Winding through the middle of the city, the old Turia riverbed is a draw for Valencia's stressed housing market. The green lung of the city, next to the Alameda and the Viveros Gardens, the green areas further enhance the value of the few homes for sale in the city. The price increases by up to 55% if the home is located near this green area, according to the consulting firm CBRE. And this increase means that housing prices in the Trinitat neighborhood, where the park is located, are around 3,503 euros per square meter, compared to 2,264 euros/square meter in the La Saïdia district where it is located.
And just as it happens with the sale, it happens with the rent, which has skyrocketed in the last year. Here it rises almost 7% in the homes surrounding the park, with an average price of 16 euros/square meter, while in the same district it stands at 15.2 euros/square meter. Last year the average rent was 14 euros/square meter compared to 12.64 euros/square meter in the rest of the district.
José Ramón García, manager of the My Home real estate agency in La Saïdia, knows this well, explaining that "in Pla del Real you can no longer find anything for less than 3,000 euros per square meter; it is the most expensive there can be in València." He refers to the homes next to the La Pérgola area, the legendary sandwich kiosk in front of Viveros, or to the building that faces it, right next to the headquarters of the European University.
The City of Arts also has high prices, but ensures that the reference is always the Turia park. "The lung around the Alameda is being a reference; in fact, what is promoted around the Maritime, which is a request, is along those lines. The demand is based on price and that can be afforded by the upper-middle social class of Valencia," explains García.
In fact, Valencia is the city that revalues its green areas the most according to the classification made by the consulting firm, after analyzing the price of housing within a radius of 500 meters from the main parks in Madrid through its Location Intelligence service. Barcelona, Bilbao, Málaga, Seville, Zaragoza, Alicante and Palma de Mallorca, in addition to the Valencian capital.
Pedro Félix Vicente, director of Valuation Advisory Services in Valencia
The trend has been growing since the pandemic, when the same consulting firm found that living near a park could increase the price of housing by up to 41%. Three years later, the difference is even greater, with València being the reference in buying and selling and Málaga, in renting.
There the difference is currently 19%, since the average price next to the park is now almost 21 euros/square meter compared to 17.5 euros/square meter in the district; values also higher than a year ago (18 euros/square meter vs. 15 euros/square meter for the rest of the district).
CBRE's figures coincide with the trend recently revealed by the UPV's Housing Observatory Chair's latest report. The map of the city of Valencia by price range revealed two districts above the average: Campanar, especially for its new constructions in the area of the Palacio de Congresos, and Ciutat Vella, followed by La Saïdia or the Eixample, that is , the neighborhoods bordering the old riverbed of the Turia.
"What we see in Viveros is a pronounced case of what we see in the city, it is a sample of what happens in the city," argues Pedro Félix Vicente, who dares to estimate the importance of green areas in the price of the housing market. "The facade to the riverbed is 15% better, just like what happens in La Saïdia, where Viveros divides the neighborhood. Alboraia street is not the same as Jaume Roig, Bachelor... The distance becomes more acute," he maintains. A trend that he believes will be reduced in the city as it focuses on new developments and, also, on green areas that give it value.
