If you are looking to move to Valencia you might be asking why you should choose Stepping Stone Rentals. Why not a long term rental or an airbnb for a week or so? Stepping Stone Rentals were designed to avoid the issues associated with long term and short term rentals, mostly those to do with cost and accessability. Let’s look at why Stepping Stone Rentals make sense for somebody coming into Valencia from abroad.
What Does SSR Cost?
Stepping Stone Rentals are three month rentals or more. However, we always suggest an initial time period of three months as this is the most cost effective for you and costs you less than other rental options. You make one payment before coming over and your rental is sorted. You choose your SSR from our growing selection and when you arrive it is ready for you to move into, fully equipped and without any extra worries. You can have it for the full three month period and relax.
Now some people may think it’s an expensive way to start as you have to pay three months upfront. However, bear in mind the following: All utility costs are included, there are no agency fees and there is a one time 500 Euro deposit included in your initial payment which we as an agency hold and make sure you get back at the end of your rental rather than depending on the honesty of a landlord you don’t know. Let’s compare that with the other methods of finding a place to stay.
What Does a Long Term Rental Cost?
Your rental cost of a long term rental will be less per month. This is because the cost is taken over a 12 month period which will include both expensive summer months and cheaper winter months. However you are locked in for a whole year and as a foreign tenant you may be asked for a full 12 months upfront (This shouldn’t happen but does).
Even if you are in a position to pay that 12 months upfront we believe you shouldn’t because trying to get a landlord to do anything when they already have the money in the bank is nigh on impossible usually. Equally, they will likely still ask for a month or two as a deposit and despite recent changes in the law regarding who should be paying commissions, the agency that you use for finding the property is still more than likely to charge you a month’s rent as their finders’ fee.
Even if you manage to get an agreement to pay monthly as opposed to 6-12 months in advance you will still have to come up with a minimum of three months payments to start often four as furnished rentals often ask for two month’s deposit even though they shouldn’t. One of these payments you will never get back at the end of your contract, the agency fee. So a twelve month contract costs you 14 months rental in Spain, 12 for the contract, one for the agency and the month (or two months when furnished) deposit. You then have to add on your utility costs which are never included in the cost.
At SSR your initial payment is your only payment. And for a three month rental you pay three months. No commissions. With a traditional long term rental after three months you have paid 5 or 6 months when you include deposits and agency fee.
How SSR is Better That An Initial Long Term Rental
Of course, if you pay upfront this means that you have tied yourself into a long term contract with no get-out clause. The new rental law from two years ago allows you to get out of a contract after 6 months by giving a month’s notice but if you have already paid out then good look with getting the excess months and deposit returned. Spanish courts are slow and expensive. And landlords know this.
If you do the maths you will see that a 60 euro per day (1800 euro per month) Stepping Stone Rental is actually just as cheap or potentially cheaper than a 1200 Euro per month long term contract because of the utilities, extra months’ payments and agency fees, and it also has the potential to be much much cheaper if you run into problems with a long term rental.
What Does An Airbnb Cost?
Airbnb used to be my go to option when travelling but now even hotels (and even luxury ones at times) are cheaper than Airbnb prices. And it’s not just the base Airbnb daily price it’s also the Airbnb “cleaning” costs. Once you are in an Airbnb for more than a week or so the costs can add up considerably even though sometimes, mostly out of season, some places offer longer stays at a slight discount.
As an example let’s take a look for next month in an area where we offer SSR properties, the Cabanyal. Our daily rate is 50-60 euros in the Cabanyal for the properties we currently offer. The average Airbnb price is 3300 Euros per month without cleaning fees added. For a three month stay the cheapest is 2950 Euros per month currently, 100 Euros per day, and it’s nowhere near as good as our selection. All of the rest are over 100 Euros per day.
However, let’s assume you are using Airbnb for just your initial stay in order to find a long term rental. The pressure is on.
You need to pay an average of 140 per night for a week, 1000 euros with fees therefore, and you have to find a long term rental in that time. You hardly get to use the property as you are out every day desperately searching for a long term rental and you either jump into the first one you see or you hold out until a good one comes up meaning you need to extend your stay for another week if available, and another 1000 euros and the pressure ramps up. Or you are forced to move into a second place for the following week meaning packing again, paying another cleaning fee and not being able to unpack and wind down for another week. The pressure to choose your long term rental ramps up more as you are eating into your budget with these high weekly costs.
And if you choose your long term rental in haste during that first week or two you may also find you get trapped into a long term rental that is not suitable after. Not a good scenario.
So What’s The Solution?
That’s easy. A three-month rental with one single upfront payment and no commissions in a vetted property by Stepping Stone Rentals following on with support to find your long term rental or purchase from our sister company the long established Valencia Property with no rush and more options.
Do you see how it makes sense?
You don’t feel trapped because even if your Stepping Stone Property might not be your ideal long term property. It doesn’t matter as you are only there for three months. It won’t have anything inherently bad about it either in terms of facilities, area or comfort, we make sure of that in our vetting process of properties.
If this looks interesting to you then contact us and we can chat about your requirements. Just send a mail to info@steppingstonerentals.com or fill in the form on our website here and we will contact you.
