Getting to the Costa Brava, an area of Spain popular with holiday homeowners, is set to get easier this winter after Monarch Airlines announced new flights to Barcelona.

The new scheduled flights between Gatwick and Barcelona can be booked now and will operate daily from 21 October 2011. This will increase to 11 flights per week from 30 October 2011. Costs for the flights will start from £57 return, including all taxes and charges.

Barcelona and the Costa Brava have avoided the levels of over-development seen in other parts of Spain. The coastline is favoured for its pretty pine-fringed bays and its Catalan culture, with popular resorts including Roses, Begur, Palamos and Lloret de Mar.

Rightmove Overseas is currently advertising a three-bedroom apartment for sale in Lloret de Mar for €192,800. Bank-owned, this property comes with a mortgage with a LTV of up to 90%. If you do buy abroad with a mortgage and need to send money to Spain from the UK to make repayments, using a currency specialist, such as Smart Currency Exchange, could save you money when you transfer pounds into euros.

To understand the full step-by-step process to buying a property in Spain, collect The Overseas Guides Company’s ‘Spain Property Buying Guide’