Valencia: The City People Want to Move To

2026-07-26 18:00 Life in Spain

Valencia: housing costs, schools and healthcare, safety, work, residency pathways, the Fallas festival, and the honest downsides locals talk about.

Valencia is one of the most talked-about cities in Spain among people considering a move. It's the country's third-largest city with over 800,000 residents, and counting the metro-connected suburbs, the wider area approaches 1.5 million. Over the past two years, the share of foreigners among residents has grown by 20%. That's not an accident, but the result of several factors coming together: history, a comfortable urban environment, access to the sea, and relatively low prices compared to Spain's other big cities.

Here's an honest, practical breakdown: what Valencia is really like, what housing costs, how schools and healthcare work, which residency pathways exist, and the downsides locals talk about openly.

Size and Place Among Spanish Cities

By population, Valencia ranks third after Madrid (around 3.5 million) and Barcelona (just over 1.5 million). From Barcelona, you can reach Valencia by bus in about 4 hours: a distance of roughly 350 km. In general, connections between Spanish cities are excellent, and whether by car or train, getting anywhere in the country is fairly comfortable.

A Green City With Thoughtful Infrastructure

The first thing that strikes both tourists and new arrivals is the greenery. The city has 50 parks, and the most famous, the Turia Park, stretches almost 10 kilometres: from the Bioparc to the City of Arts and Sciences.

This park has a dramatic backstory. A century ago, a wide river flowed here, but in 1957 heavy rains caused a catastrophic flood: the water burst its banks, flooded countless homes, and dozens of people died. Afterwards, the difficult decision was made to divert the river outside the city and turn the freed-up riverbed into a vast park. That's where the City of Arts and Sciences stands today.

Valencia is officially recognised as a European Green Capital: the status was granted in 2023 and confirmed in 2024. And it's more than a title: authorities are steadily turning roads into pedestrian zones and squares, making the city cleaner and more comfortable for everyone.

The city is designed around the 15-minute principle: a school, medical centre, and hairdresser are all within a quarter-hour's walk. This saves both the environment and time. The transport system is impressively varied: metro, buses, bikes. There are 200 kilometres of cycle lanes, and many locals even cycle to the hospital, including families with children.

Worth noting: smooth kerbs and the absence of sharp height changes across most of the city. This makes Valencia easy for people with strollers and people with reduced mobility, who use public transport without difficulty.

Transport and Connections to Other Cities

The metro is one of the most popular ways to get around: stations everywhere, journeys of just a few minutes. You can live in a suburb like Torrent and reach the centre in 20 minutes. There are 10-trip passes, and the government periodically introduces youth discounts: for two years running, travel was free for anyone under 30.

The airport is 15-20 minutes from the centre by metro. When the metro isn't running (early morning or late night), a taxi costs around 15-20 euros: cheap by European capital standards. From Valencia airport you can fly almost anywhere in Europe: tickets to Mallorca cost 10-20 euros with a flight time of just 40 minutes.

The connection to Madrid and Barcelona is especially convenient: the high-speed train to Madrid takes about 1 hour 50 minutes. For residents, travel becomes cheaper, and depending on how often you travel, you can find good-value passes. Many Valencia residents commute to Madrid for morning meetings, and you'll often see passengers with laptops on those trains. A curious point: comparing the cost of living, commuting to Madrid from Valencia for meetings works out cheaper than actually living in the capital.

Valencia's Northern Station sits just minutes from the city's main square: another logistical plus.

Architecture and the Atmosphere of the Centre

Valencia's centre is quite small: two or three days is enough for a tourist to explore, though with museums and exhibitions you could easily spend weeks. The city dates back to Roman times, and you can trace the passage of history easily: monuments survive from almost every era, from Roman to the modern City of Arts and Sciences.

The small medieval streets are a special treasure, usually free of cars: you can wander in silence, studying each building. Two things stand out: endless street lamps and remarkably varied doors, many as old as the buildings themselves. Combined with the warm climate and locals' love of decorating homes with greenery, you get the atmosphere people fall for at first sight: you walk with no plan, and beautiful squares and churches appear before you.

In fairness: not all of the centre is equally lovely. Occasionally you'll find historic buildings in poor condition, and some structures don't match the spirit of the old town. One colourful but imperfect part is the Arab quarter: here you'll find graffiti, some genuinely talented, some plainly bad, plus its share of litter.

Beach and Waterfront

Beyond the charming old town, Valencia draws people with the chance to relax by a warm sea. There's not just a beach but a large harbour with a promenade: a great spot for running and cycling. If you want livelier surroundings, head to the beach itself: a wide pedestrian avenue, cafés, restaurants, and lots of greenery.

