The latest series of A Place in the Sun Home or Away is being aired on primetime Channel 4 on Friday nights, she starts filming the fourth series in April, she’s launching her new Body Spa Therapy range of toiletries and has just picked up the keys to her new house in sunny Sutton. Hang on a minute. Sutton, Surrey? Why not Spain, Italy or France?

“Several reasons, really,” says Jasmine. “I have been struggling with my own ‘Home or Away’ dilemma for a while now. It’s weird because I give advice to other people, but when it comes to my own life it’s not so easy.” She explains that she chose to buy a second home in Sutton because it’s a good investment, in a leafy area close to London and since putting in her offer in December, the value of the house has already risen. Her co-presenter Jonnie Irwin would be pleased.

But it doesn’t end there. Jasmine still wants to buy a property abroad one day. “I’m always looking for homes based on my house-hunters’ specifications,” she says, “and there have been occasions when I’ve seen a property and fallen in love with it.” A couple of years ago, she made an offer on a place in the Dordogne, France. In the end, it fell through and it’s Portugal that’s now top of Jasmine’s list.

She spent more than three years living in the Algarve, working as a marketing manager for a resort. “I had a great lifestyle when I lived there,” she says. Impressively, she learnt to speak Portuguese. “People will hate me for saying this, but I found it easy,” she pauses. “I think it’s because I’d previously been learning Greek, so Portuguese was a walk in the park in comparison. At least it has the same alphabet as English!”

Jasmine has very fond memories of Portugal, but when I ask which particular areas she is interested in buying, she jokingly says: “You want me to give away all my trade secrets, don’t you!”

I’ve been rumbled. “Well,” she says tentatively, “I would like to buy in the Alentejo.” This is the vast rural province north of the Algarve known as the ‘bread basket’ of Portugal. “The Alentejo is very quiet and peaceful. I saw a house there in the last series that I wanted to buy, but the house-hunters bought it! I told them ‘If you don’t have this, I’m buying it.’”

Ideally, Jasmine wants to find a traditional Portuguese country house or cottage where she can “get away from it all”. It doesn’t necessarily need a swimming pool, but it must have at least two bedrooms. This property would be used primarily as a holiday home, but she also wants it to generate some rental income. “I’d like to use it two or three times a year for myself,” says Jasmine, “maybe more, if they ever give me any time off from Home or Away!”

Price: €385,000 (£262,975) Spacious three-bedroom villa, with swimming pool in the Southern Alentejo, close to Ourique, 55 minutes from Faro. Contact: Alentejo Home: 00351 269 441 717 www.alentejohome.com