Choosing an Apartment in Valencia for the Winter: Heating, Orientation and What to Ask

Valencia sells itself on 300 days of sunshine, and the number is honest. What the brochures leave out is that the sunshine stays outside. From late November to early March the daytime is often 15 to 18 degrees, the nights drop to 5 or 6, and an apartment built for July can sit at 14 degrees indoors for weeks. Newcomers from northern Europe are regularly colder in Valencia in January than they were at home. This guide explains why, and what to check before you rent a Valencia apartment for the winter.

Why the apartments are cold

The city was built to lose heat, not keep it. Most of the housing stock went up between the 1960s and the 1990s, before insulation was required, with single-glazed windows, aluminium frames, tiled floors and thick walls that soak up the cold and hold it. Central heating is rare: there is no district heating, and gas central heating exists mainly in newer or renovated buildings. The default is nothing at all, or a wall-mounted air conditioner that also runs warm.

Add humidity. Valencia sits on a coastal plain beside a lagoon, and winter humidity indoors regularly reaches 70 percent or more. Fourteen degrees at 70 percent humidity feels colder than ten degrees in dry air, and it is why the same apartment that was perfect in September feels damp and hostile in December.

None of this is a defect of any particular flat. It is the city. The point is to choose within it.

Orientation is worth more than heating

The single biggest factor is which way the windows face. A south- or south-west-facing living room gets direct sun from late morning to mid-afternoon on most winter days, and that sun heats the room to a comfortable 20 degrees without anything switched on. A north-facing flat never sees it and needs heating from breakfast to bedtime.

When you view an apartment, or look at photos, work out where the main windows point. In listings, "exterior" means the windows face the street or open air; "interior" means they face a light well, and an interior flat gets no winter sun at all whatever its orientation. Ask for "exterior, orientación sur" and you have solved half the problem before discussing heating.

Upper floors are warmer than ground floors, and a flat with apartments above and below it borrows heat from its neighbours. Top floors under an uninsulated roof and ground floors over a garage are the two to be careful with.

The heating types, from best to worst

Gas central heating (calefacción central or de gas natural). Radiators in every room, a boiler, a thermostat. Rare in Valencia but it exists in buildings from the 2000s onwards and in renovated older flats. If a listing has it, that alone justifies a higher rent in winter.

Ducted air conditioning with heat pump (aire acondicionado por conductos, bomba de calor). Vents in the ceiling of every room, one system, one control. Common in newer buildings. Efficient and even, and it does the summer too.

Split-unit air conditioning with heat pump (split, bomba de calor). The wall-mounted unit most flats have. Check that it heats, not only cools: look for a sun symbol on the remote or "frío/calor" in the listing. One unit in the living room is standard; the bedrooms are then heated by whatever crosses the corridor. A unit in each bedroom is a real upgrade.

Electric radiators and oil heaters. Plug-in, cheap to buy, expensive to run. Fine for a bedroom for an hour before sleep, ruinous as the main heating. If this is all a flat has, treat it as no heating.

Underfloor heating. Exists in some new-build and premium renovations. Excellent, and a sign the whole building is properly insulated.

What to check before you sign

1. Windows. Double glazing (doble acristalamiento or Climalit) and PVC or thermal-break frames. Old aluminium frames with single glass are the main heat loss and the main source of condensation.

2. Shutters and blinds. Exterior persianas closed at night keep a surprising amount of heat in. Check they work.

3. Floors. Tiles are cold. Rugs help more than any heater; a furnished flat with rugs in the bedrooms was set up by someone who has spent a winter there.

4. The heat pump's age. A unit older than ten years heats badly and costs twice as much to run. Ask when it was installed.

5. Damp. Look at the corners of exterior walls, behind wardrobes, around the bathroom ceiling. Dark spots or a bubbling wall mean the flat will need a dehumidifier all winter.

6. Bedding. For a furnished rental from November to March, a duvet or heavy blanket per bed is not a nicety; a summer sheet and a thin cover is a sign the flat was furnished in June and never revisited.

