Opinion

Afternoon all,

I'm usually kicking around the Portugal forum as me and the better half were planning on finding a place out there, but after making multiple trips to Spain this year (Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian and Valencia) we've opened our eyes to Spain as a possible destination.

I've run a search on the forum but couldn't find anything too recent, nor too relevant- apologies in advance if I have missed something. So...

Valencia- Pros and Cons? Anyone got any experience with the city, either visiting or relocating? Transport, eating out and drinking out all seem to be reasonable enough, at least for someone living in the South East of England. Anyone have an opinion on the cost of living, and all the other fun stuff? Utilities, Council Tax (?), insurance etc.

I've had a cursory look at property prices (2 bed apartments) but I'm not having much luck with estate agents websites. I've had a look on Rightmove and A Place In The Sun, but when they seem to be somewhat out of date when I try and go directly to the agents site, and a lot of the agents are advertising as Valencia city, but when you Google them they're actually in villages an hours drive away! Is there a Spanish version of Rightmove?!

Many thanks in advance!

xvt

I lived about 20kms inland for 6 years, Beautiful place and fantastic City.
Valencia Property have stuff listed in the City as a starting point, there are many others!

snikpoh

You'd be far better looking at Spanish websites rather than UK ones.

Have you tried Kyero, idealista, fotocasa .....

Loafing Along

"Did Valencia" in some depth as my brother thinking of relocating there. We spent several days trawling properties visiting agents etc.
Huge plusses, lovely old centre, excellent market, great infrastructure, good restaurants, coastline so so, need to go a bit further afield. Downside communications to UK not as good as Alicante ( weight of tourists ) , as a city pretty expensive compared to other parts of Spain. Also language issue bit inbetween Spanish and Catalan.Properties as already suggested Idealista and Fotocasa will give a good overview. Top areas near centre lovely apartments up around a million or so and probably need remodelling. Brother found a more sensible priced one near railway station until his wife pointed out girlie pictures in shop window below. He never did move.

davidinspain

Don't really understand the "language issue" yes people speak Valenciano,but thats normally between themselves.All my neighbours speak to me in Spanish,you may find the odd older person who doesn't speak Spanish but it's pretty rare.

Rosemary

In the city itself they generally speak Spanish not Valencian. Within smaller towns they normally speak Valencian to each other all of the time but happily switch to Spanish for foreigners.

Valencia city is wonderful, so much to see and do and the people are great too.

Rosemary

Opinion

Sorry, I should have made that clearer- I've been looking at the sites you mentioned too, along with a few others, but a lot of them don't accurately say where the property is, which is less then helpful. I've found foundvalencia.com to be the best so far, and they replied to my email within 24 hours which was nice.

Definitely agree with those pluses. What do you mean by "communications to UK not as good as.."? I can see where you're coming from when you say it's expensive, but I'm used to London prices so not too much of an issue there. Ideally I'd like to be within 4km/60 minute walk of the Old Town, which (I think) gives me a decent sized area to look in.

I don't suppose you have any idea about costs of running a home? I'll obviously be doing research, but having a head start would be good =)

Thanks for the replies so far everyone!

Loafing Along

Alicante being a popular tourist destination has more and cheaper flights to and from UK compared to Valencia.

Yes the area is big enough, on our visits we liked the area around the University. Running a home ?? House/apartment ??? Problem areas near the train station. Apartments for restoring in the Old Town .Typical costs plus/minus Euro 2.000,- a year , local taxes, community fees, insurance before utilities.
Have a look at this :¿Cuánto cuesta vivir en Valencia?
If you cannot read all the text you can look at the numbers. back to your original comments the most expensive cities in Spain are Barcelona, Madrid and San Sebastian

Opinion

I'm with you now, and that makes sense.

I'd be looking at a two bedroom apartment, no lift, no pool. I've now had emails from homeespana.co.uk and foundvalencia.com and both have said my budget is realistic, so that's good. The latter I believe is who wrote the article you linked to. Both have put purchase fees at around 15% of the purchase price, can anyone confirm that is accurate?

Speaking of which, thanks for that link! Very helpful. I guess it's all relative, but...

Supermarkets: Had a nose around and they didn't seem too bad.
Bars and restaurants: Got plenty of experience with those, haha.
Transport: We were really surprised by how reasonable busses, the metro and taxi's were.
Utilities: That article seems to say electricity/heating/water/gas for an average sized apartment would be around €100.00 per month, plus another €34.00 for broadband, which doesn't sound so bad? From looking at properties online, I've seen Council Tax (IBI) down as anywhere from €150 - €400 per year, which seems cheap, and Community Fees that vary, which I assume is down to elevators, pools, green areas etc.

Does anyone have any experience with home/contents insurance? Any other "apartment running" costs that may have been missed?

Loafing Along

15% is a reasonable assessment of costs, even on the high side. 8% Tax, lawyers, register, notary , depends how agency fee sorted ( normally seller pays but if they are looking for you sometimes a fee ) .
Average apartment in Spain is 90 sq mtr.
Utilities sound about right, broadband lots of offers I reckon Euro 50,- a month gives us broadband plus two mobiles with data.
Your IBI seems low but maybe that is Valencia. There is also a refuse collection charge in most regions.
Community fees exactly - number of apartments, pool, gardener, lifts ( our lawyer always said beware of buildings with old lifts they have to replaced and they are expensive ). When buying a must do is check if seller is up todate with fees.
Household insurance around Euro 250,- pa , can get better prices.

Loafing Along

Sorry The transaction tax is 10% in Valencia. Now understand why 15% is a good estimate

Loafing Along

If it helps this is lawyer my brother spoke with for management of property purchase :
Law Firm Valencia - Marta Romero