El Masnou is the first real beach town you hit coming up the coast from Barcelona, and that position explains almost everything about it, from who rents there to what it costs. Two beaches, two train stations, a working marina, and a commute that most of Barcelona would envy.
The town sits about 17 km up the coast from Barcelona, between Montgat and Premià de Mar, on the R1 line. Trains to Plaça Catalunya take around twenty minutes from El Masnou station and slightly less from Ocata, the second station, which is the one most of the beach-side streets use.
By car you are on the C-31 or the N-II, with the B-20 for the ring road. Parking in the centre is genuinely awkward, and a lot of older buildings have no garage at all, which is worth checking before you fall for a flat. The airport is roughly half an hour by car outside rush hour, more if you leave on a Friday afternoon in July.
Rental asking prices in El Masnou averaged around €14.2 per square metre in August 2026, according to Indomio data, with big differences inside the town. Engel & Völkers puts apartments nearer €13.7 and houses around €11.7, since villas spread their price over more space. What that means in practice:
An 80 square metre flat lands somewhere between €1,100 and €1,400 a month before bills. A four-bedroom villa with a pool on the Bellresguard side is a different sport: expect €2,500 to €4,500 depending on the view, the garden and how recently it was renovated.
The town has its own public and concertada schools, plus a CAP health centre, and the hospital options are a short drive either way: Mataró to the north, Germans Trias in Badalona to the south. What El Masnou does not have is an international school inside the town limits. Families who need one usually look at Alella, Cabrils or Vilassar de Mar, all within fifteen minutes by car.
Day to day the town is genuinely convenient. The marina at Port El Masnou has restaurants that locals use in winter as much as in August, and the market and high street still function as a real centre rather than a seasonal strip.
It suits commuters who want the sea but not isolation, families who value a town with life all year, and anyone who needs Barcelona often enough that a twenty-minute train is worth more than a bigger garden. It suits renters who do not want to own a car, which in the rest of the Maresme is rare.
If what you actually want is half a hectare of flat garden, a long pool and total quiet, look at Teià, Cabrils or Sant Andreu de Llavaneres. The price per square metre of the house is friendlier there, but you will drive everywhere, and the train is no longer part of your life.
Contracts are long-term, arrendamiento de vivienda, which in Spain means five years for an individual owner and seven for a company, with the tenant protected inside that window. Expect one month of fianza plus an additional guarantee of one or two months, and proof of income: a work contract, payslips, bank statements for the last three to six months, and a NIE if you are not Spanish.
One warning worth repeating. In a town with a twenty-minute train into Barcelona, the good long-term flats never reach the portals in decent condition, and the ones that do get fifty messages in a day. If you are moving from abroad, working with an agency that knows which owners are serious saves you weeks, and often a deposit you would rather not lose. Our Maresme rental prices by town piece has the numbers for the neighbouring towns if you want to compare before you commit.
El Masnou is not the most glamorous address on this coast and it does not pretend to be. It is the one that solves the commute, keeps a beach within walking distance and still feels like a town in February. For a lot of families arriving from abroad, that combination beats a bigger house further north in the first year.
Come and walk it before you decide. Start at Ocata station, walk the promenade to the marina, then up through the Centre and into Masnou Alt. Half a day tells you more than any listing will.