Inland valencia property

If you are thinking of buying a home in Spain then one of your first decisions will be whether to buy on the coast. Beach views attract many foreign residents as well as wealthier Spaniards, and as a result, the coast is much more expensive than areas just a few miles inland.

In this article, we will look at the types of homes you can find in the less expensive areas that are near, but not on, the coast.

The Spanish, like the British, prefer to own their own homes – and often have more than one .

According to The Economist magazine, more than 80 per cent of Spaniards are homeowners, compared to 64 per cent in the UK. A surprising number of Spaniards own two homes, usually a flat in town and a weekend home on the beach or in the country.

Prices doubled

Like Britain, prices have risen considerably in recent years, almost doubling since 1995. The national average price of a used home is now €145 000 – according to Tinsa, one of the nation’s largest independent property valuers.

However, there are some important differences from the UK. Older Spaniards prefer to live in flats near the town centre. They happily accept the noise and pollution of city life rather than having to commute to work everyday.

The Spanish are also much less likely to move home than the British. They often stay in the same flat for 30 or 40 years and normally try to pay off their mortgages as quickly as possible.  Frequently, a newly married couple will pay a hefty deposit for an off-plan flat in a new part of town. They will then save hard for the next two or three years as the building is constructed and visit the construction site every other weekend to gaze longingly at their balcony. After such a large emotional investment, it not surprising that settled Spanish couples are reluctant to sell.

Chalets

While detached British-style houses, or chalets, have always been common in the north of Spain, they are a comparative novelty on the Mediterranean coast and in inland cities. However, increasing numbers of detached or terraced houses are being built in the city suburbs. As most young families now have two cars, many are overcoming a traditional dislike of commuting and the city centres are gradually being abandoned.

In some urban areas, such as Valencia, local town councils resisted this trend towards suburbanisation and the resulting housing estates, or urbanizaciónes, were built illegally. Many of these estates are now being legalised and the missing infrastructure, such as street lighting and sewers, is being slowly installed. Villas on these estates are usually bungalows of between 100-160 square metres – and with between 800 and 1500 square metres of land.

New villas are almost always built on fully legalised estates. They are often two or three stories high and terraced. Occupying around 125 square metres, they usually sit on much smaller plots of land than older villas, and offer easy-to-manage gardens with just enough space to build a small swimming pool.

Village townhouses

A different type of house can be found in the smaller towns and villages. Known as a casa de pueblo, these two-storey townhouses can appear deceptively small from outside. They are typically built in terraced rows and face each other across narrow cobbled streets near the centre of the village. These houses often feature large imposing front doors that would have enabled the original owners to bring their horses into the house itself.  Townhouses may have a small courtyard, or rooftop terrace, but gardens are not usual. This style of house is now rare in larger cities.  

Blocks of flats, large and small, reign supreme in Spanish towns and cities. All of these blocks are owned and managed by the owners of the individual flats as condominiums – the quaintly medieval British-style leasehold system being unknown.

VPO buildings

Newer buildings were either built as régimen libre (meaning unregulated) or VPO (meaning officially protected homes). The difference being that VPO buildings were privately built with a soft loan given by the government on the condition that the finished flats were sold to families with average, or less than average incomes; while régimen libre flats were constructed to be sold on a first-come first-served basis. Buyers of VPO building are often given soft mortgages and prevented from re-selling their flats until they have been in residence for about five years.   

VPO flats are generally quite small (less than 100 square yards) while régimen libre flats are larger, at around 125 square yards. Foreigners are free to buy either type. Most buildings have car-parking spaces underneath, yet these spaces are usually bought and sold separately from the flat itself.  

Larger and more luxurious apartments can be found in most cities; often overlooking parks or on prestigious city centre streets.

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For more information on Valencia and our range of property go to:

www.rawlinsholden.co.uk or in Spanish at www.rhinmobiliaria.com

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