Buying property in Valencia: what €100,000 really gets you, with Oleg Grechko of SFERO

In brief: the 2026 numbers

• €100,000 will hardly buy a flat in Valencia itself: it is closer to what you need as a mortgage deposit.
• Around €150,000 buys a two-bedroom flat in a 1970s block just outside Valencia: in Burjassot, Mislata, Rocafort or Sagunto.
• On top of the price of a resale home: ITP (property transfer tax) at 9% in the Valencian Community, up to €1,000 for the notary, around €600–700 for registration and about 3% for the agency.
• Mortgage repayments must not exceed 35% of income, the deposit starts at 20% and approval takes one to two months.
• Rent default insurance costs roughly 60% of one month’s rent per year.

Valencia property prices: why €100,000 falls short

Someone sells a house outside Kyiv, arrives in Spain with the money and is sure it will buy a flat by the sea. Oleg Grechko, founder of SFERO Real Estate, an estate agency in Valencia, hears this all the time and tells people straight that the maths back home was different.

“In Kyiv, 100,000 buys you something really decent. Here, 100,000 buys you nothing. Fine for a deposit, but then what?” Oleg says on the SunClub podcast, recorded in Russian.

If you want to buy a flat in Valencia itself, there is almost nothing on the market at that price. According to Oleg, around €150,000 will get you a flat in the suburbs: Burjassot, Mislata, Rocafort or Sagunto. Godella is already beyond that budget.

“It’ll be a block from the seventies, two bedrooms, a Spanish-style renovation, that pure Spanish vibe. Which, by the way, can sometimes be very pleasant,” Oleg says.

Oleg moved to Valencia with his family. At first he worked online as an employee and set up the agency on the side. It took six months to break even, and by then he was €100,000 in the red: a sales manager, a social media manager, a paid-ads specialist and the advertising itself.

54 min

Key moments

1. 0:00 You can buy nothing here for €100,000
2. 0:30 Who Oleg is and the episode's two big questions
3. 0:57 A planned move: from Warsaw to Valencia
4. 1:41 How long it took to earn his first money in Spain
5. 2:39 What surprised him in year one: red tape and timelines
6. 4:22 If you're not 1,000% sure, don't start
7. 6:13 Why property: poor service at viewings
8. 7:09 First deal: a seafront flat in Oropesa del Mar
9. 8:12 Six months to the first client and nearly €100,000 in the red
10. 10:44 A late-night idea and training: what an agency is liable for in Spain
11. 12:12 Who to hire first and why building a team is hard
12. 13:03 A client with €250,000: the options
13. 14:46 Long-term letting and living there yourself: why it doesn't work
14. 16:03 Why flipping is dead
15. 18:34 Where the margin is now: new builds
16. 19:06 Will the building get finished? How buyers' money is protected
17. 20:39 Buying costs: 9% ITP, notary, land registry, agency
18. 21:42 The owners' meeting minutes: how not to inherit someone else's debt
19. 22:46 Why use an agency when Idealista exists
20. 23:59 Squatters (okupas): how they find flats
21. 25:12 Types of squatters and rent default insurance
22. 27:15 Case study: squatters left in 2 hours for €4,000
23. 29:40 Why landlords ask for your employment contract
24. 32:34 Mortgages for non-residents: deposit and income
25. 33:33 Mortgages for people under temporary protection
26. 34:02 What banks look at: 2-year contract, 3 years as autónomo
27. 35:08 The 35% rule and flats up to €150,000 near Valencia
28. 37:44 How long a seller will wait for your mortgage: 3-month arras
29. 39:46 Up to what age you can get a mortgage
30. 39:56 Difficult deals and unrealistic expectations
31. 42:36 €100,000 by the sea: expectations vs the market
32. 43:57 476 videos in a year: why being visible saves a business
33. 46:33 News vs niche videos: reach vs leads
34. 47:42 Why Oleg signed an annual contract with the print magazine
35. 50:03 SunClub promo code: a consultation with the founder
36. 50:48 Three tips for starting a business in Spain
37. 52:21 A2 Spanish and why there's no way back
38. 53:50 Next episode preview

The costs of buying property in Valencia

The price in the listing is not what you end up paying. When you buy a resale home in the Valencian Community, you pay:

• Property transfer tax (ITP). From 1 June 2026 the general rate is 9% of the price, rising to 11% for homes over €1 million. Large families, buyers under 35 and people with disabilities can get reduced rates. Check the conditions with a gestor (an adviser who handles tax and paperwork).
• Notary: up to €1,000.
• Registering the title: around €600–700.
• Agency: usually around 3%, if you have an agent working on your side.

