Premià de Mar does not shout. It sits quietly on the Maresme coast about twenty kilometres up from Barcelona, between El Masnou and Vilassar de Mar, with a beach, a small port and an R1 station that puts you in the city in well under half an hour. For families who want the sea without giving up the commute, it keeps coming up. Here is what living there is actually like in 2026.
The town covers roughly 2.5 km of coastline about 20 km north-east of Barcelona. On the R1 map you find it between El Masnou to the south and Vilassar de Mar to the north. By road the C-32 and the older N-II run along the coast, and the B-20 gives a second way into the city when the motorway backs up. Population is around 29,400, which makes it a proper town with its own services rather than a dormitory village.
One thing worth knowing early: the station sits right on the seafront, so the town is unusually easy to reach on foot from the beach side. If you rent a house on the hill above the old centre, you are still a short walk or a two-minute drive from the platform.
The R1 is the spine of the Maresme and it is the main reason expat families look here. Trains run frequently to Barcelona, and the trip to Plaça Catalunya or Arc de Triomf usually lands somewhere in the 25 to 30 minute bracket depending on which service you catch. The line continues to Mataró and up to Blanes, so you are not stuck with only one direction of travel.
It is not a metro. In the morning peak the carriages fill up, and by the time the train reaches El Masnou and Montgat it can be standing room. If you can shift your start earlier, the difference is real. For anyone driving instead, the C-32 tolls add up over a month, though the road is fast outside rush hour.
The town has five stretches of sand. On the Llevant side you get Platja de Llevant and Bellamar around the port, then Platja del Pla de l’Os and Platja de la Descàrrega near the station, and Platja de Ponent further south towards El Masnou. The Port de Premià is small next to Llavaneres or Arenys, more of a local marina than a destination, but it gives the seafront a working feel.
The promenade is where the town lives in summer. It is flat, it runs the length of the beach, and it is the sort of place where kids cycle and grandparents walk in the evening. For a family renting with children, that flat, safe seafront is often the deciding factor over a hillier town further north.
Rents here sit in the middle of the Maresme range. Market data for 2026 puts flats at roughly 14 €/m² and houses closer to 12 €/m², while some municipal averages come in lower, around 10 €/m². In practice a two-bedroom flat near the centre tends to land between €1,000 and €1,400 a month, and a family house with a garden pushes into the €2,000s. Sale prices hover around €2,700 to €2,900 per square metre, a premium over Mataró but below the top Baix Maresme towns.
As in the rest of Catalonia, the rent on a new contract in a stressed area is tied to the reference index, so asking prices above the index do not always survive a negotiation. It is worth knowing the number for the specific flat before you commit.
El Masnou, just south, is a touch cheaper and even closer to Barcelona, but it feels more like a city suburb. Vilassar de Mar, just north, has a prettier old centre and a strong expat community around its schools, and it tends to cost a little more. Premià de Dalt, up the hill, buys you quiet and green but no station of its own. Premià de Mar sits in the middle: coastal, connected, and generally a bit less expensive than the towns where the international school families cluster.
If you want the beach and an easy train line without paying Llavaneres prices, this is one of the most sensible towns on the Maresme coast. It suits commuters who rely on the R1, families who want a flat promenade and decent local schools, and anyone who would rather have a real town centre than a gated hillside estate. If you need a large garden or a sea view from a private pool, you will more likely end up looking at Alella, Cabrils or Llavaneres, where the plots get bigger as the coast turns north.