Mauritius is 65 kilometres from top to bottom, and yet where a family lives shapes their year more than in most larger countries. The reason is the road network: a single motorway spine through Port Louis, and coastal roads that fill at school time. The three regions below account for almost every family we settle, and the choice between them is usually decided by the school and the office rather than by the beach.
The north. Grand Baie and the coast around it, from Trou aux Biches to Pereybere and Cap Malheureux, has the largest concentration of foreign residents on the island. The reasons are practical: the largest international school at Mapou, a French school, two private clinics, the marina, supermarkets with imported ranges, restaurants and shops in one strip, and a high density of scheme developments, of which Mont Choisy Golf & Beach Estate is the best known. The cost is the price of housing, which is the highest on the island, and the traffic, which has grown with the population. Families who want to walk to things, and who work from home or in the north, choose it. Ten minutes inland, Pamplemousses and Triolet offer the same schools at lower rents, and the gated estates around Piton, among them Domaine de Bon Espoir, suit families who want greener surroundings with the motorway close by.
The west. Tamarin, Black River and Flic en Flac, with the mountains behind and the lagoon in front. Drier and warmer than the north and sheltered from the trade winds, though development has accelerated along this coast, so it is more relaxed in character than uniformly quiet. La Balise Marina at Black River is the island's one true marina address, where a berth sits at the end of the garden. with the island's surfing, kitesurfing and hiking on the doorstep and a tightly knit community of long-term residents. There is an English-medium secondary near Flic en Flac and a growing school offer in Tamarin, and Port Louis is nearer than it is from Grand Baie. Summers are hot, and the road north to the Mapou schools takes twenty-five minutes on a good day. Families who want the outdoors and a slower pace choose it; so do retirees.
The centre. Moka and the plateau around it, with Ebene's office district, the two main private hospitals, the second large English-medium secondary, an IB school and the French lycée within a few minutes of each other. The Smart City developments have made it a residential choice rather than a place to commute to. It is cooler and wetter than the coast, and the sea is twenty to thirty minutes away in any direction. Rents are markedly lower than on the coast for the same house. Families with children of secondary age and a parent working in Ebene or Port Louis increasingly choose it, and the commute is the reason.
The east and south. Beautiful, less developed and cheaper, with a handful of large resort estates. Few schools and long drives to the ones that exist. Chosen by families without school-age children and by buyers in a specific estate.
We name these estates because clients ask about them by name, not because we act for anyone selling in them. We act for buyers only, take no commission from developers or sellers, and any view we give on a particular scheme is given with the buyer's position in mind.
How to decide. Find the school. Find the office, if there is one. Drive between them and the candidate houses at eight in the morning on a school day. Then choose. We arrange exploratory trips around exactly that exercise, with viewings in two regions and the school run driven at the hour that matters.