BARCELONA is commonly known as one of Europe’s cultural capitals, drawing millions of tourists in search of art, sun and GaudÍ’s fabulous architecture. Yet there remains one dark spot on the city’s map: El Raval.

Defined for years by its poverty, prostitution and health problems, El Raval has been slow to reinvent itself. Its flats are often small and shabby, the narrow streets keep out the light, and crime is high. Yet El Raval is seen by its residents as having an enviable authenticity, where artists, students, bohemians and immigrants have found a home. And now, with its increasingly cosmopolitan and sophisticated air, El Raval looks set to become the latest area of Barcelona to share in the city’s cultural make-over – and to provide opportunities for the bolder sort of incomer.

For 15 years or so, the authorities have been seeking to give El Raval a new profile. The area was renamed from El Barrio Chino (The Chinese Neighbourhood) and retouched for the 1992 Olympic Games, but progress since has been fitful. A major cultural complex with two big institutions, the Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture (CCCB) and the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), was opened in the mid-Nineties in the north of the area. With its all-white façade and huge glass windows designed by the American architect Richard Meier, the complex lies close to Barcelona’s main square, Plaça de Catalunya, and attracts thousands of visitors every year. The opening of the city’s new university nearby further invigorated the district last year. To the south, the heart of El Raval was torn out in 1999 when a new pedestrian area was created, but an alternative cultural scene continues to thrive in the surrounding old narrow streets, which are full of tiny galleries with their displays of radical art.

For first-time buyers, El Raval is still cheap, but prices show a reassuring rise. Last year the average cost of a three-bedroom flat in the area was €198,016 (£134,150) compared with €151,767 in 2003. In the neighbouring area, Eixample Esquerra, a flat of the same size goes for €288,230 – 45 per cent more. El Raval is one of the few areas where you still can find bargains for less than €200,000 – though not necessarily in the best of condition.

The wider area around El Raval, Ciutat Vella, is one of the most expensive sections of the entire city, says NurÍa Gimó, of the estate agent Tecnocasa: “El Raval has lately become fashionable. The boom of art galleries and new cultural centres, together with the new university, have given the neighbourhood a new type of crowd that has reinvented the new Raval.”

Most of the people living in El Raval seem to agree that its modernisation is for the better and that it is possible to preserve the area’s cultural richness, although a minority fear that many of the more eclectic inhabitants may be edged out by the gentrification. As one resident says: “In the near future, the small shops and bars with personality and a great mix of people will probably move to another, less stylish part of town, away from the city centre. But it will always be El Raval where it all started.”

FACTFILE

The average Barcelona flat is 721 sq ft and costs €300,000 (£202,485) – or £280 per sq ft.

There is no special tax for foreigners, but the wealth tax for nonresidents in Catalonia is between 0.2 to 2.5 per cent and is levied from the first euro. For residents, the wealth tax starts at €108,200. In both cases any second property is included. Income tax is 24 to 45 per cent.

Capital gains tax is 18 per cent for both Spaniards and foreigners. Sources: Agencia Tributaria (Spanish tax office); Tecnocasa Real Estate Agency, with Pompeu Fabra University; Generalitat de Catalunya (The Autonomous Government of Catalonia)

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