Beach Tower House

An elegant villa right on Langebaan Beach, built around a twenty-metre infinity pool and a deck that looks straight down the lagoon. The living room sits under a four-and-a-half metre ceiling with the little tower that gives the house its name, and the kitchen is properly equipped rather than nominally so.

Four bedrooms sleep eight, three of them facing the beach, and every one has its own bathroom — en-suite or directly opposite. One bedroom can be shut off from the rest of the house entirely and has its own entrance, which is useful when two families share. There is a kite store with a wash-down for salty gear, and an olive tree in the back garden for the hours when you have had enough sun.

Two things Markus says plainly, and we will too. The pool has no fence and cannot be covered, so children and anyone who is not a confident swimmer must be watched at all times. And while the solar runs the house and the hot water almost independently of the grid, a stretch of load shedding in cloudy weather can still leave it short.