"I would leave crying every time I visited an apartment because I couldn't pay for it." Victoria Antequera is an official of the Generalitat Valenciana, she is 50 years old, she has a 16-year-old daughter and a few months ago she was forced to look for housing outside of Valencia because she could not cope alone with the rental prices that were required of her in the capital. . She now lives in Almàssera, on a fourth floor without an elevator, in an old apartment, for which she pays 600 euros: "I am adapting it, they rented it to me without appliances." "It's frustrating, I've lost all my daily urban references," she warns.
Victoria Antequera is an example, there are thousands, of people expelled from Valencia due to the spectacular increase in sales and rental prices. Not long ago, Victoria still lived in her neighborhood, in Benimaclet, one of the neighborhoods that is suffering the most from the phenomenon of gentrification. "I lived with my partner and we paid 700 euros, but they raised the price to more than a thousand and I also separated, I couldn't face everything alone with my salary." She tried to search other neighborhoods in the city. "She couldn't find anything but rooms, she left the apartments she visited crying; in a few months the prices had skyrocketed."
Victoria's case is close to that of Lluch García, although with important differences. The first is age, since Lluch is 29 years old; He has a partner, but no children. He is a community manager for an important Spanish publishing company and since the summer of 2021 he has lived in Alginet, in a large, renovated apartment, "in the new part of town," he points out, and for which he pays 450 euros per month. It is a town connected to the Valencia metro line and with easy access to the highway.
The last apartment they had in the capital, before going to Bilbao for a while, was an old third floor without an elevator, for which they were asking more than 750 euros. "My partner works in Alfafar (a town near Alginet) and I can do my work from home; we were looking for the solution we have found, here the quality of life is high and we are well connected." Lluch recognizes that accessing rental housing in the capital "is impossible if you don't have a partner", as Victoria also emphasizes. "I have several friends who have left Valencia to come live here," concludes Lluch.
The testimony of Sara Olivas is also significant. Graduated in Journalism, she remembers that there was a time, when she left her family home, when it was "impossible" to find an apartment because of how little she earned in her "precarious job." "I left València when I found a fairly stable job, of which, luckily, I am no longer a part, and a partner. We had not yet considered living together until the little apartment came into our hands thanks to word of mouth. Moving on from València to Gandía was quite a big shock, especially for someone accustomed to a large city full of spaces, events, activity and cultural plans."
His surprise was to discover that the new apartment was in Benirredrà, "a very small town that can be separated from Gandía by just a couple of streets." Describes the house: "it is an old house with three bedrooms, a bathroom, a terrace and a living room. And a beautiful linoleum floor. A more than perfect house for two people, especially considering the price: 400 euros per month (without considering the expenses, of course). A bargain to which, two young, precarious and artists, we could not say no."
"Life in Benirredrà is a different life from Valencia, even from Gandía, and it is literally separated by a street." She adds that in this town "you can breathe a village atmosphere that I was not used to, but that I like more every day. There is a greater feeling of community and collectivity that does not exist in big cities where we all greet each other, know each other and we help".
And it concludes with a very positive message: "In my case, breaking up with Valencia has meant breaking up with many parts of myself, with which I am still grieving. However, the feeling of liberation and empowerment of feeling, for the first time, "In 29 years, in my own house, I wouldn't change it for anything. You could say that, by moving here, to Benirredrà, I have started again. Starting from scratch."
The cases presented refer to the difficulty of facing the cost of renting in Valencia, but this also happens with purchasing. Fernando Chiva, married, 47 years old and father of two children, explains his story, which also has a happy ending. "I left Valencia at a time when the real estate market was in full speculative turmoil, especially in the capital, and in my lifelong neighborhood, Malilla (Quatre Carreres), you couldn't buy a flat - ideally new - to start a life project for less than 200,000 or 250,000 euros".
He relates that "it didn't take us long to start scrutinizing the real estate market, and soon we decided in a non-traumatic way to expand the radius to l'Horta Sur, first because my wife's family lived (and lives) in Turís, and it suited us wonderfully. to be at an intermediate point and a stone's throw from Turís and at the same time from València, so Picassent or Torrent added up."
He adds that given the price level of the capital and "our purchasing power at that time (something more than mileurists), but with job positions tending towards stability, we dared, even though we were conservative in our predisposition to waste, to pay an entry for what I consider to be a great opportunity: a new subsidized apartment with three bedrooms, balcony, garage and storage room in Picassent".
Fernando points out that living in Picassent "has not at any time detracted from my job opportunities, nor has it prevented me from developing my cultural and political concerns during these almost twenty years." Consider that Valencia is not only València, but "Greater València", its entire metropolitan area, everything is a large conurbation from Puçol to Almussafes and from the Port of Valencia to Ribarroja, where distances are measured in quarters of an hour by car, motorcycle, subway or Rodalies". "Sometimes it is easier and faster to get to, for example, Vara de Quart, from Picassent than from La Malvarrosa or Benimaclet," he adds.
And it concludes with an optimistic message. "My family (parents and sisters) also followed in my footsteps and made Picassent their residence. My two children were born here, and what we initially perceived as a "bedroom", over the years and mainly because of the children and their integration into the school environment, it has become our home, our lives have already taken root in Picassent and today, at almost 47 years old, I do not conceive in the short term, at least while my children are of school age, and my wife and I of working age, change my residence. Picassent is a town with all services, well connected, and fifteen minutes from everywhere."
