If you fancy living far from the madding crowd, property agents the world over have listings of idyllic islands.
After a £7 million makeover, Irish Turk Beg – a name to differentiate from the larger Irish Turk for delivery men – is up for sale.
Nestling in Clew Bay, off County Mayo, Eire, Irish Turk Beg is on the market for a bargain £2.25 million after the company developing the island owned went in to receivership
The 65-acre island is a five minute ride from shore by powerboat – and you millions will buy five homes, including a six-bed main residence, all-weather sports complex, home cinema, gym, pool and a helipad.
Irish Turk Beg is not the only island up for sale worldwide.
Expensive and secret
Even though finances are a struggle for many, wealthy investors have an appetitite for owning their own private fiefdom.
Vladi Private Islands agency, has 400 islands listed, from the fjords of Scandinavia to the grander environs of the lagoon at Venice and the tropical sea-lapped shores of islands off Fiji, Australia and New Zealand.
The most expensive and top secret island is ‘somewhere in the Bahamas’ says the agency – with a very hush-hush high profile owner. The name and map reference are only available to the most trusted buyers who can afford to fork out £31 million for their own Caribbean island paradise.
“Our clients are largely resistant to the turbulence in the markets,” said agency owner Farhad Vladi, 67.
“The price of islands that I call adventurous, because they have no infrastructure or they are difficult to reach, has dropped, but there is a very strong market for quality islands with good facilities. They are recession-proof.”
Who’s Who of island owners
Typical clients include Johnny Depp, who owns Little Hall’s Pond Cay in the Bahamas, Mel Gibson, with a paradise plot in Fiji, and Sir Richard Branson, who paid a few hundred thousand dollars for Necker in the British Virgin Islands in 1978.
One place to look for a bargain island is the East Mediterranean, where financial pressures are forcing the Greek and Cypriot governments to look at a fire sale of their real estate assets.
Meanwhile, one of the latest big island controversies concerns L’Oreal cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who has tripled her £15 million investment in a tiny chunk of The Seychelles.
Heiress sells Seychelles getaway
She has sold her island to a conservation business that wants to open a nature reserve for £60 million.
Bettencourt is embroiled in a corruption investigation involving former French president Nicolas Sarkozy over tax breaks granted to her by the government around the same time she allegedly handed the president envelopes stuffed to overflowing with cash.
Bettencourt will pay £8 million tax to the Seychelles government on the sale of the D’Arros Island, which was sold with a number of neighbouring private islets, plus £10 million tax on other sales.
Another island that is stubbornly stuck on the market is the 292-acre Allan Island, just off the coast from Anacortes, Washington USA for £8.6 million. Owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, realtors have tried to sell for two years, dropping the price from £16 million.
