Private islands: reality TV and the internet help drive a booming market
Once only within the realms of those with a few million dollars to spare, spending time in a bespoke piece of paradise is becoming more affordable
If you want a place to go to get away from it all – bodies in the sand, tropical drink melting in your hand – you may be in luck. Private islands are now for more than just the 1 per cent, thanks in part to the magic of reality TV and the internet.
For a few hundred dollars a night, you could stay the night on your own island in Ontario, Canada. Or for a measly US$480,000, you could own a private Panamanian getaway. Just make sure the water around the island is deep enough for your yacht.
Water depth is in fact a serious concern for many hoping to own a private island, says Chris Krolow, the CEO of Private Islands Inc, an island listing service. But the market is no longer exclusive to the wealthiest of the wealthy, he said.
“It’s exciting, for a very long time this market was in a bubble, it was a very niche market,” Krolow says. His company closed 59 private island sales in 2015, a record year for the company.
But who buys an island? The typical island buyer falls into one of two types: There are the people looking for a vacation home, the industry’s “bread and butter”, and the people who are looking to develop the island into something like a boutique resort, Krolow says.