Apologies

We have to apologise for the lack of updates to the main site for owners of properties and for those of you looking to buy here. Hopefully the Blog has been useful during this time. Our web designer is currently sitting in his office waiting for Telefonica to install his new ADSL line which is now three weeks since application. Therefore he has had no chance to update the site. If you are due to be here in the next few days please get in touch and we can arrange viewings of the new properties as well as what you can see on the main site and blog.
The accompanying pictures are of an end terrace in La Pobla with shared garden and facilities. Excellent location and good quality of living. Pictured on a cloudy day for a change. It is now back to normal and sunny though a bit nippy.

Carless in Valencia

I was carless today due to the service needed, oil change and that, so I spent the whole of the day walking round three areas of Valencia finding flats to offer.; Ruzafa, Cabañal and Benimaclet. Despite being far apart all are well served by public transport and so to get from one bit to the others is just a couple of metro rides or a bus journey away.

Ruzafa, recently described erroneously in the Sunday Times as the Notting Hill of Valencia, is a short walk from the centre of Valencia but with prices that are nowhere near places just a five minute stroll away. It is a melting pot of cultures, styles and architecture, moving from the totally decrepit to the modernist loft development. It is a great place to live and prices are in the 200 and something thousand euro range usually for your average flat.

Cabañal is a strange mixture of old town houses, ruins and redevelopments lying next to the America´s Cup Port. Some places are excellent value and certain areas are, shall we say, less inviting. Low rise mixes with medium rise and new lies next to old. Prices therefore are more eclectic and it is still possible to pickup redevelopment projects for just over 100000 Euros and new chic pads cost up to 600000 Euros depending on proximity to sea and port. Be careful in this area as there is a swathe which will be knocked down to make way for the extension of Blasco Ibañez street.

Benimaclet for me is the hidden jewel of Valencia. A young barrio as it was one of the few places that younger families could afford yet still retaining elements of the older generations that previously lived there, this is the real village within a village for which Valencia prides itself. Some streets are all still two floor houses with two flats, one above and one below. The streets are semi pedestrianised and around five in the evening the streets chime to the sounds of children laughing and running around as they are collected from the multitude of schools and nurseries in the area. A working class area of the city with a heart and soul.

The photos accompanying these words are of flats we have available in those areas just showing the facades.

Urbe Desarrollo 2

I again went to Urbe Desarrollo today to see a couple of things which I missed on Thursday. Much more of the same. To see the scope of some of the projects just look at the photos of the stands. These companies put a lot of money into promoting what they offer.

Today I picked up a luxury development in Siete Aguas with prices starting from 540000 Euros for delivery in three years time around a golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones. The houses are designed with energy efficiency, environmental quality and design as a premium. The top of the range houses will have five bedrooms, three suites, spa, sauna, infinity pools, geothermal heating systems, and even panic rooms for those with a tendency to jump at the sound of a sliced golf shot. The course will be watered by recycled water from all of the estates in the immediate vicinity so doesn't have the problems associated with many of these top end developments. A totally gated community just twenty five minutes from Valencia. The price of one of the top of the range places, a cool 1.2 million euros off plan. These are evidently aimed at the top end of the buying market and they are making a play for the disenchanted Marbella set

Our Favourite Estate Throws Up Another Gem

I have just photographed a place on Portacoeli, as many of you will know our favourite estate. Great price for a really nicely designed house overlooking a good sized pool in a quiet cul-de-sac. High quality throughout this house should be seen as the price has been lowered for quick sale by the developer who needs to reduce bank endebtedness in order to start his next development.

Look at the photos and think all of that for Euros is not bad. All it lacks are the semi-compulsory arches on the terraces.

Urbe Desarrollo

The biggest Real Estate Fair in the Mediterranean started today in Valencia. Urbe Desarrollo brings together all of the offers from the biggest promotors of properties on the coast from Malaga to Castellon and beyond borders to the Caribbean and South America this year.

Golf dominated. The number of artificial holes placed strategically nearby to pneumatic hostesses to get your interest in the product was amazing. I counted over 30 stands dedicated to golf developments most of them here in Valencia but also including Polaris World, a development in the Dominican Republic and too many others to count. There tends to be a sheeplike mentality amongst the promotors about what people want, (Last years event had a few golf developments but I do not remember anything close to this year, and not many will deny that a villa or good apartment overlooking rolling green fields dotted with the odd really badly dressed octogenarian pushing a trolley of hugely expensive pieces of metal designed to propel a small white object into a hole in the ground is easy on the eye). However the issue was how many of the projects had final approval, not many. The water question is now a very big deal.

Many promotors seem to be panicking because they are being forced to pay higher land prices and therefore cannot shift the product as fast as in the past. Therefore there were offers galore from 300 Euros down and 300 Euros pcm until completion, with that scheduled for 18 months down the line, to draws for cars, free furniture to put in the flats, High Definition TV´s, 3000 Euros discounts, 6000 to spend at the Corte Ingles etc... Really if they concentrated on quality build, favourable payment terms, location and value for money they would have much less of a problem moving their offers. Gimmicks are all well and good but in the end the development has to be worth the investment when you are buying off plan unless this is intended to be the final home as opposed to a temporary bolthole. At Valencia Property we listen to our clients and find them exactly what they want whether it be investment potential, buying into a lifestyle concept or developing a career. Try us out on that point.

We have picked up only the developments that offer something different to the norm and in this we have gone for Brazil, the Caribbean, (these both complement the ongoing projects we have in Argentina) , Loft developments and central Valencia flat developments along with one of the golf developments which although still pending final approval seems to be the most ecologically viable.

You will see some of these things appear on the site opver the next few weeks as we roll out the offers to complement our carefully chosen already exisiting property portfolio. The new sections on the website will make Valencia Property open up to new areas and grow organically whilst still maintaining tight quality control and a friendly local face.

Regards
Graham
www.valencia-property.com