Marsa Alam reef chalet

Marsa Alam is where Egypt's Red Sea coast finally slows down. Four hours south of Hurghada, the resort strips thin out into desert, and the shoreline becomes a run of small bays each with its own fringing reef. This two-bedroom chalet sits in a compact compound of a dozen similar units about 250 metres back from a private beach on one of those bays, with a shared pool, a gardener and a security gate.

The building is Nubian in style: thick whitewashed walls, a domed roof that keeps the interior cool without air conditioning through most of the year, arched windows and a shaded terrace. Inside are two bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open kitchen and living space, and roughly 85 square metres of floor area finished in plaster and local stone. Air conditioning is installed in both bedrooms, hot water is solar, and the compound runs a backup generator — useful on a stretch of coast where the grid can be temperamental.

Foreigners can own property in Egypt outright, with a straightforward registration process; the practical requirements are a lawyer to verify the developer's title and a check that the unit is properly registered with the Real Estate Publicity Department. Prices on this part of the coast are among the cheapest sea-view property anywhere on the Red Sea, and the Egyptian pound's devaluation has pushed dollar prices lower still. Service charges in a compound of this size are modest and cover the pool, gardens, security and beach maintenance.

The practical side of life is easy enough. Marsa Alam town has supermarkets, a hospital, pharmacies and a growing number of cafes; the larger resorts along the coast road run restaurants open to non-guests. Port Ghalib marina, twenty-five minutes north, is the social centre of the region with waterfront restaurants, a dive-boat harbour, a supermarket and a clinic. The international airport is forty minutes away and takes direct charter and scheduled flights from across Europe through the winter season.

The diving and snorkelling is the reason to be here, and it is world class. The house reef in front of the compound drops from ankle-deep sand onto hard coral within twenty metres of shore. Samadai Reef — Dolphin House — hosts a resident pod of spinner dolphins. Marsa Mubarak and Abu Dabbab have dugongs and green turtles grazing seagrass in shallow water. Elphinstone Reef, one of the great wall dives on the planet, is a short boat ride offshore. Between dives the desert behind delivers wadis, Bedouin camps and some of the clearest night skies in the world.