Valencia Property Blog

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.

Long Term Rentals in Valencia

As mentioned there are many issues with long term rentals in Valencia with the main one being a simple lack of supply, followed by prices rising and acceptance of foreigners by landlords.

Firstly, what you are looking for may not well exist at any price due to the lack of supply. There are various reasons for this which we detail below but when you look at the situation globally as a result you find that long term rentals are really difficult to find and secure.

Secondly there is the price issue, due to the lack of supply and the numbers of people looking to move to Valencia prices have risen. It's a simple supply and demand situation. I wouldn't say landlords can charge whatever they want but it's almost true. If you decide that a landlord is asking too much there will be others deciding that they will pay it.

And thirdly there is acceptance of you as a tenant. It's much more difficult for foreigners to be insured against non-payment and we have covered why this is an issue in these pages before. Without a history here most insurers won't supply non-payment insurance and landlords here have heard enough horror stories of tenants not paying their rents and it being difficult to get them out that they are loathe to rent to somebody without this rental insurance.

Reasons for the Lack of Supply

There are many reasons for the lack of supply and they are repeated the World over. Airbnb being more attractive to landlords, government price caps on property rentals, the fear of occupation by a non paying tenant and how agents view rentals are among the most common. Let's look at them in turn.

The Airbnb issue has been written about plenty so just a quick summary here. If you have a tourist licence for a place then you are likely to "earn" more money from short term rentals than long term rentals. Previously it was easy to get that tourist licence so properties disappeared from the long term rental market to satisfy tourist demand. We will talk more about Airbnb later in this article.

The second reason is because people fear losing control of their property to long term tenants due to annualised rent hike controls by the government. This has always been the case in Spain with rises limited to the inflation rate but when the inflation rate spiked post Covid the government imposed a maximum rise of 2% annually on rental prices, that was then raised to 3%. So prices of long term rentals with a sitting tenant didn't keep pace with inflation giving a perceived loss to landlords.

This leads onto the third reason. People now fear further government action in the rental market to reduce prices or limit incomes from property but the main fear is of someone staying in the property after the end of the contract and not paying. Why would people do this? Well, as mentioned before prices have risen massively over the last few years so if you were in a traditional long term rental from five years ago and we now get to the end of that contract you are looking at a landscape of the few available rentals being almost double the price you are currently paying. When people have nowhere to go they are likely to stay put and then the legal fun starts. People try to avoid legal fun in Spain as it is painful, expensive and lengthy... oh... and not fun, not fun at all.

And there's a fourth reason that is talked about a little less. Agents are no longer allowed to legally charge the tenant for help with finding them a long term rental property. This is for agents advertising properties for rent. Many agents as a result have simply stopped supplying the service as owners don't want to pay. Owners believe, rightly, that they will rent easily without the use of an agent. That's true they will... probably. What owners don't consider is the role of the agent in finding the "right" tenant. One that will pay the rent, look after the property, be insurable and leave at the end of the contract. One that doesn't cause issues over and over again during the life of the contract. Agents not advertising properties and not being interested in rentals is one of the massively underreported stories of the year.

One of the side effects of the ban on agents being able to charge tenants for long term rentals has been that many now advertise properties for a maximum 11 month rental, a long term seasonal rental. Why do they do this? Well a couple of reasons. The first is that they are allowed to charge a fee for finding someone a seasonal rental. The second is that it takes away the rights of the tenant for extending the rental period automatically. Equally, at the end of the tenancy the tenant leaves and the owner can set a new, probably higher price for the next tenant whereas any long term contract would only allow the rise to be of the inflation rate. Also, the agent can also charge a fee to the new tenant or even for renewing a contract for the current tenant. And so the merry go round continues. It's not a good situation.

At Valencia Property we don't advertise properties for rent or work for the owner. We charge a fee for client relocation and included in that fee is in help to find a property via our network of contacts and our communication skills (Along with advice regarding insurance, shipping, schools, locations etc...) On the property front, we recognise that owners don't usually want foreign clients so we work to convince them or their agent to consider you as a client through the information we supply them so they are not so worried about the insurance of the tenant. We do video calls to you in your own country from properties and locations as needed, we find potential availability of places for you and you pay us upfront for the service to help you in your relocation, because we do actually help with relocations of course. If you want to work with us on your relocation and finding you a place to stay then contact us with your requirements.

However you look at it, getting a long term rental is difficult and getting one from abroad without knowing the owners or agents, especially when most agents have jumped ship from the market, is even more difficult. You will probably need the help of experts to find a good rental and that's what we do with our rental and relocation service at Valencia Property. However if this is not enough we also started our own solution for foreign clients coming to Valencia, that halfway house known as Stepping Stone Rentals, our sister company. It's the perfect first step, especially if what you want long term is not currently available.

Medium Term Rentals in Valencia

Stepping Stone Rentals are our solution for people wanting to take that first step into Valencia without the long term commitment of finding what may be an unsuitable and overpriced long term rental chosen out of desperation. Stepping Stone Rentals are medium term rentals, mostly initial three month rentals coinciding with the length of the Schengen Visa, for people looking to move long term to Valencia and wanting to find their ideal long term solution once they get here. That may be a long term rental which is easier to find when you are not in a hurry and you are already on the ground here in Valencia, or for a purchase which is likely to take three months to find the right place and get to completion.

