How to Buy an Island

Thomas More didn't envision his perfect society on a mountaintop, in a valley or in a nice, clean suburb. He placed it on an island: Utopia. He must have had a reason.

For the leisure-minded, the notion of owning a private island--as opposed to sharing a vacation island with swarms of tourists and bus boys--is not so far out as you might think. You may not know any island owners personally, but rest assured: There are thousands upon thousands, and they aren't all rich. Herewith, a brief report on the phenomenon and what you can do about it.

Why an Island?

Think up your own pluses: romance, nature, nude swimming, no phone calls, no Saturday-morning lawn mowers outside your window, no dog doody (unless you take your own dog)...the list is endless. Of course, there are minuses, too (high cost of living, lack of medical care, need to import food), but the pluses usually win out on balance.

Some dwell more or less full time on private islands to make daily life tolerable. Such as the New Yorker who a dozen years ago parted with his car and $200 for a small isle off the Jersey shore, where he built a modest house and commuted to work in Manhattan. Or Tim Andrews, an American who lectures at the University of Helsinki three days a week and spends the rest of his time 60 land miles and seven sea miles away on Timsö (Tim's Island), a four-acre beauty off Finland's coast. They are special people. Others--no less special, perhaps--are driven seaward by fear of impending global disaster. One recent purchaser constructed a complete fallout shelter on his island. And Marlon Brando told an interviewer in his thatch-roofed hut at Tetiaroa, his Tahitian island and home for half the year, "I'm convinced the world is doomed. The end is near. I wanted a place where my family and I could be self-sufficient and survive."

More common is the need for escape and the fervent feeling that part-time life on a private island is as close to true freedom as modern man can come. "It's a rare opportunity to create a world of your own," says New York editor Caskie Stinnett, who air-commutes weekends to Portland, then drives 45 minutes and boats 15 more to Hamloaf, his heavily wooded retreat off the coast of Maine. "Owning an island fulfills a dream of your own kingdom, from shore to shore," agrees Bob Douglas, a Canadian island agent. "If you own a 1000-acre ranch, you can walk all day, but eventually you come to a point in the ground where someone owns the other side. That's not true on an island. Some people never even have to go to their islands; oncethey own them, their dreams are fulfilled. One Hollywood guy told me that whenever things got rough in a business meeting, he'd sit and dream of his island. He hadn't gone there in six years. He didn't have to."

Who owns Islands?

Three categories: developers and businesses, individuals seeking investment, individuals seeking a hideaway. Commercial users are only a minor force today, money problems having taken their toll on the business world. Private money is still around: The German firm of Boehm & Vladi has sold islands to be used for satellite tracking and salmon breeding; but most of its sales, it reports, are for individual use, even sales of the biggest and best islands--the ones with price tags that read like phone numbers. "Right now," says René Boehm, "there is a demand for private islands from leading families in the Middle East, particularly in the Indian Ocean and in prominent European areas."

A college professor sank $90,000--most of his savings--into a large Maine offshore island with limited accessibility. That's not unusual. Only last year, an Iranian prince dropped $8,000,000 on a string of magnificent islands in the Indian Ocean, to be used as his home away from home.

From Jerry Sherrard, a Seattle island broker: "Most island owners are not extremely wealthy. Just professional men who have a spark of romance and are very concerned about the future value of property."

From Bill Craig, of Previews, Inc.: "They're a special type that wants a little kingdom. Whenever we run an ad for an island or a castle, it draws like crazy."

Bob Douglas has it figured out more precisely than that. "Your island people," he says, "are quieter than the country-club fellows. They enjoy privacy. They're serious about ecology--I can't think of an island owner who smokes. Most are Democrats, they drive foreign cars, they have a strong artistic leaning. Not your average American."

Most of them, according to those who know, fall wildly and irrationally in love with their islands and get bitten by the exaggeration bug. "Nearly every owner," maintains Jerry Sherrard, "will tell you his island is the most beautiful piece of property in the world. He may have 300 feet of rock cliff, but he can tell you it's unique. I hear that almost every day. People tell me the sun always shines on their islands."

The Market

"Invest in land," advised Will Rogers and about 80,000 other sages. "They ain't making any more of it." That goes double for islands.

Every island watcher has his tales about rising values, like the one about the Maine island that went for $7500 in 1961 and for $150,000 in 1974. Like the unimproved island that started out at $2500 six years ago and has since traded at $9000 and $17,000; it's back on the market now for $22,500. One agent insists that island properties outperform the stock market by at least a factor of ten. Nearly everyone agrees that island prices rise faster than those of most mainland real estate. "No matter how depressed the world may be, or how many serious recessions come and go, there are always people looking for islands," says one smart investor who owns several.

