It's just after eight on a Sunday. You're up on the terrace, coffee going cool in your hand, watching the light move across the water while the barbecue waits for later. Downstairs the house is quiet. The beach is a five-minute walk away, but right now there's no reason to leave.

This is a four-bedroom house spread over three floors in a quiet residential pocket of Praia da Luz, the kind of street where you hear the sea more than the traffic. It works as a year-round family home and just as easily as a holiday base you let out through the summer, which is the rare thing: most houses lean one way or the other.

The living spaces are built around their windows. Large panes pull the daylight deep into the rooms and frame the sea beyond, so the view does the decorating. Across three floors there's room to spread out without anyone tripping over anyone else: bedrooms that stay cool and private upstairs, open living and dining where everyone gathers, and the flexibility a multi-level layout gives you for guests, an office, or a lock-up-and-leave rental setup.

Outside is where Praia da Luz earns its keep. A private garden gives you green space that's yours alone, and the terrace with its barbecue area is set up for long lunches that drift into evening. The house also has access to a shared swimming pool, so summer afternoons are sorted without the upkeep of a private one. A closed garage means secure parking and somewhere to store the paddleboards and bikes out of sight.

Praia da Luz itself is a five-minute walk down to the sand and the seafront promenade, with the village restaurants, cafés, and small supermarkets all within easy reach on foot. Lagos and its marina are about ten minutes by car, the fishing villages of Burgau and Salema sit just west along the coast, and Faro airport is roughly an hour away for the flights home. It's the part of the Western Algarve that stays lived-in through winter, not just busy for eight weeks of summer.

Key features:

• 4 bedrooms, house arranged over 3 floors
• Sea views from the main living spaces
• Five-minute walk to Praia da Luz beach and seafront
• Shared swimming pool, no private-pool maintenance
• Private garden plus a terrace with barbecue area
• Closed garage: secure parking and extra storage
• Bright, spacious rooms with large windows
• Quiet residential street, walkable to the village
• Suited to permanent living, a holiday home, or a rental investment

Happy to walk you through it in person, or to talk through Praia da Luz and the wider Western Algarve first if you're still working out whether this stretch of coast is the right fit.