What price a view? To find out, join me in a small car park in Salcombe, in the South Hams, where we can gaze over the Kings-bridge estuary. See how the little boats bob up and down on that clear water. Feast your eyes on those fine sandy beaches.

And make the most of it — because, if you want to buy a house, this view alone will add at least a third to the price, or maybe substantially more. “If you are ‘front stalls’ and you have a mooring, particularly a deep-water one, as they are few and far between, then it’s 100%,” says Sandy Davenport, head of Knight Frank’s UK waterfront division.

The right properties in this harbour town in south Devon fetch about £1,000 per sq ft, not far behind some areas of prime central London. Even if you settle for one of the less fashionable streets, you will still pay twice as much as in neighbouring towns. In December, a boat shed with a corrugated-iron roof sold at auction for £402,000.

There are two two-bedroom properties for sale in a scheme called the Bolt Head, until recently the site of a hotel. They are roughly similar, but with an important difference: one, a new-build, has estuary views; the other, built five years ago, overlooks communal gardens.

The older place with the greenery views is for sale for £375,000. The new-build looking out on the water will cost £695,000. Marchand Petit (01548 844473, www.marchandpetit.co.uk), the agency selling both, reckons some £200,000 of the price difference is down to the view alone. For comparison, a three-bedroom cottage without parking or garden, and with a mere glimpse of water, just sold for £545,000.

The Victorians were the first to discover the charm of this former fishing village, building huge villas on its steep hills. Today, it is Devon’s equivalent of Rock, in Cornwall, except considerably more upmarket. Where Rock looks modest and nondescript, Salcombe has scrubbed up nicely since things started booming in 2000. Prices doubled over the following two years and have been rising steadily since.

The shops on the narrow main street would not look out of place in Fulham: Fat Face, White Stuff, Crew Clothing Co. In one of them, I overheard a woman asking whether she might use her Coutts card. In another, a couple of pieces of polished driftwood — which might or might not have been art — were on sale for £130. A 4WD full of tousle-haired children was blocking the pavement and half the street.

Everywhere, the paint is fresh and the gardens are trim. The words “in need of renovation” are unknown. Good grief, it makes Switzerland look untidy. For this is Fulham-on-Sea, where the City unwinds for the summer, attracted by the sailing, the sandy beach and that mix of old-fashioned English seaside and London mod cons. More than half the properties are holiday homes, the search for which accounts for 90% of inquiries to the town’s three estate agencies.

“The people who buy the more expensive properties tend to be based in London and the southeast,” says Andrew Ireland, a director of Ireland Weller, one of the local agencies. “They are typically in their thirties or early forties, with a family. The objective is to buy a lifestyle that is diametrically opposed to their job in central London.

“What really appeals to these people is putting the car away and walking everywhere. Psychologically, they are putting their family in a nice, safe place.” A villager puts it more bluntly. “It’s very much a place for young people in the summer,” she says. “Mummy and daddy buy a house here, then send their 16-, 17-and 18-year-old children down for the summer. Not a bad life, is it?”

The most prized homes are clustered along the estuary — and at the high end of the market, it doesn’t matter which side — and are hard to come by. “The most important things are the location, its proximity to the water, the views, then things such as moorings,” says Edward Thomson, a negotiator with Knight Frank. The agency is selling Upalong, a £4.5m home at East Portle-mouth, half a mile by boat across from Salcombe. On 4.6 acres, it has seven bedrooms, a private beach, two running and two deep-water moorings, and three views of the estuary. It was last on the market 35 years ago.

“They are invariably passed down the generations,” says Christopher Watkins, of Charles Head & Son. As if to hammer home his point, one place, the Old Vinery, is on sale for the first time in more than 100 years.

A pebble’s throw along from the centre of Salcombe, the property was built by Elizabeth Jennings in the grounds of her family’s home, Woodcot, in the early 1960s. The original house is now an elderly-people’s home; her five-bedroom house and an adjoining three-bedroom cottage, which she kept, are for sale. The property comes as a package of three lots, with the remains of a Napoleonic fort, a barrel-vaulted stone boathouse and a private beach. Savills and Charles Head, the joint agents, are asking £3m.

Competition is expected to be fierce. Ireland says that he has a waiting list of 10-15 buyers chasing waterside properties. “I have had interest from a cabinet minister, and a senior cabinet member is interested as we speak,” he adds. Why don’t they just rent from Ben Bradshaw, the environment minister, who has a share in a terraced house here?

Clive Woodward, the World Cup-winning former England rugby coach, has a house in Salcombe, as does Sir Keith Mills, the marketing multi-mil-lionaire and chief executive of London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Slightly less welcome, perhaps, are the occasional visits from customs agents. Cocaine valued at £1m was discovered in a cove near here in 2005; in the same year, police also found £100,000 worth of amphetamines on a yacht sailing into the har-bour.

But let’s go back to the waterfront for one last look at that wonderful view. Take a deep breath. Fill your lungs. You won’t find anything else like this on this part of the south coast — it’s the unmistakable smell of money.

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