It was “pricey, to a degree,” concedes Ullman, who paid Pringle 1.5% of the price as his fee, “but we saw brand-new flats in Clifton going for R4.5m [£425,000].”

They come to Cape Town about four times a year, and used to offset some of the costs of the mortgage and the £400-a-month service charge by renting it out at £300 a day in the high season (December to February). Dees says: “We had tenants when we wanted them, but even at that price people didn’t respect it. Wear and tear is fine, but stealing sheets …”

They have just had the flat revalued at £425,000, but, as Ullman says, “A lot of places have gone up so much, I don’t think we’d get anything better if we sold. And estate agent fees are astronomical [usually about 7.5%].”

Bantry Bay, Clifton and Sea Point are the places to look for apartments: for houses, Camps Bay, Hout Bay and Llandudno are among the most desirable of Cape Town’s beachfront communities. Llandudno, a hillside of about 300 houses cupping a perfect crescent of sheltered beach, is popular because there’s only one road in and out.

The “entry level” there, according to local agent Sue O’Molony, would be a two-bedroom cottage for £380,000, although there is a feeling that some vendors are asking too much. We look at an architect’s five-bed house with infinity pool, on the market for £900,000. She thinks the right price is between £800,000 and £850,000.

Ambitious prices notwithstanding, the houses on offer are uniformly impressive, especially from a British viewpoint, with lavish amounts of space, sea views and plenty of scope for outdoor living all taken for granted. Pools come as standard issue, even when the asking price is less than £200,000, like one four-bedroom house I saw in a quiet Hout Bay road.

If a beach isn’t a non-negotiable condition of your holiday home (given Cape Town’s Atlantic situation, swimming is a bracing challenge even in summer), within handy reach of the city are the Cape Winelands. The area is a magnet for trippers in search of a meal at one of the area’s excellent restaurants and a tasting at one of the even more numerous wine estates.

It’s the kind of place that visitors tend to fall in love with. After a few days’ holiday, Monte Levin and Gary Lazarus chucked in their New York jobs (doctor and lawyer respectively) to move to the chic village of Franschhoek and open a B&B. They now own the Pam Golding franchise for the area, and one of their recent clients was a similarly smitten Stephen Brooker, a conductor who is currently supervising London musicals Les Misérables and Mary Poppins.

Brooker, who lives in southwest London, was on holiday in the Cape in February 2005. He recalls: “I went to Franschhoek for a birthday lunch and fell in love with the astonishingly beautiful scenery. I thought, I wonder how much houses are here, and ended up with Monte showing me a few.”

The one he bought, for about £375,000, including 8% tax, was a three-bedroom home with open-plan sitting-dining area, a wraparound veranda — “they call it a stoep here” — and a large garden with swimming pool, all surrounded by vines. The owners threw in “all the furniture, cutlery, the lot, so as soon as I bought it, it rented immediately”, holiday lets paying towards costs such as the £180 a month community levy.

He has even got some wine from the 2004 vintage from those vines, which he communally owns with the other homeowners on the Domaine des Anges. The vines were planted as part of the residential estate (along with olive trees and lavender bushes) to conform with strict local planning laws that make it easier to build if there’s an agricultural component. Almost next door to Domaine is La Ferme Chantelle, a newer project where the ratio of vines to houses is higher and a spec-built house of massive proportions and a de luxe standard of finish is on the market for just over £500,000. Resales on Domaine are nudging £600,000 — but owners will collect a share of the vendange.

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