Property for sale in Valencia

Buying a house in Valencia means buying in a big city with a flat centre, its own port and a beach a few kilometres from the old town. After a severe flood in the late nineteen fifties, the Turia was diverted around the city; the old riverbed is now a long park running right through it. The municipality is larger than the city: to the north and south it also includes separate villages, the pedanías, with Pinedo and El Saler among them on the southern coast. So buying here means first choosing a district, and sometimes a village.

Inside the ring road you buy in the old town, in l’Eixample with its Russafa district, or in the districts along the Turia garden. By the sea lie the port districts of El Cabanyal and Malva-rosa. El Cabanyal is a protected ensemble of low houses with tiled facades, where a plan to drive an avenue through it caused years of decline until it was scrapped. Mind the boundary: the Patacona beach and the Port Saplaya marina adjoin Malva-rosa, but belong to the municipality of Alboraia. The pedanías are villages of the municipality of Valencia, each with its own character.

In the city it is mostly flats, in existing blocks and renovated buildings, plus penthouses; new builds with a pool are mainly around the Ciutat de les Arts. With an older block, look first at the lift, the facade and the services, and at what the owners’ community has set aside for them. In El Cabanyal and the old town, the rules of the conservation plan apply to any renovation; have an adviser check what you may do. Along the Malva-rosa promenade there are flats by the sea.

Valencia suits people who want to live in a big city with metro, tram, train and an airport just outside town. It suits those looking for a detached house with a garden less well; you are more likely to find that in the villa belt outside the city. Look closely at where a home is, too. In the major floods in the province, the worst-hit parts of the municipality were not in the city but in the southern pedanías, such as La Torre, Faitanar and Castellar-l’Oliveral, and neighbouring municipalities to the south and west were also badly hit. Have the flood map checked per address.

The airport is in Manises, west of the city; the metro runs from the terminal to the centre in about half an hour. From Joaquín Sorolla station, high-speed trains run to Madrid, and suburban trains go to Gandia and Castelló. Inside the ring road a low-emission zone is being introduced step by step, eventually affecting residents with older cars too; the old town already has restricted access. Valencia airport is also an alternative for the northern Costa Blanca, for example from Dénia. Read more about city and coast on the page about the Costa de Valencia.