On a €150,000 flat that comes to about €13,500 in tax, €4,500 for the agency and roughly €1,700 for the notary and registration, so almost €20,000 on top. If you buy a new build, you pay IVA (VAT) at 10% instead of ITP, plus AJD stamp duty, which is 1.4% from 1 June 2026.

For a full breakdown of every payment with worked examples, see Costs of buying property in Spain in 2026.

Derrama: a debt that can become yours

There is one more risk Oleg warns every buyer about: the derrama, a one-off levy that the owners in a building agree to charge everyone for repairs to the lift, the façade, the roof or the entrance hall. If the previous owner has not paid their share, say €4,000 towards a new lift, that debt can become yours.

“Before you pay the arras [the reservation deposit], get the minutes of the last owners’ meeting and see what they decided. If you’re searching on your own, without an agency, make sure you ask the seller for the minutes,” Oleg advises.

Along with the minutes, ask for a certificate confirming there are no debts to the community of owners (certificado de deuda de la comunidad). It is usually requested for the signing at the notary.

Mortgage in Spain for foreigners: what you can borrow on €1,500 a month

A Spanish mortgage is a realistic option both for people who live here and for non-residents. The bank looks at your official income, and the currency you are paid in matters: euros, pounds, dollars, zloty.

• Mortgage repayments must not exceed 35% of income. On a salary of €1,500 that is around €500 a month, which means a flat up to roughly €150,000.
• The deposit is at least 20%. Banks tend to lend non-residents a smaller share, so their deposit can reach 30–40%. Purchase costs are paid separately.
• According to Oleg, banks have tightened the rules for employees: a one-year contract used to be enough, now they ask for at least two years. If you are autónomo (self-employed), you need three years of income.
• Banks ignore undocumented income, cryptocurrency for example. “No paperwork, no deal. Want a mortgage? Go and work on the books,” is Oleg’s answer.
• The term is up to 30 years, and by the final payment the borrower must be no older than 70–80, depending on the bank.

If you live in Spain under temporary protection and rent, Oleg suggests running the numbers on a mortgage: the monthly repayment often works out noticeably lower than the rent on the same flat. All the conditions for residents, non-residents and Ukrainians with temporary protection are in our guide Mortgages in Spain for foreigners.

Mortgage approval takes one to two months, and sellers are not always willing to wait. The arras contract (the deposit agreement) can give you up to three months. “We also agree with the seller that if the bank turns the buyer down twice, they get the arras back, even though legally it might not be returned,” Oleg says.

Property flipping in Spain: why it no longer works

Buy a run-down flat, renovate it, sell it on: until recently this was one of the most popular strategies among investors. “Flipping is dead, just so you know,” Oleg says, and lists the reasons:

• Sellers saw their flats being snapped up for next to nothing and resold at a huge mark-up. Homes that used to go for 100,000 are now on the market for 130,000–150,000.
• There are far fewer flats whose owners have given up on them.
• In 2026 buyers want new builds, and a 1950s building is harder to sell even after a good renovation.
• Renovation work and materials have become much more expensive.
• Tax eats the profit: 9% ITP when you buy and tax on the gain when you sell. A non-resident pays 19% on the gain, and the buyer also withholds 3% of the price towards that tax.

Companies that have been flipping for years keep going on volume: they buy materials in bulk and move them from one project to the next. For a private investor with a single flat, Oleg says, this route offers almost nothing.

New builds in Valencia: where the margin is now

Oleg sees the best returns in new builds: buy off-plan when sales open and sell once the building is finished. Construction usually takes up to two years.