Why Stepping Stone Rentals

There are many reasons for choosing a Stepping Stone Rental as your initial place to stay in Valencia. As the sister company of Valencia Property you are dealing with a known and trusted company in a rental market which, unfortunately, is a sea of uncertainty and scams. Check out our scam post here. Stepping Stone Rental properties are fully inclusive in price and they are fully equipped as if they were longer term Airbnbs. There are no extra hidden costs (Unlike airbnb). We list everything about them including location, terms and conditions, a full walkthrough 360º visit and photos in order to show you exactly where you are staying. You will not find them on any other platforms either. Currently we do not list on rental platforms anywhere.

Most of the properties on the Stepping Stone Rentals website are sourced via clients of Valencia Property who have bought here and know that our clients are people like them, people like you, looking to move to and live in Valencia. Our owners use their properties on an irregular basis because they work in different parts of the World or like periods of extended travel. (Many say they wish they could find a similar company to SSR in the places they go to). They allow their properties to be used by our clients as there is a greater level of trust involved. At SSR we look after the properties for them and are the first point of contact for you as a medium term tenant. You are really getting access to Valencia Property's extended network of contacts and our knowledge base by getting an SSR!

Prices of Stepping Stone Rentals are higher than long term rentals because they are fully inclusive of costs: electric, water, gas and internet. They are however considerably lower than Airbnb prices for similar properties because getting a short term rental for longer periods at Airbnb's daily rate works out very expensively. And speaking of short term rentals...

Short Term Rentals in Valencia

Thousands of short term rental listings in Valencia and Spain have just been delisted on the Airbnb platform and other similar platforms. Why? Simple, they were illegal and running without a valid licence to be short term holiday rentals. The hope is that these actions will force more properties into the long term rental market but that hope looks forlorn. It might actually drive people into the black economy (Which, let's face it, is where many of them already were)

Short term holiday rentals have led to the touristification of cities the World over and a lack of supply in which locals can live in too many cities and these moves to try and restrict holiday rentals have to be seen as a good thing in many places. Unfortunately the restrictions may be too little too late. There are still thousands of properties listed in Valencia for Airbnb usage and anecdotally prices have risen since the delisting of so many properties as demand remains the same while supply has just dropped. We await the full figures to see if this rise continues.

If you are going to be visiting Valencia for a week or two then search out your own Airbnb for while you are here or even better, go the traditional route of a hotel or aparthotel stay or even staying with friends and family. At Stepping Stone Rentals we don't do holiday rentals so please don't send us a mail asking us to do a two week medium term rental. It does exist but we don't do them. Any stay of over 11 days can be considered medium term as opposed to holiday rental in Valencia according to local laws but let's face it, the law is an ass if that is true.

As a company Valencia Property also do not do short term rentals and we don't sell to people looking to get into short term rentals in Valencia as we made a decision to not be an accomplice to the problems caused by those same short term rentals. You can read about our reasoning here. We are though happy to work with people wanting to buy a place and offer medium term rentals of three months through the Steppng Stone Rentals website or long term rentals to our relocation clients or locals already here as that helps people to find somewhere to live and we probably have the clients to give you a satisfactory return on your money too.

Property of the Week 795K Botánico

“I would love to find something in the Botanic neighbourhood” is a fairly common utterance we hear from our clients, and quite often it’s met with “Yeah it’s great but there just isn’t much available over there”. But now we are happy to reply, “Well get yourself over here pronto because this is a bloody amazing apartment!!!”

A spacious, open plan, newly renovated property with killer views off your living room balcony, you’ll be smelling the flowers from the adjacent botanical gardens while counting the cannon ball holes in the old city gates just across the road from you.

There’s a saying here that roughly translates as “Under the Valencian Moon” and while it now signifies to be distracted, it originates from people who would arrive late to the city gates which would have already closed for the night so they would have to spend the night more or less right where we find this property. The difference between you and them is that they didn’t have this fancy renovation with insulated walls, solid wood parquet, radiators and centralised a/c, soft close cabinets, en suite master with a walk-in closet, the biggest fridge freezer I’ve ever seen and a load of other things I’m probably forgetting right now. Who cares how late you are when you have that kind of luxury?

Stepping Stones Rental of the Week in the Cabanyal

Quaint little beach nook for the quaint little family in the famous Cabanyal. Nice large bedrooms, Long balcony, designated office for those remote work calls, and a dryer!

Just a few minutes on foot to: The Mercat Cabanyal, the grocery store (Consum or Mercadona), the municipal gym that specializes in Fencing!, trending instagramable cafes and restaurants, the metro with its direct line to the city center, the Port, the vast Beach, the Las Arenas SPA :-D, the bus and tram - also direct to city center and other points of the city, and the neighborhood health center. This place has everything one could hope for all at arm's length.

Ready to book now for 3 months and then again in end January for as long as you need.

Cheer of the Crowd Condo in Campanar 590K

This isn’t a part of the city we have been coming to very often, a lot of the construction was done here about 20 years ago, which is pretty recent by Valencian standards, as not a whole lot has been built since the financial crisis. It takes about 20 years for a new neighbourhood to develop and mature, and now this area does a have a lot of restaurants, bars, shops and other services and it’s an area we will find ourselves considering more and more often in the future. As an added bonus this apartment is close to the new Valencia CF stadium which will definitely (probably – maybe) be finished in a couple of years, further improving the area. Read more and take a look at the images here.