About £7.5 billion has been paid out in City bonuses for the 2005-06 season, with some topping £1 million. The average will beis £23,000, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

“We’re doing very well actually,” admits Naomi Greatbanks, of Savills International, which has started taking out full-page advertisements in Trader Magazine, which goes to all the big banks and companies in the financial sector.

Barbados is particularly popular with City workers, says Greatbanks, as are the South of France and Marrakesh. “They like the weather, the year-round letting potential and the good capital returns on their investment — and a golf course is crucial.”

So what kind of overseas homes do those people buy, and are they different from other buyers? The answer is yes, according to Rufus Gobat, of the London-based firm Prestigious Properties. “Their tastes are very simple — they like the best,” says Gobat, who recently sold two £800,000 homes at Cap Maison, an exclusive boutique resort of 19 apartments on the northern tip of St Lucia, to two City fund managers. “They want the houses with the best views, top-of-the-range bathrooms and kitchens, even if they don’t cook, and plasma TVs in all the rooms.”

Gobat reckons the rivalry that City types enjoy in the dealing room extends to shopping expeditions when they go abroad to look at houses. “One person says, ‘OK, I’ll have it’, and then his or her mate wants one just as good, or they will feel left out.”

It was a similar story at the Duchally Country Estate at Gleneagles in Scotland and at theTrenython Manor in Cornwall, where nine hedge fund managers turned up on all-male golfing weekends and ended up buying nine luxury lodges from CLC Country Homes. Alida Melaragni, CLC’s sales manager, said: “Three of them bought properties, then it was eight, and by the time they left all nine had bought.”

Georgina Richards, of Knight Frank International, says the big hitters tend to fall into two categories — those who want to be seen and those who don’t — and choose their place in the sun accordingly. “They either want to eat and be noticed in all the right places and the right restaurants, in resorts like St Tropez, or they want total privacy for themselves and their families somewhere like Mustique, an island which is always at a premium.”

Richards says that the Algarve, which has fallen out of fashion except for golf nutters in recent years, is back in again, but only along the west coast.

She also says that Richards saysworkers in the financial sector, unsurprisingly, are careful about where they invest. “They don’t buy in Africa or in Eastern Europe because they see those places as politically unreliable. The younger buyers also tend to spread their investment, buying a few smaller properties instead of one huge expensive one.”
So what’s around to buy if you’ve got big bucks? Bricks and Mortar offers a few suggestions:

ST LUCIA: FIREFLY (£3.5m)

Tiny St Lucia, once a poor relation to Barbados, is one of the rising stars of the Caribbean property market. It has low crime rates, good restaurants, friendly people and excellent beaches.

This striking turquoise and white villa, built only five years ago, has six bedrooms and air-conditioning throughout. There’s a huge atrium inside, which seats 12, a good-sized pool tiled in Italian mosaics, and a vast wraparound outdoor terrace, where you can sit and admire the view of Pigeon Island. There’s also a good hotel near by — Le Sport — which is handy if you cannot be bothered to cook.

Details: Prestigious Properties 020-8812 4734, www.prestigious-properties.co.uk

Continued on page two...()Continued from page one

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers