Valencia Property Blog

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we don't just list anything at Valencia Property. This has been brought home to us even more than ever in the last couple of weeks when we have seen some absolutely ridiculously priced properties listed online. I'm not going to name names but jeez!!! I'll give you the examples with percentages instead in certain cases.

However, this won't be all about pricing I think today we can talk about shady practices in general including of course our favourite bugbear, the use of Ai.

How We Choose to List

Our previously published post about this gave the Valencia Property Rules For Listing. It was only written a year ago so if you are interested in the full story click over there and take a look. The most important points are main roads, noise, darkness, optimistic pricing, location, distance, money in B, comparatives, nothing special about it, botched renovation jobs, a particular developer and dodgy listing agents.

Today therefore we can concentrate on that "optimistic pricing". Let's start with this doozy.

The average asking price in the area is around 5800 Euros per m2 according to Idealista. This is 8500 euros per m2 and is a first floor (Dark) needing modernisation and I don't think anyone pays that much to buy their own personal jail. Why do I say that? It's because when you take a look at the photos there are bars and cages everywhere. It's utter madness. On the plus side, it has a garage space... so there's that. I decided not to link to it (I want to keep you on my page of course) but it's easy enough to find online if you are that way inclined. It may be great, it may be much better than the photos suggest... it probably isn't. What it is for sure is massively overpriced.

And There's More

Recently we have been to see two properties with the owners and told them the values of their apartments. They decided to use other agents who were happy to list their properties at prices way above real market values. Both of them have been listed at 20-25% above the price range we gave the owners. The listing agents have contacted us to offer us the properties and the answer is of course a "good luck with that".

And in another totally different scenario we were offered a property which has just reduced it's price from 600k to 459k. Sounds like a decent price reduction right? Well, no actually. We had it for sale two years ago at 295K and took plenty of people round but didn't sell it. The agency actually offered it around in May at 615K so it had already had one price reduction. The owner (Or perhaps the agency) have dressed it up a bit and made the staircase better but that price, even the newly reduced price, is hatstand mental.

And one last thing... 10,000 Euros per m2. And 25m2. 250K. And you can't even live there. It's commercial with a tourist licence. Until it loses it.

How Attitudes Differ

In our article this summer we talked about To List or Not To List when we get offered these properties. Our initial reaction to overpriced... sorry "Optimistically Priced" properties is to say no. Sometimes we are cutting off our nose to spite our face because the place sells.

Other agents might not be so discerning and there is a reason for this, or rather a few reasons:

Firstly, if an agency hasn't got any listings then they are much more inclined to accept unreal price framing from an owner. "I want this, sell it for me". There is no questioning of why, no advice on market conditions, no expertise involved at all.

Secondly, and this is a biggie. It's all to do with employment. In many agencies they employ "Captadores". A captador is someone who only goes out and brings properties into the company, they have no role in the selling of the property perhaps but they are charged with making sure the agency has product. If they don't bring in a certain number of properties per month then they are sacked (Or rather "let go"). This creates a perverse incentive to make sure they list their quota whatever the quality of the properties they bring in. Someone else in these companies is charged with getting discounts on the properties from the owners once they don't sell. And that is why you are suddenly seeing discounts on the property portals. Agencies are telling owners they had previously assued that there wouldn't be a problem selling their property that they need to reduce the asking price "But don't worry, it'll sell at the lower price!".

Finally the word is "Cebo". I used this in last week's podcast. Cebo means Bait. Now really bait should be attractive right. But in this case the overpriced properties are used as comparatives for any good or well priced properties the agent may have. It's a business plan I suppose! It's not ethical but it's a business plan at least.

And speaking of the podcast. Here it is and it's unmissable.

The Latest Ai Monstrosity

Take a look at this. Lovely isn't it? I mean, it doesn't exist and never will but you have to say it's lovely.

Now I might well have been interested in this at 240k if I didn't know one thing. Ai exists and is creating ever more doubt in the minds of buyers. Is what you are looking at real? The answer is, "Of course it's not real" Ai and Photoshop are two of the worst excesses of the real estate business.

I'm sure you want to know what the real images are so you can compare and contrast. Let's take a look shall we.

And the funny thing is that this is a potential bargain. There are four semi-detached houses available for finishing off. That's 60k each. Now if... and it's a big if, the licences are in place and valid, the structures are solid and well built and the project is decent then you might well be able to develop the four places, make economies of scale and sell the finished article at a decent price. However... good luck with all of those caveats being in place and correct.

Other Scams

There are plenty of other scams, things you need to be careful of and dangers lurking in the Spanish real estate market but that's what we are here for at Valencia Property. We act as a buyers agency, a fully fledged personal property shopper for our clients. We avoid the issues that can come up through our years of experience, professionalism and knowledge all the while keeping the experience a good one for our clients. If you want to start your search then of course as usual we just ask you to fill in the form below and we can start your journey.

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You Should Also Read

Some of our other posts. I was reminded this week about some of our past posts that explain the market and how good they were.

I wrote this last year about the lack of supply in the Spanish property market. Have just seen someone recommending it as required reading on LinkedIn. It's good to be appreciated www.valencia-property.com/new/2025/06/...

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— Graham Hunt (@grahunt.bsky.social) October 9, 2026 at 9:01 PM