You can get everything on the Costa Brava: Modern villas on urbanisations – many with sea views – blocks of flats in or around towns, townhouses, village houses, and country houses known as Masias.
The Costa Brava has a bit of a reputation for the avant-garde (the leading surrealist Salvador Dali was a Costa Brava man), which explains the reasonable choice of houses with contemporary designs on the Costa Brava. It also explains why there are fewer of those corny white houses with round towers you see further south.
The Costa Brava’s flagship property is the masia – Catalan for country house or farm house.
Catalan Masias are rustic country properties built of local stone. Many of them were built in the 18th and 19th Century, though it is possible to find masias that date from much earlier than this. Traditionally they were the homes of well to do local farmers and landowners whose wealth was built out of the productivity of the local agricultural land that is some of the most fertile in Spain. Nowadays most masias cost over a million Euros, even if they need total renovation. Prices for similar properties just over the border in France are significantly lower.
If you are thinking of buying on the coast, be it a villa, apartment, or masia, bear in mind that the tramuntana north wind makes the orientation of property in this area an important issue. Try and avoid north-facing properties, and go for east or south-facing properties that offer much better shelter on windy days.