At one time, the Federal Government was handing over public islands to anyone who would pay to have the properties surveyed. No more. Federal- and state-owned islands are off the market for good. Many private owners, some of whom have been holding family properties for years, refuse to let go at any price. Still, islands are available--from estates, from owners who want cash, from traders. Some measure less than an acre, others are bigger than a lot of countries. Some are easy to get to, others aren't. Some are pretty, others are barren. Some have houses, others have zilch. They're out there.

Where are they?

Lots of places. You probably know if there are privately held islands in your area. In the U.S.A., best bets are off Maine, the Florida Keys, in the Great Lakes (particularly Huron). Some also on the West Coast, north of Seattle and a few off California. There are tens of thousands in American lakes and rivers; the Thousand Islands region, for instance, at the New York--Canada border, where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario, has 1700. Prices, of course, are higher nearer civilization: Maine islands generally cost more if they're close to the Boston area, Great Lakes islands if they're near Detroit or Cleveland. Canada has islands galore, particularly in Nova Scotia, whose rocky coast is peppered with them. Other popular regions include the coasts of Britain (prices are particularly good in Scotland, because the mist and generally iffy weather scare many away), Bermuda (where the incentive of zero income tax keeps prices inflated), the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland in northeastern Australia, off the Italian Riviera (where mafiosi have vacation isles), the Bahamas, the South Pacific. Many an island owner has a place so far away he can afford to visit only once or twice a year. You can't count on owning an island around the corner.

When is an Island not an Island?

When it's so close to the mainland you can hear an onshore transistor radio. Land surrounded by water is, of course, technically an island, but any island that crowds the mainland--or too many other islands--just doesn't feel like an island.

Such, for example, is Perots Island, something under eight acres--most of them manicured gardens--in a Bermuda bay. Perots has been the permanent home of Mr. and Mrs. Stanhope Joel for more than 25 years, ever since Joel decided the British Board of Inland Revenue was taking too big a bite out of his income from diamond mines and race horses. Less than 100 yards of water separates mainland Bermuda from the hibiscus and oleander, the 14-room boathouse, the pool and the 40-room main house of Perots. Crossing to the island is, as one of the live-in staff of a dozen puts it, "rather like crossing Fifth Avenue in a rowboat."(continued on page 213)Buy an Island(continued from page 132) Land closes in on three sides of Perots, but whether it feels like an island or not, in Bermuda, income tax is nonexistent, and that's a nice enough escape.

How to find an Island to buy

The Classifieds: Check The Wall Street journal, The New York Times and other major papers; you'll find a surprising number of islands advertised, by location. Regional magazines, such as Down East (Maine) and Marine and Recreation News (Michigan lakes), occasionally carry island ads, but not frequently--owners usually ignore locals, expecting to sell to carpetbaggers.

Agents: In coastal and lake areas, every real-estate man and woman in town will know of any local island offered for sale. What's more, they're often in touch with brokers in nearby cities, so one phone call or visit can set you up with a small network. A few agents specialize in islands (see the box on page 220): Bob Douglas (mostly Nova Scotia), Jerry Sherrard (Canada and the South Pacific), Boehm & Vladi (world-wide, with an emphasis on high-priced parcels). Any such specialist can instantly refer to a list of 100 or 200 available islands. Previews, Inc., with a dozen offices around the country, always has some choice islands on the books. Frederick Wardwell keeps good tabs on the situation in Maine. Demosthenes Pazarlis knows all about Greek islands.

Searching: Boehm & Vladi make many of their sales not from their lists but from searches. You tell them what you want, where and at what price; they go nosing around until they find it. The theory is that virtually every owner will sell if properly enticed. For a retainer, Bob Douglas will also go anywhere in the world. "I gladly become a hunter," he says, "for a couple of hundred a day, plus expenses. Of course, my expenses are high--I like to live well." Jerry Sherrard will search by phone and boat, but he, too, often charges a retainer to discourage "tire kicking."

Word of Mouth: There's nothing to stop you from staking out a blue area of the map and seeing what you can turn up. "I'd go nosing around in the spring or fall," says a Thousand Islands Chamber of Commerce man. "It's surprising what you can find in the coffee shops. You just casually ask, 'Hey, do you know anybody who might want to sell an island?' and you start listening." Waterside bars and restaurants are the best places to begin. Play it cool--say you want only a modest fishing island, even if you'd like more--or the natives may start getting dollar signs in their eyes. Some energetic types have been known to boat around inviting waters with a map, spy an island they like, ferret out the owner's name from the local tax office (such records are public) and make an offer. More often than not, the owners are found to be holding tight, but now and then someone lets go when approached with cash. If bargains are to be found, that is how to find them.

Islands for sale

Among the islands recently available (subject to prior sale):

• Imperial Island, Thousand Islands, New York, one fourth acre with two-bedroom cottage, near shipping lanes, $98,000. Mary Cox, Rimada Realty, or Mary Brooks Mercier, Streets Realty.

