The first-generation coast house

Calaret Point was built twice. The first wave ran from 1968 to about 1979 and produced long single-storey houses that follow the contour. The second, from 1994, produced taller houses with more glass and better kitchens.

The second wave has never caught the first on price per square metre, and the gap has widened.

What the early houses do

• They are one room deep, with a corridor on the weather side taking the wind.
• They sit below the ridge line, so they are not the first thing a gale meets.
• They have deep overhangs, which in February is not a style choice.
• They have small windows facing north-east and large ones facing south-west.

Every house on this headland looks wonderful in July. Ask what it is like in the second week of February.

What that means for a buyer

It means a second viewing, ideally in bad weather, and a structural and salt-exposure report before the price conversation rather than after it. On this coast the report is the price conversation.