Green issues are becoming more and more important to British buyers, and the Costa Blanca’s developers haven’t been slow to pick up on the trend, says Anthony Jefferies

It’s only the palest hue at the moment, but there are signs that the Costa Blanca is being tinged with green. Ecological awareness is big news in Britain, of course, and new homes throughout the United Kingdom are packed full of energy-saving and environment-conscious devices.

Spain has lagged behind on these issues, but recent events have focused Mediterranean minds. Firstly there was the Greenpeace report which provided illustrations of how drastically different the Spanish landscape could become if global warming continues apace. And hot on its heels, the United Nations summit on climate change in Valencia made so many headlines across the country that Spanish people could no longer avoid the issue.

Sasha Chisholm swapped office life in London for organising adventure holidays in the Sultanate of Oman.

For Sasha Chisholm, the best thing about living in Muscat is that all her favourite activities are so easy to access. “Back in London, it would take me a whole weekend to go rock-climbing, because we had to drive to the Lake District or Wales. The same with diving, as it was a long way to the coast. Here, everything I enjoy is within an hour's drive.”

The map of Oman shows why it is so easy for Sasha to indulge her love of outdoor adventure here. The capital city, Muscat, lies on a narrow coastal strip. To the north, the dazzling blue sea shelters coral reefs and rocky islands. To the south, high mountains rise dramatically, range after range of jagged peaks receding to the horizon. There's a network of good tarmac roads, but also huge unspoiled natural areas accessible only on by foot, camel or four-wheel-drive vehicle. The climate is hot and dry, ideal for overnight camping and watersports, although the mid-summer months are too hot other than in the early morning or evening.

Avid travellers Yvette and Colin Newbury have never lost their wanderlust, and swapped Buckinghamshire for the rainforests of Belize. Yvette tells their remarkable story to Richard Webber.

“We always wanted the chance to lead a simpler life in a sunnier country where we could afford to purchase land and be outdoors more. When we married in 1994 we enjoyed a two-year honeymoon travelling the world looking for a country we’d like to live in. Australia was our favourite because we loved the jungle of the northeast, but it was in Belize, on the Caribbean coast of Central America, sandwiched between Mexico and Guatemala - that we discovered not only similar jungle but a cultural diversity that we had missed in Australia.

With perfect white sandy beaches, azure seas and well-developed tourist facilities, it’s no wonder that Mauritius is an exclusive idyll, says Rachel Newcombe

Renowned as an exotic island idyll, with pure sandy white beaches, Mauritius has now opened its doors to foreign buyers – but you do need a big budget.

The island of Mauritius is located in the Indian Ocean, off the east coast of Africa and 900km east of Madagascar. Measuring 2040 sq km, it’s got a population of 1.2 million. The tropical island is a popular tourist destination, especially at the luxury end of the market, and is a particular favourite with honeymooners. Until recently, foreigners weren’t allowed to buy property on the island at all. Tourism has always been good here and brought welcome trade, but the other main sources of income were the sugar and textile industries.

Bash and Paulette Robinson left rainy London to find their perfect lifestyle in a villa near Marbella.

It’s a Friday afternoon in January, and having flown into Malaga on the first BA flight out of Heathrow, Bash Robinson has just got back from a walk on the beach with his wife Paulette, children Oscar, Evie, Lochie and Maddie, and their two dogs, Joey and Flo.  Flushed from the sea air, which today has a mild bite to it, he settles down in the spacious garden of his recently-acquired five-bedroom home and starts talking about the family’s move to Spain.

It was back in 2003 that Bash, 43, started mulling over the idea of shifting his lucrative career in advertising from London to Spain. With good professional contacts in southern Spain from organizing countless commercial shoots, he and a business partner formed Bubble, a company to service the production of commercials. Before he knew it, the idea had taken off, and he and the family were shipping out of London to start a new life on the Costa del Sol.

It took just one morning of property hunting for Elisabeth Hudson to find her dream home in France.

When London-based teacher Elisabeth Hudson and her retired-banker husband Brian decided to look for a holiday home in the French region of Lot-et-Garonne in 1991, luck was on their side. After one morning’s house hunting, they found Laspeyres Basses, a honey-coloured stone farmhouse dating back as far as the fifteenth century.

“We fell in love with the quirkiness of house. The views were also incredible as the house overlooks a lush green valley complete with a lake.” The house had been converted by English developer John Roberts, so the majority of the large scale building work had been done. This meant the family could move in that May and start making their mark on it. Brian had just retired and although Elisabeth was still teaching, they were able to spend every half term and the school holidays there. Their two daughters, Elodie, 20, and Emeline, 18, were also able to make use of it with their university friends.

Australia was the obvious choice of new home for Steve and Alison Cawte, a pair of paragliders with a passion for the great outdoors.

Steve and Alison Cawte had high aspirations quite literally when they swapped Surrey for Brisbane in 2002. “We were living in Croydon,” explains Alison. “I was working as a contract business analyst and Steve was working as a consultant for a start-up company. At the time we were getting more and more into paragliding, but all too often the weather interrupted our plans for the sport and we were getting increasingly frustrated with the climate and the endless crowds and traffic jams.”

The couple knew that they didn’t want to spend the rest of their lives in the UK, but they weren’t sure where exactly in the world they wanted to be based, so they set out a list of criteria based on their ideal climate, opportunities for paragliding, job prospects and the culture. “Australia came out on top,” says Alison.

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