Qatari emir buys six Greek islands for €8.5m

The suitor is one of the world's wealthiest men; the location happens to be the euro zone's poorest country. But in an unlikely coming together of economic circumstances, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, has spent €8.5 million (HK$85.8 million) to buy six Greek isles in the Ionian sea.

Closure of the deal - the latest in a global shopping spree that has seen the sheikh's (pictured) property portfolio spread from London to Beijing - has been met with glee in Greece, the West's most desperate state, and Doha, where the royal household took 18 months of drama to buy the outcrops.

"Greece is that kind of place," said Ioannis Kassianos, straight-talking Greek-American mayor of Ithaca island near the isles. "Even when you buy an island, even if you are the emir of Qatar, it takes a year and a half for all the paperwork to go through."

The emir's isles, part of the Echinades chain, caught the oil-rich monarch's fancy when he moored his super-yacht in the turquoise waters off Ithaca, took in the view and liked what he saw. That was four summers ago.

"They have a fund with a couple of hundred million in it," said Kassianos, a former US economics professor. "And as far as I know they want to buy all 18 of the islands, the whole lot."

The purchase is the biggest private investment in Greece. The first island, Oxia, initially came with a price tag of €7 million before its Greek-Australian owners agreed to let it go for just under €5 million. Last week, Denis Grivas, whose family has owned the other five almost since the foundation of modern Greece, settled on €3.5 million.