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People like You on Private Islands
By Islomaniac | June 15, 2007
Affordable private islands. Yes they do exist, in fact in a recent article it is noted that you need not be rich and famous to own an island. Farhad Vladi of Vladi Private Islands states that although the super expensive islands get all the attention the majority of transactions are in the $200 000 to $800 000 range, well within the reach of many people. Check out the full article below.
Greer Island available for $750, 000
Amit Bhandari
Times News Network
You need not be rich and famous to own an island. If you can afford to live in cities like Mumbai, you can probably afford an island too.
Lex Luthor had it right. Buying a private island is probably the most expensive statement that you can make.
However, it’s not just the Bond movie villains who have their island hideouts. Dr No and Dr Evil have Marlon Brando, Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts for company. And then, there are the company folks as well. Nature’s own private getaways are not confined to tinsel town folks. Business barons, among them, Richard Branson, Ted Turner and Bill Gates belong to this exclusive club.
The rich and the famous have always used private islands as getaways that are, well, private. You don’t have to be rich and famous to own an island – plain rich is just fine. A good property can set you back by anything from a hundred grand to several million dollars.
While there’s the odd property running into $20-30 million, bulk of the transactions are in the $200,000-800,000 range – about Rs 90 lakh to Rs 4 crore, if you please.
So, here’s the give-away. If you can afford to live in Mumbai, you can probably afford an island too. And you won’t have to bother about traffic, pollution and waist-deep flood water. Or the crowd, for that matter.
Just People Like Us in Paradise. You have the entire beach to yourself and are the master of all you survey, with nature’s own moat insulating you from the rest of the world.
Temple Island available for $350,000
Small wonder then, as far clubs go, this would probably be among the most exclusive. And it’s not because of the price tag, but the exclusivity that comes from limited supply, stupid. And the number isn’t going up.
So, before you go location hunting, keep this in mind: there are very few islands available worldwide and not all of them are in the market.
“The island market is very similar to that of oil paintings. You only have a few quality islands that come to the market sporadically. The real good ones are normally not to be found on any website or catalogue. They are mainly sold privately,” says F Vladi, president, Vladi Private Islands, the other big player in this line of work.
The big question for the buyer then is where to buy and what to look out for. Not all countries permit foreigners to own islands. The most popular spots are in western Europe, the Caribbeans and South Pacific, while bulk of the sales take place in North America, says Vladi.
India doesn’t figure on the map at all, as there are no island available for sale. Did you ever hear the government wanting to put up the Andaman & Nicobar on the block, or Lakshdweep for that matter? Of course, some islands in Lakshadweep are available on lease, but strictly for resort development, says Mr Morrison. The closest options for someone in India would be the Maldives or Seychelles, he adds.
At what price?
The asking price for an Indian Ocean island can run into a few million dollars. For someone willing to go a bit further, there are options in Australia, New Zealand and the Mediterranean.
Money apart, there are other considerations too, if you care to be an island dweller. Mostly it’s mundane stuff such as location, accessibility, reliable water and power supply, infrastructure and the works. You also need to factor in the local climate and geography – if you are in a quake-prone zone, the island should be at least 20-30 feet high – to be safe from a tsunami.
Water is, perhaps, the most important commodity on an island, but it can now be handled by a desalination plant. To power that, you will need a generator. The list goes on.
Any island should have a sheltered anchorage for handling boats. And like with any other valuable property, you need to employ a caretaker to keep your island going and safe when you are at work on mainland.
To top all this, you must be self-sufficient and capable of living in isolation as an island dweller on holiday. And once marooned, no complaining: show respect to local flora and fauna. While you may not really mind sharing your island with exotic turtles, there could be a problem with alligators and mosquitoes.
Go island hunting. Go, find your place in the sun!
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