Of course, the dream of most people when they think of relocation to Spain is to buy a variation on the type of property they most would have liked in Northern Europe. And most people, given half the chance, would own a large, character, four bedroom, detached house on a hectare of land, a few minutes outside of some pretty village - not further than around fifteen minutes from a busy, market town. Ideally, an international airport would be no more than around an hour away.

The trouble is that these types of properties in Spain are very hard to find around the Mediterreanean coastline of Spain and certainly within the fifteen to twenty minutes, maximum, drive from the sea that most foreigners, understandably, want. Finding the right dream property to buy in Spain is therefore much more difficult than it looks.

Part of the problem is that land use within Mediterranean Spain has been quite different from Northern Europe. Firstly, of course, Spain has been a traditionally poor country which, up until recently, had only a relatively small middle class. Accordingly, few detached, family properties of any merit were built in the countryside.

Secondly, traditionally, peasant farmers lived in the villages and went out to their land - whereas in the UK, of course, a farmer (even of a small holding) lived in a farmhouse on the middle of his land.

Finally, the landscape of Mediterranean Spain is generally harsh and the Spanish gregarious by nature. So, living alone in the countryside clearly did not appeal and helps to explain the dearth of older, character family homes with a little land.

So, when you drive around Mediterranean Spain, you will see that there is an almost complete absence of the type of properties that most probably you want. Of course, this is not say that there are no large, fine old properties in Spain. But these tend to be Masias, which were the counterpart to the enormous properties of the great British landowners. They are, however, quite inappropriate for most families, often decaying and can have thirty or forty rooms.

Over the past thirty years, Spain has become wealthier and this can be seen from the ages of many of the existing 'new' properties in the countryside. Outside most villages and towns there are a scattering of (often) single storey casitas, around un-made roads, which were built as summer houses by the Spanish. Generally poorly built, ill-designed and often originally illegal, these are properties in Spain that could not be further from the North European dream. They are also properties that are frequently subject to urbanisation and the traumas that process can produce - and they were never intended for permanent living. Many are devoid of mains drinking water (aqua potable), some have no mains electricity and often a landline telephone (and thereby a good internet connection) is impossible to obtain.

The North European property buyer therefore, frequently finds himself having to look for his dream property on new or relatively new estates or urbanisations. These have generally grown up on what was marginal hillside, often overlooking the sea. The urbanisations tend to have villas with swimming pools on relatively small plots of around 800m2. The villas are often superb inside and, at their best, mimic the quality of building expected of a new property in Northern Europe. However, the villas rarely have striking originality or individual character and, as a buyer, you have to be extremely careful about possible shade during the winter months when the villa is located on a hillside. Furthermore, for relocation purposes, these new estates can have limitations. On the surface, they do represent an alternative dream property. However, the urbanisations are, by definition, new and have been built for the foreign, not Spanish, market. They, therefore, tend to quickly become expensive 'ghettos' for foreigners and, not surprisingly have few, if any, amenities.

Missed by many people, when they consider relocation to Spain, is the absolute importance of a fulfilling social life. This, long term, is often more important than any wonderful villa and yet receives little attention when people are distracted by looking for their dream property in Spain - rather than primarily assessing the quality of overall life that an area can provide. Certainly, engaging with the Spanish and integrating into Spanish life is both rewarding and enriching and will provide far greater satisfaction, in the long term, than any property. And this can be hard to do when you live on a new, artificially built estate, upon which live only other foreigners.

So, Spain is an awkward place if what you want is the type of property that would have been a dream in Northern Europe (plus the pool, of course). However, it does provide a quality of life that is unrivaled - if you carefully buy in the right place, having expected beforehand to compromise on your ideal relocation home. Certainly, the art of successful relocation is all about finding the right location - rather than trying, at any cost, to buy an ideal dream home. Always compromise on a house rather, than a potential lifestyle and always spend more time researching a perfect location than being diverted by mere, inanimate 'brinks and mortar'.