Where to live in Barcelona, for British arrivals

Ciutat VellaCentral

Medieval streets between the cathedral and the port, and the most visited square kilometre in Spain. Living here means living inside the thing people fly in to see, which is remarkable for a season and wearing after it.

EixampleCentral

Cerdà's grid at its grandest — the Casa Batlló and La Pedrera are on Passeig de Gràcia — with high-ceilinged modernista flats behind the shopping streets. It is the most conventionally desirable address in Barcelona and the best connected.

Ciutat VellaCentral

The old merchants' quarter, with the Santa Maria del Mar basilica at its heart and the Ciutadella park on its edge. It is the Gòtic with more light, better restaurants and slightly fewer tour groups, and it is the most liveable part of the old city.

Ciutat VellaCentral

The most diverse district in Barcelona and the cheapest central address, with the MACBA contemporary art museum at one end and genuine deprivation at the other. It has the best and most affordable food in the city and the worst street-safety reputation, and both are earned.

EixampleCentral

The left half of the grid: the same architecture as the Dreta at a lower price, with the university, the Hospital Clínic and the Gaixample — the city's gay quarter — inside it. It is the most practical central choice and the one most young professionals actually take.

Ciutat VellaCentral

The eighteenth-century fishermen's quarter, laid out on a grid of very narrow streets between the port and the beach, and the single most tourism-affected neighbourhood in Barcelona. Residents have been protesting about it for a decade and the flats are tiny.

EixampleCentral

The restored market hall reopened in 2018 and the streets around it became the most fashionable eating quarter in Barcelona within about three years. Superilla traffic calming has pedestrianised much of it, which is why it feels so different from the rest of the grid.

GràciaInner

The eastern half of Gràcia, on the grid rather than the village streets, and noticeably cheaper for it. It has the same metro links and much of the same character without the plaça noise or the price.

Les CortsInner

The Camp Nou, the university campus at Diagonal and the business towers along it, with a surviving village core behind them. Les Corts is where a lot of Barcelona works and comparatively few people think to look for a flat.

Sants-MontjuïcInner

Between the Paral·lel and the Montjuïc hillside, with Carrer de Blai's tapas street running through the middle of it. Central, hilly, still affordable and, for the money, the best eating in Barcelona.

Sant MartíInner

The old industrial quarter — the Catalan Manchester, as it called itself — rebuilt as the 22@ technology district while keeping the Rambla del Poblenou and a good deal of its factory architecture. It has the beach at the end of the street and the highest concentration of tech jobs in Spain.

EixampleInner

Ordinary residential Eixample wrapped around one of the most visited buildings on earth, which is a stranger daily experience than it sounds. Two streets from the basilica the coach parties vanish entirely and it becomes a quiet grid neighbourhood at a discount to the Dreta.

Sarrià-Sant GervasiInner

Uphill and expensive, with the international schools, the private hospitals and most of Barcelona's old money. It is the standard corporate-relocation address and it is as safe, as quiet and as unexciting as that description suggests.

Sants-MontjuïcInner

A former mill town absorbed by the city, built around Spain's busiest railway station. It has a strong working-class identity, an active co-operative tradition and the best long-distance connections in Barcelona — the AVE reaches Madrid in two and a half hours.

GràciaInner

An independent town until 1897 and it has never behaved like a district since — narrow streets on a different grid from the Eixample, a dozen small squares each with its own bars, and the strongest neighbourhood identity in Barcelona. The default answer for anyone who wants a village inside a city.

Sant MartíInner

Built for the 1992 Olympics on what had been beach-front industry, and the reason Barcelona has a seafront at all. Modern blocks, marinas and the city's main beaches — with Barceloneta's older fishing quarter beside it, which is a completely different and considerably more strained place.

Sant MartíOuter

A former industrial village north-east of the centre with its own square, its own market and a park built on the old rail yards, well served by two metro lines and Rodalies and almost entirely untouched by tourism.

Horta & Nou BarrisOuter

Up the hill behind Gràcia towards Collserola, with the Park Güell on one flank and the Hospital de Sant Pau on the other. Quiet, green, steep and among the cheapest places in the city with a decent metro connection.

Àrea metropolitanaOuter

West of the city across the Llobregat plain, with the Sant Joan de Déu children's hospital, a large office cluster and rents a third below the Eixample. Unglamorous, well connected and where a great many people who work in Barcelona actually live.

Àrea metropolitanaOuter

The second-largest city in Catalonia, adjoining Barcelona so directly that the boundary is invisible on the ground, and the most densely populated municipality in the European Union. It is cheaper than anywhere inside the city and served by the same metro.

Sants-MontjuïcOuter

The residential strip between Montjuïc and the port's industrial zone, reached by the newest stretch of metro in the city. It is plain, it is cheap, and for anyone working in the Zona Franca or at the Ciutat de la Justícia it is the shortest commute in Barcelona.

Horta & Nou BarrisOuter

The northern edge of the city, built rapidly in the 1960s to house workers arriving from southern Spain, and the poorest district in Barcelona. It has the lowest rents in the city, a strong tradition of neighbourhood organising, and a metro connection that most European cities would envy at this price.

Les CortsOuter

The wealthiest residential quarter in Barcelona, on the upper slope with the Monestir de Pedralbes at its heart and the main university campuses beside it. Very green, very quiet, and the one part of the city where detached houses are normal.

Sant AndreuOuter

An independent town until 1897 with a genuine main square, a rambla and a strong Catalan identity that has survived a century of absorption. Cheap, entirely untouristed, and the future site of the new high-speed rail station.

Sarrià-Sant GervasiOuter

Another independent town swallowed by the city, and the one that kept its village core most intact. Quiet, green, close to Collserola and the international schools, and the most obviously family-oriented address in Barcelona.

GràciaOuter

Above Gràcia on the way up to Park Güell, where the grid gives out and the streets start climbing in steps. It is the cheapest way to live within walking distance of Gràcia, and the outdoor escalators are not a joke — they are municipal infrastructure.

Àrea metropolitanaFringe

Along the coast north-east of the city with its own beach, its own basketball team and a genuine town identity. It is the cheapest coastal option in the metropolitan area and the metro reaches it, which is more than most seaside towns anywhere can say.

Àrea metropolitanaFringe

On the far side of Collserola, reached through the FGC tunnel, and the single most popular destination for families leaving Barcelona. It has a Romanesque monastery, a large business park, several international schools and the highest average income in Catalonia.