The beach has very fine, fairly clean sand, ideal for running and sport. The scale is impressive: the shore stretches for tens of metres in both directions, so there's room for everyone. Swimming season runs May to October, though reaching the beach on foot in the summer heat is a challenge of its own.

Safety

Valencia consistently ranks among Europe's safest cities: the 2024 crime index confirmed it officially. Valencia is most often compared to Barcelona, and it wins that comparison. Residents say they feel calm even late at night, including women returning home in the dark and parents whose children walk home from school alone. Good lighting across the city, including the Turia Park promenade, helps.

In fairness: with the recent influx of foreigners, petty theft has increased. Not robberies, but pickpocketing, especially on the beach, where police regularly remind people to watch their belongings.

Healthcare and Life Expectancy

Spain leads the world in life expectancy: Spaniards live around 85 years on average, making it the best in Europe and third in the world. Valencia reinforces this reputation: the city was named the healthiest city in the world in 2021 and 2022.

The medical infrastructure is solid: medical centres, laboratories, and several major hospitals across the city, with the Quirón and HIME networks standing out. La Fe Hospital entered the world's top 200 hospitals in 2024: a huge complex of over 26,000 square metres, where complex cases are referred from all over Spain. A bonus for Russian speakers: several Russian-speaking doctors work in the city, including paediatricians, GPs, and a gynaecologist.

Education and Life With Children

Perhaps one of Valencia's strongest points is how well it's suited to families with children. The school system has three tiers:

State schools: free for all children regardless of migration status. Education until 16 is not just a right but an obligation
Semi-private schools (concertada): parents cover part of the cost, usually 40-80 euros a month plus small expenses for materials and meals
Private schools: chosen by families with specific plans, for example if the child will later study in the US or UK

According to consultants working with relocating families, parents most often choose the school first and then pick the neighbourhood to live in. That's how important the factor is.

Parents who've already moved with children unanimously note the warm attitude towards kids in local schools. Teachers care not just about grades but about adaptation: children who don't yet speak Spanish get individual tasks with tablets and translators, go on excursions, and follow a full curriculum from the start.

A telling point on money: schooling is effectively free, and you mostly pay for meals, around 150 euros a month. A comparable nursery in a big expensive city can cost a family several times that.

On leisure: Valencia's infrastructure for children rivals few cities. From a giant playground shaped like a reclining Gulliver in the city centre to countless football pitches, numerous clubs, and small playgrounds in every neighbourhood. The city is also home to one of Spain's largest football clubs and a prestigious football academy: a strong argument for families whose children love football.

Work, Remote Jobs, and the Language Question

Valencia has long been a magnet for tech workers, freelancers, startup founders, and remote employees. Largely thanks to an established international IT community and relatively low housing prices compared to Barcelona and Madrid. One criterion relocating families mention is the concentration of the IT community (if one spouse works in the field) and the presence of an expat community that matters for adaptation.

Do you need Spanish to live in Valencia? The answer is mixed. The city is heavily oriented towards expats, and many things can be handled through English-speaking specialists: banks, schools, and everyday situations can mostly be sorted in English. But if your goal is to fully integrate into Spanish society and talk directly with locals, Spanish is essential. And for employment, the local language is generally required.

Housing Costs

Property prices in Valencia remain noticeably lower than in Barcelona and Madrid, which is what attracts many people. A good two- or three-bedroom apartment in a decent area, renovated and liveable, rents for roughly 1,500-1,700 euros a month. Buying a similar apartment starts from 250,000 euros plus taxes.

Around 80% of newcomers rent first, to see whether the city and its infrastructure suit their family, and only then do some decide to buy. The remaining 20-25% arrive already certain they want to stay and buy property right away.

Real estate specialists note that it's genuinely hard for foreigners to rent on their own. Without knowledge of local rules, mentality, and the right documents, the process can drag on and run into problems. But with professional help, a suitable apartment can be found in a day or two and the contract signed the next day.

Residency: Ways to Move

There are several main routes to legal residency in Spain via Valencia:

Student visa: requires study at a language school, university, or business school. Since May 2025, under the new regulation, you can only apply from your country of residence, not from within Spain
Digital Nomad Visa: requires a work contract with a company that has a double-taxation agreement with Spain, with a salary of at least 2,650 euros a month (or contracts as a self-employed individual)
Startup visa: requires a business plan approved by Spain and grants the right to work in the country for three years

Important: each route has its nuances, and requirements change regularly. It's best to check the current conditions for your specific situation rather than rely on general figures from the internet.

