Hi Eric
I am danish and have settle in Madagascar.
Arrived with a little of the same dream project and today we have build our second house on the beach at Ambatomalama, which is 15 km north of FoulPointe which is the most popular place for locals living in Tana to go on holiday and 5 km before reachIng Mahambo village, also a popular place since from here you can catch the boat to Sainte Marie.
I rent out on AirBnB. We do not have many clients, though we get a 10/10 feedback. Guess there are not enough tourists visiting Madagascar. This you need to keep in mind not constructing a lot of bungalows. As well the tourist visiting are usually not staying more than a couple of days due to they all arrive on a very busy program.
Our advantage is we are fare away from touristic city’s. The beach is empty except from the local fishermen pulling up their pirogue in the morning.
Among the locals we have a very popular surf break which means ‘they’ pass on Sundays to surf.
Now, why I am telling you all this is to be carefull with placement. The infrastructor in Madagascar is not good, so getting to fare away in distance from Tana might not be a good idea. Also when having to shop for your guests it can become an issue if you are to fare away.
I can help you source a piece of land here in the bay. You will feel isolated and still have reasonble short distance to the villages.
Regarding settling in Madagascar it is not that complicated 😉
Kind regards,
Mikkel