Would you like to get the **** out of here?
Why not buy an island where you can avoid the apocalypse and everybody else.
So I recently got into the idea of buying an island. Not because i can afford it but mainly because I read it was
something that millionaires were doing in COVID which kind of gave me "avoiding the apocalypse via wealth" vibes.
There are all sorts of affordable islands around.
So I asked a guy.
We were selling an island as cheap as one million.
Richard squeezed me in between his meetings with prospective island buyers
because apparently the island market is booming at the moment -- hence the car.
Do I fit the mould of your standard clientele?
Probably not.
The clientele would be more... business orientated.
They’d be people that had anything from medium business to large business
But now they've worked out that they can work from home or they can work from an island.
And there’s been so much happening in the island market lately.
Over in Vanuatu there’s a sustainable smart city being established
that will run entirely on cryptocurrency and blockchain
Meanwhile, Double Island has gone derelict and the owners are being chased up by the Qld government
for not maintaining the premises.
But the Hong Kong-based billionaire owner has a lease on the island until 2099.
Australia has more than 8000 islands, but of course not all of them are available for sale.
Of the hundreds of islands surrounding Tasmania, only nine are available for freehold.
And with all the chat of international relations recently
there has been concern that some of these islands could be calculated purchases and threats to our national security.
The owner of the Conflict Islands raised that he was being approached by Chinese buyers.
Which A Current Affair had some things to say about.
The Conflict Islands could host Navy and airforce bases.
This, just 940km from Cairnes.
And there's nothing stopping China snapping them up.
Richard said that before COVID he was often fielding...
...a lot of crackpots. They've had a clairvoyant said, you're gonna win lotto so they've gone out and
they've wasted my time for a day and a half
But things have apparently changed.
Previously I guess I was dealing with people who wanted to get away from the world, or they had too much inheritance.
It was a prestige thing that the island represents.
In the last couple of years that's all changed.
We've probably had more inquiries in the last 12 months than we've had in the last two or three years.
But there's something about the island market that reminds me of, what is it, oh yeah, climate change.
NASA has found that the average global sea level has increased by 9.1cm
and could continue to rise by more than half a cm by 2050.
Here in Australia, there's no real evidence,that you're gonna lose your island due to a rise in sea levels.
There are islands in the Solomons and other areas which are sand islands and sand islands will
occasionally move. You'll lose some of the sand through just just general water action,
maybe cyclones, whereas some of Australia's islands are pretty solid, they're on rock.
And most of them are about 5m above the high water mark.
But what does it actually cost to buy an island I hear you ask.
Where I was yesterday that was Wedge Island, Wedge island is all of $1.7- ah 95. It's a beautiful island.
Restoration Island, that's about $4m
Then further up to a place called Hicks Island. $1.2m
$80million ... that's Temple Island .... and that is 1.75... sorry 3.75 ...
and then we go over to.... another island just off of South of Mackay.... oh i missed out on one, a very important island
So with the right cash you too can own a piece of paradise.