In pictures: waterside properties - Telegraph In your dreams, if you could choose between estuary, cliff top, fishing village, harbourside or lakeside, which would you go for? The most popular choice apparently is the estuary. People will pay more for a beguiling rivermouth where tides ebb and flow, boats flaunt their sails and mud or sandbanks are exposed at low tide, yet there is shelter from weather coming off the sea. Over the past 12 years Richard and Laura Fawcett have lived on the Orwell estuary in Suffolk. They and their four children have become used to being on the lip of the water, loved by bait-diggers, sailors and wintering birds. On hot summer days, James, 11, Tom, 8, and Rose, 7, take off with their father in their kayaks and pull in at the Butt & Oyster at Pin Mill for lunch. Laura will stay at home with the toddler, Rufus, until he too is big enough to become a mudlark. "From here you can wiggle through to the Deben and the Stour rivers as well," she says. They also have a small cruising boat, kept at a nearby marina. Light commercial ships come up the Orwell to dock at Ipswich, and the river flutters with sailing dinghies at high tide. "The best thing is the sunrise in the winter," says Laura. We face east and sometimes the whole sky is red. They are now selling five-bedroom Redgate Farmhouse, with its paddock, at £795,000 through Jackson-Stops & Staff (01473 218218) but only to move into a converted barn next door. They are not planning to leave the estuary. So drawn are we to the rhythm of the tides, that waterside properties have reached new levels of desirability, even in a dreary market. The latest research from Knight Frank shows that the top waterfront properties now command on average over 56 per cent more than their counterparts inland. If you have a private slipway or pontoon, this can add more than 100 per cent to the value. "This shows waterfront property is not recession-proof, but remains ultra desirable even when prices are hit," says Christopher Baile, the head of waterfront at Knight Frank. More than ever, people want to spend the summers by the sea, especially families with children. There is a great sense of community," he says, "and of memories being created."