A new build also helps with a future mortgage. Before completion the buyer pays the developer up to 40% interest-free, and the remaining 60% on getting the keys. “The bank counts that 40% as the deposit and gives a mortgage on the 60%. And while the building goes up, the buyer has two years to get their income up,” Oleg explains.

Many people worry that the building will never be finished. According to Oleg, since the 2008 crisis practically everything in Spain gets completed: demand is four times higher than supply, and buyers’ money is protected by law. The developer has to guarantee it can be returned, with a bank guarantee or an insurance policy, and keep it in a separate account.

Squatters in Spain: how they pick a flat and what it costs to get them out

Squatters (okupas) in Spain come in different kinds. The most common, according to Oleg, runs like a business: people move into an empty flat and wait to be offered money to leave. “There’s no price list, but give or take it’s around 10,000 euros,” he says.

Once, squatters moved into a flat that had just been bought for renovation. Two hours passed between the moment it was discovered and the moment they left, and it cost €4,000. “They told us themselves which locks to fit, and even showed us a lock on Amazon that’s harder to break into,” Oleg recalls.

They picked that flat because it looked uninhabited: nobody had cleared the balcony for a long time. Squatters also watch sale listings, which is why some owners of empty flats keep them off the Idealista property portal.

The second kind are tenants who have stopped paying. These cases go through the courts, and the process is now noticeably faster than it was a few years ago.

What the 2025 law changed and what to do if your flat is already occupied: read Squatters in Spain in 2026.

How to protect yourself

• Take out rent default insurance. According to Oleg, it costs about 60% of one month’s rent per year, so roughly €600 on a rent of €1,000. If the tenant stops paying, the insurer handles the eviction and keeps paying you the rent.
• State in the contract exactly who lives in the flat. Anyone else moves in only with your permission.
• Make sure an empty flat does not look abandoned.

This is also why landlords in Spain ask for an employment contract: the insurer uses it to check that the tenant can pay.

An estate agency in Valencia or Idealista?

Oleg believes Idealista shows only a small part of the market. Good properties often never get there because agencies pass them to each other through their own channels. Some owners refuse to have their flat advertised: they don’t want the neighbours to know about the sale and the price, or they are afraid of squatters.

The second reason is paperwork and negotiation. An agent checks the minutes of the owners’ meetings, fits the seller’s timetable to the buyer’s and can secure terms the seller would not have offered on their own, as with the arras being refunded if the bank says no.

Frequently asked questions

Can you buy a flat in Valencia for €100,000?

In the city itself there is almost nothing at that price. For around €150,000 you can find a two-bedroom flat in a 1970s block in the suburbs: Burjassot, Mislata, Rocafort or Sagunto.

What taxes do you pay when buying a resale home in Valencia?

ITP at 9% of the price (11% for homes over €1 million), plus up to €1,000 for the notary and around €600–700 for registration. On a new build you pay IVA at 10% instead of ITP, plus AJD stamp duty, which is 1.4% from 1 June 2026.

For a full breakdown of every payment with worked examples, see Costs of buying property in Spain in 2026.

Can foreigners get a mortgage in Spain?

Yes, if they have official income in a stable currency. Repayments must not exceed 35% of income and the deposit starts at 20%. Banks tend to lend non-residents a smaller share, so their deposit can reach 30–40%.

How much does it cost to get squatters out?

If squatters are occupying a flat to be paid to leave, Oleg Grechko says a deal can usually be struck for around €10,000. Tenants who stop paying are evicted through the courts, and rent default insurance covers both the eviction and the rent in the meantime.

Where to find Oleg Grechko

Oleg Grechko is the founder and sales director of SFERO Real Estate (Valencia, Costa Blanca, Costa del Azahar). Quote the promo code SunClub for a free one-to-one consultation with him.

• Website: sfero.es
• YouTube: @GrechkoOlegES
• Instagram: @sfero.realestate
• Telegram: t.me/sferorealestateSpain

The full conversation, from his first night in Spain to three tips for anyone starting a business here, is on the SunClub podcast on YouTube (in Russian), in the player above.