Leisure, Culture, and Getting to Know the City

Valencia's main landmark is the architectural ensemble of the City of Arts and Sciences, created by Santiago Calatrava. The complex has five parts: an opera house, a cinema with a planetarium, a botanical garden with a gallery, a science museum, and an oceanarium, which is the largest in Europe. Despite its scale (all five projects were completed within just seven years), the complex avoided the typical problem of grand ambitions, ageing: some parts were built around 25 years ago but look brand new. The oceanarium and opera house are considered the most successful, while the science museum is often criticised as a case of form winning over content.

Right beneath the historic centre lies an archaeological layer: the ancient Roman Via Augusta, which ran along Spain's entire coast, plus the remains of theatres and hippodromes. You can visit for a symbolic 2 euros.

Another landmark is the Silk Exchange (Llotja de la Seda), built at the end of the 15th century during the region's silk boom. Twenty-five houses were demolished in the heart of the city to build it, with an orange garden planted at the centre of the complex.

The city has 34 museums: from the Museum of Fine Arts to the National Ceramics Museum. Ticket prices are noticeably lower than in Barcelona or Madrid, and on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, entry to many museums is free. There are quirky details too: this is home to Europe's narrowest building at just 107 centimetres wide, and in 1936 the city served as Spain's capital for 11 months.

Las Fallas: The City's Main Event

A vivid chapter of Valencian life is the Fallas festival, held in March and ending on the 19th. It celebrates the arrival of spring, much like a carnival: residents bid farewell to winter and to everything bad by burning symbolic figures.

Legend traces the tradition to carpenters who burned the wooden scraps accumulated over winter. Over time these fires grew into whole sculptural compositions (fallas), which today can cost up to 400,000 euros for a single large figure, while small satirical dolls (ninots) mock political and social events. For nearly three weeks the whole city is caught up in one festival, culminating in the nighttime burning of all the figures: a truly spectacular sight.

❗️ The flip side of the festival is the constant firecrackers across the city from early March. Many compare the sound to actual grenades. Expats in local chats complain about sleepless nights and deafening noise until four in the morning, and advise leaving the city during the festival or escaping to the promenade and beach.

That said, Fallas is not just a spectacle but a vital part of Valencia's economy: the region ranks first in Spain for registered musical groups (over 500), and the festival provides work for a huge number of artists, musicians, and craftspeople, while bringing the city serious tourism revenue.

A Personal Story: Teresa's Experience

A good illustration of what relocation looks like in practice is the story of Teresa, an American who moved to Valencia eight months ago with her dog. She bought an apartment for 280,000 euros in the Nou Moles area, part of the wider Olivereta district: outside the historic centre, but just 10 minutes from it by metro.

An interesting detail of the Spanish home-buying system that Teresa shared: there's a deposit contract (contrato de arras). If the buyer backs out, they lose the deposit; if the seller backs out, they must return the deposit at double the amount. This protects both sides and gives time to arrange financing without fearing someone will outbid you at the last moment.

Teresa's apartment stands out for its terrace: a rarity in Spanish housing, where you more often find only small Juliet balconies. The terrace, along with the open-plan kitchen-living room (cocina americana), was her main reason for buying. That said, kitchens and sinks in Spanish apartments are traditionally small: a common complaint among American newcomers.

On food, Teresa notes that local vegetables and fruit are far more seasonal than in American supermarkets. Her neighbourhood has fruterías (small greengrocers), but no proper market, so she mostly shops at the supermarket. Spanish tomatoes, she says, are far tastier than the ones she bought in Los Angeles. Overall, food in Spain is cheaper than in the US, though inflation is felt here too. The expat community in Valencia is genuinely international: you can meet people from all over the world, which makes socialising easy even for introverts.

The Downsides Locals Talk About Honestly

Despite the widespread love for the city, people who've moved here name the downsides of Valencian life honestly:

Summer heat. Almost everyone calls it a serious challenge
High housing prices. A newcomer should budget around 1,100-1,200 euros a month for a decent two-bedroom apartment, and small studios are barely built in Spain at all
Slightly untidy streets. Rare rain means dust and dog-walking residue aren't washed away as often as you'd like
Typical Spanish frictions: an inflexible banking system, bureaucracy, and a lack of punctuality among locals and organisations

Final Thoughts

Valencia is a city where a modern urban environment blends naturally with preserved history: from ancient Roman ruins beneath the old centre and medieval streets to the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences, built on the site of a former riverbed.

It's a city built for walking and cycling, one of the safest and greenest in Europe, with strong education and healthcare, housing prices noticeably lower than Barcelona or Madrid, and a genuinely international community. That said, moving here isn't a flawless fairytale: summer heat, rising rents, and the quirks of bureaucracy remain real factors worth weighing in advance.

Thinking about moving to Valencia and not sure where to start? Take a free eligibility assessment for moving to Spain. It takes 10 minutes, and you'll understand which path fits your situation.

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