The figures from the municipal register of València revealed last week that 18.5% of its inhabitants are foreigners, two points higher than the previous year. A growth in the migrant population in the Valencian capital that is also observed in the rest of the province, where this group represents 14.63%.
An increased presence of foreigners also translates into more home purchases, as explained yesterday by Luis Fabra, director of the Real Estate Market Chair at the University of Zaragoza. Out of the total of 9,300 property sales in the province of Valencia during the last quarter – with a quarterly increase of 17%, but an annual decrease of 8.2% – 28.79% of home purchases during the last quarter, almost one in every three, were made by foreigners.
Fabra was analyzing the real estate market data in Valencia regarding the report prepared by the College of Real Estate Agents and concluded that Valencia has stopped being “the ugly duckling” for international buyers. Without surpassing Alicante yet, the first Spanish province with the highest percentage of home purchases by foreigners, Valencia is already emerging as an attractive province for buyers. The Valencian market is of interest, particularly to buyers from the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Figures that allow us to talk about Valencian real estate as a market with “great dynamism,” in which, as is well known, prices have skyrocketed in the last year: according to the College, the average price per square meter is already 1,531 euros in the Valencian Community, the highest level since the beginning of 2010. The report goes into detail, ranging from 1,976 euros per square meter in the city of Valencia to 817 euros in Alzira or 732 euros in Ontinyent, figures that have increased by different percentages, almost always above 4%.
In the city’s real estate sector, where the state of the market is closely monitored, Grupo Tecnocasa also reported yesterday. Their area manager in the city center, Carlos Alonso, was emphatic: “In Valencia, there is nothing left below €75,000.” He noted that the most commonly sold type of housing is one with an elevator (65.6%), averaging between 60 and 80 square meters (42.2%), with three bedrooms (56.5%), and located in a building that is between 40 and 60 years old (57.8%).
On the other hand, Lázaro Cubero, the group’s head of analysis, acknowledges that with such a level of operations, the expectations of Valencian sellers also increase, estimating this overvaluation of the price at 17.6%. “But it is important to be very aware that homes have to be negotiated,” he points out. The head of analysis at Tecnocasa also analyzed the rental boom: “Why is there so much investment in Valencia? Because renting yields a high return.”
And it is that according to the College of Real Estate Agents, in the province of Valencia, the price per square meter in the month of March for the rental market had an average cost of 11.27 euros per square meter per month, with an annual variation of 17.57%. And in the capital, this rose to 13.5 euros per square meter per month, 19.14% higher than a year ago, reaching the highest level in the historical series.
“The seller is clear that he is not willing to go in a different direction,” notes Luis Fabra, who confirmed, as all sources in the sector insist, that “there is less and less willingness to rent out housing and new construction is residual.”
In fact, one of the new promotions that has started to be marketed these days in Valencia, in this case in the Ayora neighborhood, starts at 197,000 euros per home with just one bedroom. In fact, the Camins al Grau neighborhood where it is located has an average price of 2,927 euros per square meter and is not the most expensive: Eixample and Pla del Real take the lead, with an average of 3,973 and 3,265 euros per square meter in the properties offered.
