relocoast
Aerial view of Trinity Fort fortified gun platform protecting the Bay of Roses in Spain Costa Brava
Costa Brava · Girona

Roses

2Winter liveability / 5To the sea 200 mTo the airport 100 min · BCNPer m² 3 489 €

Roses is a small town in the north of the Costa Brava on the Bay of Roses, with around twenty thousand residents. The Greeks founded Rhode here in the fifth century BC, and above the town stand the sixteenth-century Trinitat fortress and the remains of the citadel, both built under Charles the Fifth.

For anyone moving, Roses is a resort with a seasonal life: full in summer, noticeably quieter in winter. The distance is real here — a hundred kilometres to Girona airport, two hundred to Barcelona. In exchange the Cap de Creus nature park is next door: a rocky cape, mainland Spain's easternmost point, almost without building. Housing costs more than in Blanes and less than near Barcelona. The tramontana wind blows here constantly and hard.

Worth a trip nearby
  • Cadaqués · 18 km — the white town on the rocks by Cap de Creus
  • Figueres · 17 km — the Dalí museum and the high-speed station
  • Girona · 60 km — a real city with a hospital and an airport
Resalesource
3 489€/m²
+8.5% price growth yoy
asking price: what sellers ask
New build
4 300€/m²
Rent, 2 bed
1100€/mo
Populationsource
20 175
Foreign residents 30.3%
Winter humidity
70%
Sunshine hours per year
2 550h
Rent, 1 bed
850€/mo
International schools
0
Internet
380Mbps

Roses sits in Costa Brava, Girona, right on the water. The square metre is 52% above the Costa Brava median: €3 489 against €2 295. From November to March the town empties out: our rating is 2 out of 5. A resort in summer, shuttered bars and thin transport in winter. 30.3% of residents are foreign nationals per the census: Spanish is not the only language you will hear on the street.

Hospital, terrain, getting around

Nearest hospitalsource
26min by car
Hospital de Figueres
Figueres · 20.7 km · public
Terrainsource
rolling
Centre at 3 m, 34 m of elevation change
25–80 m of change — the climb from the sea to the centre is noticeable on foot
Car-freeour rating
2/5
hard without a car
No rail station within 3 km · bus stops within 1.5 km: 14

Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · OpenStreetMap · ratings for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.

Roses sea temperature by month

4 months above 20 °Csource
14
J
13
F
13
M
15
A
17
M
20
J
23
J
23
A
21
S
19
O
17
N
15
D

Average sea surface temperature, °C, for 2015–2024 — NOAA OISST satellite series, grid cell 20.6 km from the centre.

Tourist load

1
J
1
F
2
M
2
A
3
M
4
J
5
J
5
A
4
S
3
O
2
N
2
D

Roses beaches and water quality

source

Roses has 7 beaches tested under EU bathing water rules, at 7 sampling points. In the 2025 season, all 7 were graded excellent. The last “poor” grade here was in 1991: Playa del Rastrell-Nova.

The grade is bacteria in water samples over the last four seasons — not sand, views or crowds. “Poor” means bathing there is advised against.

BeachFrom the centreGrade 2025“Excellent” in a rowLast “poor”
Playa de la Punta0.4 kmexcellent2 seasonsnone since 1994
Playa del Rastrell-Nova0.5 kmexcellent33 seasons1991
Playa dels Palangrers1.4 kmexcellent29 seasonsnone since 1997
Playa de Santa Margarida-Salatar1.8 kmexcellent35 seasonsnone since 1991
Playa Canyelles Petites2.4 kmexcellent32 seasonsnone since 1994
Playa de l’Almadrava3.5 kmexcellent16 seasonsnone since 1990
Playa Cala Montjoi4.4 kmexcellent27 seasonsnone since 1999

Where from: European Environment Agency, bathing water register, seasons 1990–2025, licence CC BY 4.0. Distance is from the centre in a straight line. Every place in one table

On the map

What tenants actually pay

sourced
Median
500€/mo
75th percentile
617€/mo
Flat size
71m²

This is the median rent on active leases — tax records for 2024, a sample of 1 307 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 1 100 € for a two-bedroom.

The point of the 75th percentile: it is closer to what is being signed now than the median. The gap between them shows how much a new tenant overpays relative to long-standing ones.

Where from: SERPAVI, Ministerio de Vivienda · municipality: Roses

Rent by number of bedrooms

asking price, estimate
1 bedroom850 €/mo
2 bedrooms1 100 €/mo
3 bedrooms≈ 1 430 €/mo
Median of active leases, 2024500 €/mo

Asking prices are what long lets are advertised at today; the registry is what tenants pay on signed leases, including old ones. The gap between them is your negotiating argument.

Schools nearby

estimate

International schools counted in the base: 0. Names and curricula for this place are not verified yet — the school registry covers the thirty most-requested places so far.

2

Renting without a Spanish contract

How realistic a long lease is without a nómina — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.

  • —30.3% foreign residents — income from abroad is routine for landlords here
  • —Prices rising 8.5% a year — the landlord picks, and the first filter is a nómina
  • —Stock goes to tourist lets: long leases are scarce and competed for

This is our model, not a measurement: demanding a nómina is an individual landlord's practice and nobody publishes it. The rating is derived from the share of foreign residents, the presence of a community with services, price growth, seasonality of the stock and the size of the town.

Who lives here

INE 2025
Foreign residents on the padrón
30.3%
6,114 of 20,175
  • Morocco2 145
  • France799
  • Romania386
  • Ukraine232
  • Italy207
  • Germany193
  • Argentina185
  • Colombia183
Communities and services in their language
  • frFrench~1 500
  • deGerman~1 000

Where from: INE, Censo Anual de Población · the register-based census counts padrón registrations by citizenship on 1 January, not everyone living here: seasonal owners and the unregistered are outside it, and naturalised residents count as Spanish.

Winter direct flights from BCN

January 2026/27100 min to the airport
  • other countries76
  • Italy16
  • United Kingdom14
  • France11
  • Germany9
  • Poland6
  • Netherlands3
  • Switzerland3
  • Portugal3
  • Ireland2
  • Belgium2
  • Denmark2
  • Austria2
  • Sweden1
  • Norway1
  • Finland1
  • Czechia1

Destinations served at least weekly in January; checked 2026-09-17.

Paperwork and practicalities

Appointment for the TIE· Gironafrom reports
3
Since September 2025 the card is issued not only in Girona but also in Figueres, Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Portbou, and the appointment is booked for you once the permit is approved. The watching services still report three to five weeks. Even so, in 2026 Barcelona residents were travelling here to book. Moderate confidence.
1 — no slots for weeks, 5 — freely available. Checked 2026-09-17
Coworking within 3 km
not on the map
Dog beaches within 8 km
not on the map
Vets within 5 km
0

From OpenStreetMap — an open map filled in by volunteers. Something missing there may still exist: read this as «we found this many», not «there are no more».

Articles that include this place

Where to look next

Nearby on the same coast
Cheaper with the same sea
Similar price, other coasts
Compare with Jávea / Xàbia
Verified: 2026-09-13 · where the data comes from