to buyers of property in Valencia.
Could this be changing though?
We are starting to see an uptick of interest in townhouses, especially those with back patios and terraces, and we are also seeing a greater desire to be in one of the villages or towns around Valencia with easy access into the city.
November 2021 Valencia Property News
We are not quite there yet but next week is looking amazingly busy so it’s unlikely we will have time to put together this post then. Between sales, holidays, visits and more September and October have flown by and it’s time to look at what is happening in the Valencia Property market to keep you up to date.
Plenty of news in this edition of the blog including some very good news for sellers, (and potentially for buyers too), what is moving on the market, what agents on the ground are saying and some great Valencia Property deals.
Our Ten Favourite Valencia Property Descriptions
Here at Valencia Property we often get thanked for making our descriptions of houses entertaining. whether that be funny, interesting or just plain weird. We are also asked often why we do this. The simple answer to that is to stand out a bit from the normal “Here is a two bedroomed, one bathroom apartment on the third floor” vanilla boredom. When you write a lot of descriptions this can quickly become extremely boring.
Co-Housing and Communal Living in Spain
The concept of co-housing or communal living seems to be growing in popularity in Spain but it is a relatively new concept. As we mentioned in our article about “The Community” people in Spain have been living cheek by jowl and cooperating within their buildings for many years but the co-housing movement now takes the traditional community model and extends the concept somewhat.
Now though co-housing and communal living is becoming more and more popular in Spain due to various factors. However what we are beginning to see now are projects that are being developed specifically for communal living. Today we are going to look at what these concepts are and what they tend to offer.
The Race For Space in Valencia
No, this is not a blog about Bezos, Musk and Branson and their rather pathetic attempts to go into sub-orbit and call it space travel when their money could do so much more good by solving world hunger or trying to avoid climate change, this is about the flight towards more space in properties in Valencia which reflects the news coming out of other countries.
For those with the luxury of doing so, the pandemic has made us all think about the way we live. Less travel, zero commuting, larger spaces, an office room, fast internet, zoom calls, teleworking and a host of other previously marginal ideas have become mainstream. Of course this has been reflected in the property market in Valencia and Spain as a whole.