7. Who pays for electricity. Heating a poorly insulated flat with a heat pump for four months costs real money. Know whether utilities are included, capped or metered before deciding what you can afford to run.

The neighbourhoods, in winter terms

Winter changes the ranking of neighbourhoods slightly.

Ruzafa, El Carmen, the old town. Charm, terraces, narrow streets, and the oldest buildings in the city. Beautiful flats, some of them beautifully cold. Look for renovated ones and ask hard questions about windows.

Eixample (Gran Vía, Pla del Remei) and Pla del Real. Wider streets, more sun on the facades, solid early-twentieth-century buildings that renovate well. A good compromise between character and comfort.

Campanar, Benimaclet, Quatre Carreres, Penya-roja. Newer stock, more ducted heating, more double glazing, less atmosphere. If you work from home all winter, these are the pragmatic choice.

The beach: Cabanyal, Malvarrosa, Patacona. Glorious from April to October. From December the sea wind and the humidity make the older Cabanyal houses hard work; the newer Patacona blocks are fine. Many long-term residents rent by the beach in summer and move inland for winter, which is exactly what a flexible contract is for.

Living in it: the habits that work

Locals are not colder than you; they run the apartment differently.

• Open everything at midday. Air the flat for twenty minutes when the outside air is warmest and driest, then close up and let the sun do the rest.

• Shutters down at sunset, every day.

• Heat the room you are in, not the flat. Doors closed.

• A dehumidifier does more for comfort than a second heater and costs less to run. Most furnished flats do not have one; it is the first thing to buy.

• Slippers. Every Valencian household has them for a reason.

• Sunday afternoon in a south-facing living room with the blinds up is warmer than any radiator. Plan the week around the sun.

Why a short contract makes sense in winter

Nobody knows how a flat behaves in January from a viewing in September. A furnished contract of a few months lets you find out. If the flat is warm, extend. If it is a cold box with a view, move to a south-facing one in February without breaking a year's lease.

Globexs apartments in Valencia are furnished for year-round living, with heating checked before each winter and the utilities arrangement stated in the contract, so the January electricity bill is not a surprise. Contracts run from one to eleven months, and moving between our properties mid-stay is a conversation, not a penalty.

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Frequently asked questions

How cold does Valencia get in winter?

Daytime highs of 15 to 18 degrees from December to February, nights of 5 to 8. Frost is rare. The problem is indoors: uninsulated flats without heating settle at 13 to 15 degrees with high humidity.

Do Valencia apartments have central heating?

Rarely. Most rely on air conditioning units with a heat pump, which heat the room they are in. Gas central heating and ducted systems exist mainly in buildings from the 2000s onwards and in renovated flats.

What does "exterior" mean in a Valencia listing?

That the windows face the street or open air rather than an internal light well. Exterior, south-facing flats get direct winter sun and are far warmer than interior ones.

Which is the warmest orientation?

South or south-west for the main living room. It gets several hours of direct sun on winter days, which heats the room without any system running.

Is the beach a bad place to live in winter?

Not bad, but harder: sea wind and humidity make older houses in Cabanyal cold. Newer blocks in Patacona are fine. Many residents move inland for the winter months.

How much does heating cost?

Heating a poorly insulated flat with a heat pump can add a noticeable sum to the electricity bill over four months. Check whether utilities are included, capped or metered in the contract before you decide what to run.

What should a furnished winter rental include?

A heat pump that heats as well as cools, a duvet or heavy blanket per bed, rugs on tiled floors, working exterior shutters, and ideally double glazing. A dehumidifier is the useful extra.

Can I move to a warmer flat mid-contract?

On a standard Spanish lease, not without cost. On a furnished mid-term contract with Globexs, yes: tell us the flat is cold and we look at what is available.

Globexs has had its head office in Valencia since 2010. The company was founded in 2002 by Belgian entrepreneur Lodewijk Cuypers and runs its own legal department in Valencia for visas, NIE and residence paperwork.