Muy terco

The real estate agent told us that the Puebla del Duc property was owned by a whole family. It's common for property to be retained and handed down within families in Spain, so it was unusual for such a property to be put on the market.

It seemed from what the agent told us, that all of the family agreed to accept our offer.

Except one.

We speculated that this was "un anciano", an elderly family member holding out for the full asking price. The agent suggested that we were probably right. He wasn't going to budge.

It's worth saying at this point, that if you're planning on buying a property in Valencia (or anywhere in Spain/The World) that there will be setbacks, there will be times when you might feel like it's not worth it. You might feel like putting the money on a horse in the 3.30 at Doncaster instead.

Don't go to the races. Stick with it if you really want it.

Disappointed yes, but not deterred. We had a fabulous few days in Malaga just before Christmas 2015... lunch in the sunshine on December 21st... and then used the Christmas holiday back in rain-soaked Yorkshire to plan our return.

The smart Muelle Uno area of Malaga port. Another dark, grey December day.

The process was repeated, and we set up a second viewing week in mid-February 2016.

This is an exciting time in Valencia... the city is buzzing with excitement for the biggest festival of the year - Fallas. More of this later, but the exciting and culturally entrenched lead-up to its 19th March climax would be very much in the minds of all Valencians.

An apartment in the barrio of Tormos had repeatedly come up in searches. It looked perfect for us. Recently refurbished, only partly furnished and ready for us to make our own.
 
Sadly, it was well outside our modest budget, and didn't seem realistic.

We viewed several other apartments. We experienced some misleading real estate information, saw some great potential... but with too much work required. We heard that properties on our list had sold. Our lovely property-finder lady graciously ignored one or two on our list also. She knew they weren't right.

Then we viewed the Tormos apartment that was outside the budget.

Because we had to.