This year, the International Real Estate column led readers around the world to visit dozens of available homes in every possible style, from a restored 17th-century flour mill in Spain to an ultramodern house with a built-in water slide in the Maldives. Here are some of our favorites.
A Cabin in the Forests of British Columbia, Canada
$4.5 million
This cedar-shingled three-bedroom home occupies nearly six acres on the southern shore of Quadra Island, which sits between Vancouver Island and the Pacific coastline of British Columbia, Canada. The wooded waterfront property, completed in 2004, includes a three-bedroom guest cabin and a jetty with a dock large enough to accommodate a 45-foot boat. A wraparound balcony supported by a series of Douglas fir beams extends across the back of the house, offering views of nearby islands and the Strait of Georgia. — Lisa Prevost
Weathered Steel in Nova Scotia, Canada
$2.9 million
This 2018 property sits on just over two acres in the village of Upper Kingsburg, on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, in eastern Canada. A modern nod to the region’s rural vernacular style, the two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom home is spread over 2,800 square feet in a trio of structures — known as the day pavilion, the night pavilion and the gatehouse. The site, which faces 233 feet of deeded Atlantic Ocean coastline to one side and a salt pond to the other, is reached past a flock of sheep, highland cattle, gardens and gated pastures. — Marcelle Sussman Fischler
A Tuscan-Style Villa in Boquete, Panama
$2.9 million
This six-bedroom Tuscan-style mansion is secluded between two hillsides in the exclusive estate section of Valle Escondido, a high-end community, resort and club close to downtown Boquete, the mountain town nestled in the Chiriquí Highlands of western Panama. The 11,850-square-foot house, built on 1.3 acres in 2011, has a clay tile roof. Papaya, lemon, banana and avocado trees stand near a pond and a river edging one side of the property. “You are looking over the valley,” said Ryan Braasch, a sales associate at Casa Solution. “The views are nice, but what the seller was going for was serious privacy.” — Marcelle Sussman Fischler
An Andes Retreat Outside Cuenca, Ecuador
$550,000
Perched at the eastern edge of El Cajas National Park, a Unesco-designated biosphere reserve, this contemporary home sits on four undulating acres outside of Cuenca, Ecuador’s third-largest city. With the 110-square-mile park as its backdrop, the four-bedroom, three-bath house “is isolated and surrounded by nature,” said Ashley Rogers, founder of Ecuador At Your Service. Its design includes underground tanks for fuel and water storage, and a discrete 818-square-foot apartment beneath the 1,830-square-foot main home. — Michael Kaminer
Etched Into a Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa
$4.7 million
This five-bedroom home from 2011 backs onto the slopes of Table Mountain in Oranjezicht, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. Set on about three quarters of an acre, the home was designed to mimic the landscape of the mountain, a prominent landmark, with a wavy concrete roof and ample use of wood and stone. “The house is literally built into the mountain,” said Riaan Ackerman, a broker with Pam Golding Properties. The property also was among the first in the area to have an “eco-pool,” which uses plants and microorganisms, rather than chemicals, to purify the water. — Lisa Prevost
A Riad-Style House Outside Marrakesh, Morocco
$2.5 million
This six-bedroom home sits on two gated acres in the Palmeraie, a 54-square-mile palm grove on the outskirts of Marrakesh, in western Morocco. The expanded 7,535-square-foot house, as well as an adjacent tower-style guesthouse, are styled in the salmon-pink hue that lent Marrakesh its moniker as the “red city.” The original house, built in 1995, had the charm of a traditional Moroccan riad, with small rooms off courtyards and walls finished using Tadelakt. An update added two larger bedroom suites connected by a new living room, and a guesthouse with a rooftop deck. — Marcelle Sussman Fischler
A Water Slide (Plus a House) in the Maldives
$7 million
This three-bedroom villa stands over a turquoise lagoon off the island of Medhufaru in Maldives, the archipelagic state comprising almost 1,200 islands in the north-central Indian Ocean. The 6,727-square-foot, two-story villa, with a two-story water slide down to the ocean, was built in 2016 as part of the Soneva Jani resort using reclaimed telegraph poles, eco-friendly bamboo and plantation-grown wood, said Robert Green, the founder and managing director of Sphere Estates. The architecture is “contemporary but in keeping with the local and Maldivian environment by using sustainable materials,” he said. — Alison Gregor
An Old Fort With New Life in Rajasthan, India
$4.6 million
