Treasure-hunting in the `white towns' of Spain

The search for a house in Spain began in the rain. Soaking torrents of it, falling from thunderously low clouds on to the beaches, mountains and valleys as well as the legendary plains. The sun had been shining in Dublin. The dream seemed suddenly a fantasy. But friends had already been on the roads to the "white towns", the high and unreasonably lovely pueblos blancos to be found hanging on to mountain and cliff tops across the sierras, in an area roughly bounded by Malaga, Algeciras and Seville.

They'd returned with stars in their eyes and tales of whitewashed houses, cool courtyards, tapas with red wine, lazy days, indolent nights and absolutely no traffic jams. It wasn't easy, they warned, but with decent preliminary investigation, a good map, hired car, a head for heights and a determination to avoid the "Costa del Golf", you too could find a house in the real Spain at a relatively bargain price.

The Spain of choice was Andalucia, the lands of the deep south where the Moors might have been until yesterday, where you'll find heelstamping flamenco and lamenting guitars, bullrings and high-stepping horses, sherry and eagles and high, eerily perched ruined castles. We followed the route taken by our friends albeit with detours and the odd adventure. The sun came out and the white towns opened their doors and a house was found. The dream, all going well, will be a reality before the summer's out.

The plan was to investigate villages across the sierras as well as some on the Atlantic coastline, the Costa de la Luz, where the beaches are white-gold, the waters clean and where wild, mercurial winds blow in from Africa.

Still other friends, 20 years living on that coast, had sung hymns of praise to the greater beauty and purity of the area. With Cadiz beckoning and the pueblos blancos swamped by rain clouds, we turned the car toward the Atlantic. There was no problem finding houses for sale. Along that green and windy coast, where wind farms march like surreal sentinels and where windsurfers flock from around the world, you will see Se Vente signs both crude and smooth, all with phone number contacts. Houses are sold privately and professionally in equal numbers here as elsewhere and, providing the title deeds exist and you get yourself a lawyer to negotiate the quirks and twists of Spanish law, you should, if your heart dictates, be able to do business.

The sun came out and we lunched on fish, for next-to-nothing, on the sandy beach in the village of Zahara de los Atunes. The friends who live there gave the best of advice: before buying treat yourself to a couple of investigative holidays, see where precisely you feel most comfortable. Discovering, after you've paid your money, that your heart won't take the hilly streets or your children the distance from the beach, are wisdoms too late. That said, we did hear tales of people who found and went for their heart's desire on one visit. For some it worked but they were lucky, so be warned. Location is always everything, especially when it's a holiday home. Do your homework.

Cadiz was gracious and had apartments for sale with verandas opening over plazas. We didn't investigate having heard of a village in the hills that sounded interesting.

Jimena de la Frontera, where a ruined Moorish castle keeps an eagle eye on the dazzling whitewash and relentlessly ascending calles, is as good an example of a white town as you'll get. There are houses for sale in Jimena, as in most such villages, and some leg work and telephoning will suss out what's on offer. You'll find homes ramshackle and refurbished, small and very large, some out of which the authentic guts have been ripped and replaced with aluminium windows and what locals call "vomit" tiles, others rebuilt with the tenderest attention to tradition.

Generally, internal layouts are nothing like we're used to in this country and you'll be confronted with a labyrinthine series of rooms, alcoves and stairways. Often, the front door will open directly into a bedroom, or livingroom, with the rest of the house rambling up steps or along corridors. Facilities for outside living are as vital to the way you'll live as what's inside: every house will have one or more roof terrace, courtyard, patio, and small garden.

Typical of what we looked at was the house in which the first floor, at the top of stone steps, had been converted to open plan and floored with polished tiles. There was a roof terrace and a garden, and bedrooms on the ground floor. A street away there was a tapas bar and around a corner the village square. Living in a mountain village is not at all like living on the coast. In most, there will be some ex-patriates, it's true, but your neighbours, and the life you'll share in, will be Spanish.

To Stephen Bullock, a barrister working in Gibraltar and happily living with his family in Jimena de la Frontera for 12 years now, must be given the word on the reality of life in a white town.

"There are two different markets," he says of those who come to buy in Spain, "one for people who want to live on the coast and another for people interested in the real Spain and the culture to be found in the frontier, or white villages and countryside.

"The second option is becoming easier as the villages develop and provide things like camping facilities and better catering. But what people need to hear in mind is that you find the real Spain in the mountains and that it is not like the coast. You would need to learn Spanish and plan on integrating."

Basically, there are four kinds of property on offer. In the villages you will find old, virtual ruins for as little as the equivalent of £8,000; completely refurbished, walk-in houses for between £50,000 and £100,000 and a whole range of in-betweens needing some or a lot of work from about £10,000 to £45,000. In the countryside there are fincas for sale - country houses with land on which olive, almond and orange trees grow. These tend to be newish and thinner on the ground since, historically and for reasons of security, people worked the land and lived in the villages.

We found the GaRu agencia inmobiliaria very helpful - they've got properties in San Pedro, Estepona (a coastal town favoured by Spanish families for holiday homes) Marbella and Ronda itself. And so to Malaga and the flight home. It's easy to forget, as you speed with holidaying throngs along the excellent coastal motorways, that Andalucia is Spain's poorest region. This is changing slowly, slowest of all for the people of the mountains and villages.

Tourism has accelerated things in the coastal areas but scratch a village-dweller and you'll find worries, and often anger, at the careless lack of environmental concern on what is loudly and proudly signposted the "Costa del Golf". "The reality is a serious depletion of water resources," Stephen Bullock points out, "keeping a golf course green uses as much water in a day as does the entire village of Jimena, population some 10,000, over the same period."

Time having brought its usual constraints to bear we had to abandon plans to hit the valleys and villages Aljapurras. In the foothills of the great Sierra Nevadas and with all roads leading to Granada, there are many houses for sale too. Granada is a good starting point with estate agents aplenty to point you on your way.

Buying in Spain is no different in its essentials to buying at home: decide how and where you want to live; do your homework; talk to the bank; and take your courage in your hands. But it's truly another world when you get there and when the sun shines it's a life to kill for.