How to buy an island in the sea

The main "island boutique" has been opened in the United Arab Emirates. They’ve put 300 artificially created islands in the Persian Gulf. The project was called "Islands of the World" as every piece of land will resemble a certain continent or a country, while the entire set will look like the world map. Water supply and other utilities will be provided for each of them.

The entire project cost $3 billion while each of the islands will be sold for the price from $6 up to $40 million. Rod Steward became the first one to buy an island. He bought the "island of Great Britain". The price Mr. Steward paid for is kept in secret as well as the names of three Russian businessmen who laid out multimillion advance payments to buy a part of "America", "Italy" and the "European part of Russia". But common buyers should not be expecting steep prices. Despite the conventional opinion, it can be quite affordable to buy an island there. The main thing is to know where to buy.

The islands are sold by many countries, however, the top sales are held in Norway and Croatia. A small island can cost only about $10 000. According to Norwegian legislation the buyer is allowed to erect one building on the island and one berth.

With Croatia things seem to be more serous. However, considering the fact that the area of the sold islands ranges from 10 000 to 20 000 square feet, the house unlikely to be big. To buy an island property in the Adriatic Sea is only possible by 25- to 75-acre lots. Prices here range from $400 000 up to $1.5 million, which is not too much when taking into account that some of them have remnants of ancient Greek architecture.

The process of buying an island in any of the countries is not more complicated than any of the real estate deals. Real estate specialists, however, recommend to rent an island for at least 30 years. This will be a lot cheaper with enough time to think over whether living on the island meets your life expectations.

Author: Cameron Lindblom, RealEstateGates (http://www.realestategates.com)