The pleasure of starting with the land: A Bequia site above Friendship Bay

Some houses tell you at once how they are to be lived in. With others, it makes more sense to start with the landscape and let the house follow. Horne Land, above Friendship Bay on Bequia, belongs firmly to the latter category.

The site extends to approximately 2.75 acres of gently sloping, south-facing ground on the island's southern coast. Look out, and the eye travels across the water to Mustique, with Balliceaux and Battowia lying closer in, a view that seems, as the best ones do, to have been arranged for the purpose. It takes little imagination to see what might rise to meet it: deep verandas, shaded outdoor rooms and gardens generous enough for family and guests to find their own corners.

The gentle gradient is a considerable asset. A house on such a slope can sit easily in its setting, its rooms stepping down towards the sea rather than fighting the ground, and it lends itself to the rhythm that island life does best. One can readily picture mornings spent at the beach, followed by an unhurried walk back uphill for lunch in the shade.

A word on geography, because it matters. The beach is reached by public steps below the road, so this is land above Friendship Bay rather than a beachfront plot. For many, that will count as a virtue. Elevation brings the views and a pleasing separation between house and shore, while the sand remains close at hand. Friendship is arguably one of Bequia's loveliest beaches, with room to walk, swim and spend an afternoon with nothing much in mind.

The bay also has good company. Bequia Beach Hotel, the island's five-star address, sits along its edge, bringing its beachfront Bagatelle restaurant and Beach Bar to the neighbourhood. Both are welcome places to eat and meet, and the hotel's guest facilities can be enjoyed through its Day Passes, a useful arrangement for anyone who likes the idea of a well-run hotel nearby.

For a purchaser wishing to build a single island house, the land offers scope for a generous private setting, with room to place the house, its gardens and its outbuildings just so. There is, however, another possibility. The seller has put forward ideas for several family homes or a group of cottages, which might accommodate different generations or be considered for holiday letting. Subdivision and construction would, of course, depend on the survey, practical access and services, and the necessary permissions, and any buyer would naturally wish to take proper advice. For the right person, exploring those questions could be part of the property's appeal.

There is something quietly appealing in that prospect. Those who buy houses in the UK tend to inherit somebody else's decisions, whether the awkward extension or the kitchen that faces the wrong way, and spend years politely undoing them. Here the decisions are still to be made, and the first of them are already answered by the site: the southerly aspect, the Grenadine views and the bay below.

Nor is the setting a remote one. Friendship has the quieter residential character that many people come to Bequia to find, yet Port Elizabeth, with its harbour, markets, cafés and ferries, is just over the hill. The Bequia Beach Hotel has given the bay an established hospitality presence without disturbing its calm.

Michelle Bellegarde, owner of Bellegarde Estates | Chestertons, sees Friendship as an area attracting increasing interest. 'It has a quieter character than many visitors expect to find so close to such a lovely beach,' she says. 'For someone who wants to build, Horne Land offers the pleasure of shaping a house — or perhaps several homes — around the views and the way their family actually lives.'

That last phrase is the heart of it. The most satisfying houses are seldom those that follow a fashion; they are the ones made to measure, in which the position of every window and the depth of every veranda has been considered against the life that will be lived there. A site such as this allows for that kind of care.

What makes this parcel memorable is the choice it presents. It could become a family retreat, made to measure for one owner, or the starting point for a small and carefully considered group of homes. In either case, the design would begin with the same assets, and the house, as it should, would follow.

Offered at US$1,200,000 through Bellegarde Estates | Chestertons in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. Further particulars and viewings are available from the agent.