It’s amazing how many cases there have been of beach-front or riverside residents experiencing a nasty surprise when the water came pouring into their homes. Cape Town is no exception, with houses lining many of its beaches and just metres of sand between the residents’ lounge window and the ocean. It’s questionable as to how much attention the Mother City’s management pays to water lines when approving building plans these days – especially not when you see the aftermath following very rough seas and extremely high tides. Which is not to say that sometimes the flooding is primarily due to the naivety, ignorance or plain stupidity of those who built where they did regardless of the guidelines, thinking that “it’ll never happen to me”.

When you buy a house on or near a beach in Cape Town, a city on a coastline renowned for storms and shipwrecks, assume nothing – check with somebody in the know as to the (im)probability of waves washing up against your front door. The sort of high seas experienced by the residents off Long Beach in Kommetjie, for example, might only come around once in a while but come they do – and perhaps with increasing frequency in future, given the changing weather patterns and climates that the world seems to be undergoing.

Also when it comes to property for sale in Cape Town, would-be beach house owners would also do well to check the level of the water table beneath the ground wherever they’re thinking of buying – too high and building can be a lot more expensive in terms of the foundations or if you fancy adding a basement or underground wine cellar to an existing house.