This 21,465-square-foot historic fort in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan, in northwest India, was long abandoned before an Italian jewelry designer transformed it into a boutique hotel of 13 bedrooms. The renovation, completed in 2019, “has been done in a European style — modern and very subtle,” said Rakesh Agarwal, of India Sotheby’s International Realty. The seller took care to retain original details such as arches, columns, tiles and the Rajput-style painted borders, and complemented them with modern touches. Local artisans were hired to restore the frescoes and the Araish lime plaster floors, a traditional polishing technique unique to Rajasthan. — Lana Bortolot
A Chalet With Peak Views in the French Alps
$4.1 million
This four-bedroom chalet is perched on the brow of a hill in Samoëns, a town in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeast France, bordering Switzerland. Large windows and wide sliding doors offer panoramic views of the Giffre Valley and the Grand Massif ski station in the Haute-Savoie area. The 3,229-square-foot wood house, built in 2019 on just under a quarter acre, is an ecologically designed take on the region’s typical ski chalet and the traditional Savoyard farm, with a gently sloping roof and dramatic eaves overhanging the front and sides to keep the interior cool during the summer. — Marcelle Sussman Fischler
Rural Splendor Outside Wells, England
$2.9 million
This 4,170-square-foot contemporary house sits on four acres in Binegar, a tiny village in the Mendip Hills, five miles east of the cathedral city of Wells in England’s South West region. The home sprawls across a single level, with living areas and bedrooms in an open plan beneath skylights. “It’s very unusual to have a house of this size with such a modern approach, since most homes in this area are more period or traditional,” said Lucy Drane, a senior appraisals specialist at The Modern House. The home meets passive-house standards, using triple-glazed Internorm glass, reclaimed wood, mechanical ventilation, rainwater collection, and a biodigester to recycle organic waste. — Michael Kaminer
A Villa With Eyelashes in Rotterdam, Netherlands
$4.1 million
Designed by the Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat, this six-bedroom, five-bath house is just east of central Rotterdam, the Netherlands’ second-largest city. “The house is a work of art you can live in,” said Leslie D.T. de Ruiter, managing partner of R365|Christie’s International Real Estate in Rotterdam. Known for surreal flourishes, Mr. van Egeraat topped the 5,300-square-foot home with an undulating, thatched roof whose supporting beams protrude “like eyelashes coming from the house,” Mr. de Ruiter said. He also designed the rooms with varying ceiling heights and window shapes. — Michael Kaminer
A ‘Liberty’ Perch Over Lake Como, Italy
$1.5 million
Built on a stone retaining wall with an integrated entry into the unfinished basement, this four-bedroom, six-bath villa is in Brunate, a village in northern Italy perched above the city of Como and its famed lake. Built in 1908 in the Italian “Liberty” style, a variant of Art Nouveau, the property had been owned by the same family for 115 years. It was updated in 2013, with the owner opting to maintain the characteristic Liberty style and preserving the original terrazzo flooring in all but two rooms. The project included adding bathrooms to two bedrooms, creating a five-car parking area and installing irrigation in the garden. — Lana Bortolot
A Restored Flour Mill Near Valencia, Spain
$105,000
Tucked into the remote hills of Aragón, an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, this converted 17th-century flour mill is nown a quaint country residence about an hour northeast of the high-altitude town of Teruel, 90 miles northwest of Valencia. The two-bedroom, one-bath, 2,475-square-foot stone house, on a 4,300-square-foot lot, was fully restored in 2000 with an eye on preserving its authenticity, said Ana Vela, a co-founder of The Singular Space, which specializes in unique properties across Spain. — Roxana Popescu
A Former Social Club on Tenerife, the Canary Islands
$1.6 million
This eight-bedroom, four-bath house was built in the early 19th century in the historic center of Icod de los Vinos, a town on the northwestern coast of Tenerife, the largest and most populous island among Spain’s Canary Islands. The 10,678-square-foot home was designed in the Spanish architectural style known as Mudéjar, which fuses Christian and Islamic design elements, and it is listed as a building of cultural interest by the Cabildo de Tenerife. “Apart from being a stately home, it was once the town hall and later a social club,” said Anton Sorokko, the founder and chief executive of Asten Realty. “The facade of the house can’t be changed, because its age must be respected.” — Alison Gregor
An Expanded 16th-Century Hotel in Falkirk, Scotland
$1.6 million
Built in the 16th century and rebuilt 300 years later, this 12,798-square-foot manor house sits on the outskirts of Falkirk, a town in the central Scotland county of Stirlingshire. The house, known as Powfoulis Manor, anchors a 17-acre estate near the River Forth that also comprises several outbuildings including stables, a workshop, a garage, a two-bedroom staff cottage and a guest wing with 16 bedrooms built in the early 1970s. The property has been sold just twice in five centuries, said Harry Maitland, a director at Savills UK in Kinross. — Michael Kaminer
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