Island holidays are always great, but why share with others when you can have one all to yourself?
With the prestigious perspective we enjoy from the viewing platform of Destinations of the World News Towers, we know that the most luxurious things tend to come in little packages. Like islands.
There is nothing like being a contemporary castaway on pristine white island sands surrounded by all the trappings of barefoot luxury to make you feel very special indeed.
The problem with islands is that all too often you have to share them with someone else.
Quite frankly we’d rather not.
We prefer the approach taken by Larry Ellison last month who, like George Clooney in the film The Descendants, now owns a huge chunk of Hawaii. In fact, the entire island of Lana’I.
Apparently the 88,000 acres of lush land – with golf courses, club houses and a few exclusive properties – could have cost him as much as US$500 million.
So, in the true spirit of a wannabe Ellison, we got on the phone to our friendly island broker Manuel Brinkschulte, who is the Middle East/Asia representative of the biggest island brokerage company in the world, Vladi, to buy a slice of holiday paradise.
“What sort of island would you like? Pacific, Caribbean or European?” he laughed down the phone. Of course.
Within moments, Brinkschulte was making island dreams reality and talking serious financial geography. Suddenly, for less than the price of a penthouse shoebox in uptown New York, it was possible to snap up a four-acre uninhabited little place in the Bay of Fundy in Eastern Canada for $97,000.
Staggering. But a little cold in winter. And without any accommodation. Or electricity. Or running water. Still, great for whale watching, apparently. “We have plenty more to choose from,” said Brinkschulte. “Something a little warmer?” Excellent idea.
So there’s an uninhabited 2,470-acre San Pedro Island off Panama for $10 million that comes with its own tropical forest; a 2.32-acre island with luxury mansion for $48.5 million in Turks & Caicos Islands; or the French Polynesian Talaro atoll that was once visited by Charles Darwin for just EUR 6.9 million ($8.4 m).
“We are always careful to advise clients,” said Brinkschulte. “It’s very romantic to fall in love with the idea of an island without thinking about how much it will cost to bring it up to liveable standards, whether there is fresh water or not and if a home is included.
“You don’t want to be too far from the mainland or have to go far to get to a hospital. And you don’t want to be on an island with dangerous animals or plants. We don’t have many African islands on our books.”
Other issues are just as prosaic, but equally important. Taxation regimes could be something to consider, as well as political stability. Then there is a need for access. A helicopter or aircraft needs somewhere to land. If you’re going to park the super-yacht at your idyllic hideaway, you need to be sure that anchorage issues are clarified, docks are constructed if necessary and there’s enough deep water to accommodate that multi-million-dollar keel.
And let’s not forget communication.
If you’re lost without your iPad now, how would you feel on an island? If splendid isolation is not part of the plan, get those satellite/internet issues