personal finance

Greenland is off the market – but which other islands or towns could Donald Trump buy?


It’s been a while since the United States went around buying up bits of the world, and with US president Donald Trump’s ambition to own Greenland seemingly thwarted, there are some alternative purchases that a discerning buyer might consider if they want to obtain a lot of land in a hurry.

There are opportunities to be had in South America. Chile’s Guafo island is on the market for $20m (£16.5m). The uninhabited 50,000-acre island comes complete with colonies of sea lions and penguins. The only downside is you have to share a little bit of it with the Chilean navy, which has a weather station there. If that island isn’t big enough for you, you could look at Traiguen island, also in Chile – a relative bargain at $25m for 100,000 acres. Size-wise, both might struggle to compete with Greenland – the world’s largest island – but on the other hand, they aren’t 80% covered in ice, which is a distinct advantage.

Property listings for entire islands are like no other. Who wouldn’t be tempted by a Greek island that promises “a house and a church and there are goats tended to by a shepherd, who goes out to the island every fourth day”.

Pockets not deep enough? Maybe you need to find a kindly benefactor. In a rather unusual move between nation states, in 2017 Egypt’s President Sisi “gifted” the barren but strategically important Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia. Egypt had administered the islands for some decades to the point where ownership was ambiguous, and there was a public outcry when the Egyptian parliament approved a maritime borders agreement that confirmed they belonged to the Saudis.

If islands aren’t your thing, then there are still opportunities to consolidate large tracts of land – provided you have money, of course. Danish billionaires Anders and Anne Holch Povlsen have managed to gradually acquire more than 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) across Sutherland and the Grampian mountains in Scotland, in the process becoming the country’s largest private landowners, with a plan to rewild the Highlands.

Don’t fancy building from scratch? Why not pick up an entire town? Some Italian villages have made eye-catching offers of selling multiple properties for as little as a €1 each provided you agree to refurbish them. Other towns have come up as job lots, such as Tiller in Oregon, which was put up for sale for $3.85m in 2017. Like the Povlsens, one family had incrementally acquired ever-increasing amounts of the town until it was sold in one go to an anonymous buyer.

There is an alternative to buying as well – if you can’t afford it, maybe consider building? The man-made Al Marjan island off the coast of the UAE made headlines when it was put up for sale for £360m.

Islands don’t come up for sale very often, and when they do, they often seem to just change hands between billionaires. Lanai, the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian islands, was purchased by the Oracle boss, Larry Ellison, from the CEO of the Dole Food Company, David H Murdock. There are other ways the wealthy relinquish their islands – Jeffrey Epstein’s estate will need to work out what to do with Little Saint James and Great Saint James, which the convicted sex offender owned in the US Virgin Islands.



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