Santubong riverside beach house

Santubong is the peninsula thirty-five kilometres north of Kuching where Sarawak's coast meets the Santubong river delta beneath a dramatic eight-hundred-metre jungle mountain. It is the closest beach to the state capital, and it comes with mangroves full of proboscis monkeys, Irrawaddy dolphins in the estuary and the Sarawak Cultural Village at the foot of the mountain.

The house is a hundred and thirty-five square metre two-storey timber and block build on a landscaped plot two hundred and fifty metres from the beach. Three bedrooms upstairs with a balcony looking towards the mountain, two bathrooms, an open living and dining area below with the kitchen at the rear, air conditioning in the bedrooms, a carport and a garden of heliconia and palms. Belian ironwood detailing, a metal roof and full mains services.

Kuching itself is the point. It is widely considered Malaysia's most liveable small city: a beautiful riverfront, superb and distinctive food — Sarawak laksa, kolo mee, midin fern — an excellent private hospital, an international airport with direct flights to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Johor and Pontianak, and a cost of living well below peninsular Malaysia. Forty minutes of good road separates the house from all of it.

Sarawak has its own immigration and property rules, but foreign purchase of qualifying residential property is permitted above the state's threshold, handled by a local solicitor. The state's own visa and long-stay programme is separate from the peninsula's.

Weekends look like this: Bako National Park by boat for proboscis monkeys and pitcher plants, Damai beach for swimming, the mountain for a hard four-hour climb, night markets in Kuching, and a dolphin cruise at dusk from the fishing village. For anyone who wants Borneo rainforest and a first-rate small city within reach of the front door, Santubong is an unusually complete package.