Valencia Property Blog

We get clients from all over the World at Valencia Property looking at our properties and deciding to base their life in the wonderful city of Valencia and its surroundings. However we are often asked what type of person buys property in the area. Today therefore we present a guide to the types of person who have bought property in Valencia in the last year or so. People just like you in fact. Which group do you belong to, one or many?

People looking for a better lifestyle at a slower pace.

We get a lot of people who are sick of the rat race, who are looking to slow down while still working, who fancy the idea of a siesta during the day and not to be looked down upon (We do siestas ourselves especially in the hot summer months when we can). Valencia, as a Mediterranean city, offers a slower pace of life but as we have said many times before, if you want to live life at your normal frenetic pace expect to need to increase your patience.

The Patacona Promenade Cafes

Parents of students studying in and around Valencia.

We see a lot of parents contacting us before their children start University in Valencia, after all there are almost 100,000 students in the various Universities, Business Schools and Polytechnics in and around Valencia and many courses are aimed at international students and are taught in English. Many parents see an investment in Valencia Property as a good thing to avoid their children having to pay rent and potentially it gives them an income too while they are here, flat sharing is a big thing and to be encouraged so as to get a better level of Spanish during their stay. This route is particularly popular with the parents of dentists from the UK as Dentistry courses in Valencia are very popular and given in English at various higher education institutions.

People who work in the oil industry or other industries where they are away for maybe a month at a time and they want their family to have a safe place to live with good education options as well as being able to enjoy their downtime to the full.

The oil industry is not well known for being located in "nice" places. The climates are difficult, the areas are often conflict zones and they are not perceived as good places for families to develop and grow. There is another peculiarity of oil workers too, they tend to work a month on, month off system meaning they get to spend a lot of time at home between their working months. They want their families to be in safe and welcoming places with good educational options for their children where their relatively high salaries buy them a good lifestyle. Luckily Valencia offers that to the families who have bought here.

Brighten up your life by moving to Valencia

People looking for a long term investment property that they can also use as a holiday home.

We get a lot of people looking to buy places to rent short, medium or long term and then to be able to use the property as their holiday home when it is not being used. This is especially prevalent in areas popular with students such as Benimaclet, Cabanyal, Blasco Ibañez and Abastos where you can easily find students to rent the place from September to June making it available for you in the summer. Recently there has been a move to renting individual rooms within a larger flat too.

Teachers in the international schools in Valencia and parents moving their children into those schools

We have a lot of contacts in the international schools in and around Valencia. We get initial enquiries for rentals and later on purchases by teachers in the schools and we see lots of parents of children going to those schools base their purchase decisions on the location of the schools. One constant seems to be the property they choose needs to be within half an hour commute of the school. The good thing is that virtually all of our properties are within half an hour of at least one of the international schools but mostly they can all be reached in that time. For those buying in the city the international schools in Valencia all run bus services to school in the morning and evening from various parts of the city.

Workers being placed in large Valencian based companies such as Ford, Berklee, Gameloft and more

There are a lot of large and medium sized companies based in and around the city and many of them bring workers from all over the World to work in the city on software and game development for computers, engineers for cars, music teachers and orchestra members etc... Valencia is a haven for creative industries and development and continues to grow these companies adding them to the mix of industry in the region.

Remainers looking to escape the Brexit nightmare (if you are from the 52% then we are not interested)

We get refugees from the madness that is Brexit virtually every week. We have not had one potential client over the years since 2016 who has described what is happening in the UK as a positive development. What these UK refugees are looking for is a stable environment to bring up their families with prospects for their children in the future and the ability to easily move around Europe to visit, study and work without restrictions. Brexit takes away people's freedom and they want to maintain that freedom. The majority of the people escaping Brexit hope that they will be allowed settled status by being residents in Spain before the Brexit cut off date when things may become a lot more difficult.

Airbus and Many Others Fleeing the Country. Why don't you do likewise?

Trump refugees coming from the States

We have written on these pages before about the numbers of Americans wanting to get away from the Orange Combover Führer. Needless to say the numbers of Americans moving to Valencia continues apace with each successive nutty pronouncement that comes from his ill educated mouth. Americans tend to recognise California in the landscapes, liberal culture and climate of Valencia and as we all know, "California Dreaming" is a big American thing.

Family groups looking for a base for all of their family reunions

We have had some large families looking for large houses that are capable of hosting all the members of the family at the same time. Requirements include a large pool, big gardens and plenty of bedrooms. In Valencia you get a lot for your money in large houses and this feeling of space is not available in Barcelona, Madrid or other areas which have much higher square metre costs.

There's nowhere else I'd like to spend the rest of my life.

Remote workers who can work from anywhere as long as they have Internet connections

The most important thing we are asked about almost always is, what is the internet connection like? The answer invariably is "Very fast". Recently apart from the home internet connections we are also being asked by freelancers who can work from anywhere about the availability of coworking spaces and cafe wifi. There is a thriving coworking culture in Valencia now with new coworking spaces popping up all over the city and even in the villages around. Ruzafa is a particular hotspot for this. The good news is that even if you are not going to a coworking space fast internet connections in homes are the norm here and at decent prices too. More than sufficient not only for working but also for those Netflix binge watching series, youtube downloads and more.

Consultant' architects, public relations etc... where their physical location doesn’t matter

We have people who use Valencia as a base and will jet off to their meetings in other parts of Europe once a month or so before coming back "home" to actually do the work created by those meetings. This is especially true of people in London, Paris and the Low Countries as the cost of living is so much less here in Valencia that even when their flights are taken into consideration they have a lot more money left over at the end of the month and much better accommodation than they otherwise would have.

Retirees from all over the World especially those looking for a more active and interesting lifestyle at a good cost.

Traditionally northern Europeans looked forward to retiring to the sun where they would lie by their pool and slowly drink themselves into a stupor before getting bored. These days retirees tend to be younger, both in years and spirit, and they want to do something with their time such as learn a new language, explore Spain's rich history and World Heritage sights, or just soak up the sights, sounds and experiences of a thriving city. They also get to participate in sports, cultural activities and of course go to meetups with other like minded people.

Advice on escaping the upcoming Brexit disaster

Property developers looking to flip property or buy and hold for renting

We cannot overlook one of the big streams of people looking at Valencia. Property prices are excellent for people looking to get a return from their investments in the form of rentals or redevelopment of a property and flipping for a profit. In the city at the moment it is difficult to find places that will be no brainer renovations giving profit on flipping, bear in mind 10% tax and renovation costs, but they are still available around the city more easily. Buying to rent and get a return on your investment is much more prevalent now and 5% returns are still quite easy with lots of people getting 7-8% returns on their investment while prices rise too, a nice double whammy.

People wanting a change in their lives

Politically and socially 2016 was awful, 2017 topped it and 2018 is a cesspit in many ways. Valencia seems to knock that trend. The city is a liberal and open place with plenty of community activities, a growing sense of sustainability and it is a very liveable city. People want to live in a place that is seen to be moving forward rather than regressing to the potential of "ration books" and "adequate food" (The post Brexit no deal dystopia) Valencia offers a superb climate, amazing liveability, quality of lifestyle, progressive politics and a happy and open attitude. It is by no means a paradise but it is probably better than most places to live where the tendency recently has been the opposite movement towards a more closed, culturally less inclusive wasteland.

Therefore as usual we ask the question, when are you coming to join us in Valencia? Which of the above is your tribe? We look forward to hearing from you, send us a mail.