El Yaque windsurf beach house

El Yaque sits on the southern shore of Isla de Margarita, a two-kilometre crescent of pale sand facing a shallow turquoise lagoon that is waist deep for a hundred metres out. Trade winds blow across it almost every afternoon of the year, which is why the village became one of the world's best-known windsurfing and kitesurfing spots long before anybody thought of it as a place to buy a house. Today it is a quiet strip of low houses, sail lofts, posadas and beach bars, and prices are a fraction of anywhere comparable in the Caribbean.

The house is a typical Margarita build: single storey, flat concrete roof, thick block walls painted white with a blue trim, and a covered front terrace where you sit out of the sun. Inside there are three bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open living-dining space and a kitchen with a service patio behind. Ceramic floors throughout, ceiling fans in every room, split air conditioning in the main bedroom, a roof water tank with pump and a small walled garden with room for a plunge pool. It is a hundred and twenty metres from the sand — one block back from the beachfront row, which keeps salt corrosion and noise down without costing you the walk.

Margarita is a duty-free island of about half a million people, so this is not a remote outpost. Porlamar, twenty minutes away, has hospitals, banks, big supermarkets, shopping malls and a genuine restaurant scene; the international airport is a seven-minute drive from the front door, which is unusual for a beach house anywhere. Everyday costs are extremely low in dollars, which is the working currency of the island economy, and fresh fish, arepas, empanadas and tropical fruit are cheap at the market in nearby Sanchez.

Practicalities matter here more than in most markets. Venezuela's property registry works, and foreigners can own freehold, but you need a good local lawyer to check title, taxes and any inheritance claims, and transactions are usually cash in dollars. Power and water can be intermittent, so a tank, pump and inverter or small generator are normal parts of island life rather than warning signs. Insurance and financing are effectively unavailable, so treat this as a cash purchase with a maintenance budget.

What you get in return is a warm, dry, breezy climate at around thirty degrees year round, a beach you can walk to in ninety seconds, world-class flat-water sailing conditions on your doorstep, and a small international community of windsurfers, kiters and posada owners who have been here for decades. Playa Parguito, Playa El Agua and the wild beaches of Macanao are all inside an hour, and Margarita's colonial towns, forts and the mangrove channels of La Restinga national park make good days out when the wind drops.