PATRICOVA explained: is the property you're buying in Valencia or Alicante in a flood zone?

If you're buying a home in Valencia, on the Costa Blanca or in Castellón, there is an official map worth checking before you pay a deposit: the PATRICOVA, the Valencian government's flood risk plan. It tells you whether the plot is in an area where water arrives often, how deep it gets, or where the terrain itself shows that it floods.

What the PATRICOVA is

It is the Territorial Action Plan for Flood Risk Prevention in the Valencian Community, approved in its revised form by Decree 201/2015. It maps the flood hazard zones of the whole region and restricts what can be built or renovated in them. Its maps are published as open data by the Institut Cartogràfic Valencià: today there are 8,415 zones, 1,452 of them with a hazard level from 1 to 6 and 6,963 classed as geomorphological hazard.

What each hazard level means

Each zone combines two things: how often it floods (return period) and how deep the water gets. From 1, the most dangerous, to 6:

• Level 1: high frequency (25 years) and deep water (over 0.8 m).
• Level 2: medium frequency (100 years) and deep water (over 0.8 m).
• Level 3: high frequency (25 years) and shallow water (under 0.8 m).
• Level 4: medium frequency (100 years) and shallow water (under 0.8 m).
• Level 5: low frequency (500 years) and deep water (over 0.8 m).
• Level 6: low frequency (500 years) and shallow water (under 0.8 m).
• Geomorphological hazard: areas that the shape of the land reveals as flood-prone — dry riverbeds (ramblas), gullies (barrancos), alluvial fans, old channels — even without a detailed hydraulic study.

PATRICOVA vs Spain's national flood map

Spain's National Flood Zone Mapping System (SNCZI, Ministry for the Ecological Transition) covers the whole country with 10, 100 and 500-year river and coastal flood zones. The PATRICOVA adds two things the national map doesn't: water depth (20 cm is not the same as a metre) and geomorphological hazard, which reaches ramblas and gullies without a hydraulic study. That's why a home can be outside the national zone and inside a PATRICOVA zone. In the Valencia region, check both.

What the 2024 DANA taught us

On 29 October 2024 the Rambla del Poyo, which the PATRICOVA already rated level 1 (the highest), burst its banks and the water reached far beyond the mapped zones, into the centre of towns such as Paiporta. The lesson is twofold: a high level near the home is a serious warning even if the house is outside it, and being outside the map guarantees nothing. Heavy rain that overwhelms the drains doesn't appear on any of these maps either.

What it can mean for a buyer

• What you can do with the house. The PATRICOVA sets limits and conditions on building, extending or changing the use in hazard zones. If you plan to renovate or extend, ask the town hall before buying.
• Insurance. Damage from extraordinary floods is covered by Spain's Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros through your home policy, but check cover and excesses for anything kept on the ground floor or in a garage.
• Resale and the bank. The next buyer, their valuer and their bank will see the same map.
• Ground floors and basements flood first: in deep-water zones they matter even more.

How to check before paying a deposit

• Check the exact plot, not the town: zones follow rivers and gullies and change from one street to the next.
• Also check the national flood zone (SNCZI) and, in the province of Valencia, the 2024 DANA flood footprint.
• Ask the seller and the neighbours whether the house has flooded and whether insurance or the Consorcio paid out.
• On the viewing, look for water marks on skirting, raised thresholds, flood barriers or sump pumps: they reveal past floods.

How Hogarfax helps

In the Valencia region, the Hogarfax report checks the plot against the PATRICOVA and tells you whether it lies inside a hazard zone (with its level, water depth and the watercourse it comes from) or near one, together with the national flood zone, the 2024 DANA footprint in the province of Valencia and the rest of the checks: legal use, planning, real square metres, surroundings and price — in English. If we find no zone, we say exactly that, with what the map doesn't cover: never as "no risk".