• Protected two and a half acres, British Columbia, in a cove, $40,000. Also, 3000 acres with coconut plantation and native village, Fiji, $6,000,000. Jerry Sherrard.

• Tree-covered 12 acres, Nova Scotia, $28,500. Also, three acres with modern turreted castle, Brittany, France, $1,500,000. Boehm & Vladi.

• Rhode Island (not the Rhode Island), delta region of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, California, 67.5 acres, good hunting and fishing, $150,000. Also, 1.6 acres, mostly pine, Lake Kishkutena, southwest Ontario, sparsely inhabited area, large and comfortable lodge, guesthouse, conveniences, $150,000. Also, three islands in Lake Lucerne, Wisconsin, total 15 acres, with modern, all-electric three-bedroom house and two-bedroom guesthouse, $170,000. Previews, Inc.

• Birch Island, southwest Nova Scotia, 12 heavily wooded acres one half mile from shore, $24,000. Bob Douglas.

• A group totaling 2180 acres in a remote part of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, offers over £45,000 being accepted, or sold by portion. Each island subject to crofting rights and common grazing by sheep from nearby mainland. Knight Frank & Rutley.

• Broad Key, 25 miles south of Miami, Florida, 63 acres, fully furnished five-bedroom house, guesthouse, caretaker's house, dock, boathouse and helicopter landing, first offered at $2,250,000, reduced to $1,750,000. George H. Schulte.

Things to check

Inspecting an island is like inspecting a house, only more so. Check transportation. Check general weather conditions--typhoons can sure spoil a vacation. Check accessibility--is the water deep enough to take your boat in even at low tide? Check drinking water. Check power source. Check for flies and rodents. Check for swamp areas. Check for a safe, sheltered anchor spot. Check, if you're the nervous type, location of your nearest neighbor, in case of trouble. Check for squatters who may have established rights to the land by virtue of longtime occupancy. Check taxes. Check government rules.

Government Interference

Bermuda won't allow foreigners to buy anything short of a $55,000 island, plus a house worth at least $120,000; Ontario charges non-Canadians a 20 percent transfer tax; Prince Edward Island makes nonresidents file for special permission from the provincial government's executive council for virtually all island purchases. Some governments are expert at confusing would-be purchasers: New York Timesman Israel Shenker, responding to a notice that the Greek government itself was offering hundreds of islands for sale, ran hither and yon in Athens, trying in vain to buy one, and finally concluded, "I'll be forever drowned in red tape but never surrounded by water." And everywhere, but everywhere, local governments will dictate sanitation laws and tell you what you can and can't build on your island. In the end, no man is totally free.

Additional costs

An island, once you have it, is surprisingly expensive to equip and keep up if you want any comforts at all. Think of drinking water--a thou for a cistern to collect rain water, at the very least. Think of the boat you'll have to buy and support. Think of a generator, or of cables for electricity and telephone, if you can't do without, at a dollar or more a foot. Think of all those tanks of propane you'll have to float out if you intend to cook over more than wood or charcoal. Think of the fact that building costs and labor of all sorts run higher when everything and everybody has to be schlepped by boat. Think, in sum, of Grasso's Law (formulated by Connecticut architect Jack Grasso and applicable to all hideaways): "Whatever you think it will cost, you are wrong. It will cost more."

Three ways to get an Island absolutely free!

Win One: That's what Kent Shelby did, back in the late Fifties. His prize in the contest promotion for The Little Hut, starring Ava Gardner, was a long-term lease on a small Fiji island, suitably rechristened Ava Ava. A year or two ago, ambitiously trying to develop its tourist industry, the Fiji government asked for the place back. Nothing doing, said Shelby, adding, "It's everybody's dream to own a South Sea island." At any rate, it beats two weeks in Vegas.

Inherit One: Taxes aside, inheriting an island is a pleasant, painless method of acquisition. Recent example: On her father's death, Christina Onassis took over the Aegean island of Skorpios, possibly the world's best publicized private isle. One of the most enviable private islands in America passed to its current owner the same way. Robert David Lion Gardiner is the 16th member of his family to be lord of the manor at Gardiner's Island, a huge wooded estate off the tip of Long Island, New York. The first lord, Lion Gardiner, was a British military engineer who built forts in the colonies under Charles I. When Lion's work was done, the king offered him passage back to England, but Lion wisely returned a message saying that he would much rather have a piece of land. He was deeded, in 1639, a sizable chunk of what is now Suffolk County, including Gardiner's Island.

Today, the island's 3500 acres feature 27 miles of beach, 1250 acres of virgin oak forest, 1000 wild turkeys, a huge collection of ospreys, thousands of pheasants, 600 swans, coveys of quail, hundreds of deer, a pair of bald eagles and lobsters by the dozen. The earliest Gardiners were authorized to try to punish aggressors; they hung four men from a tall oak, which still stands. When they're not at home in Easthampton, Manhattan or Palm Beach, Gardiner and his wife shack up in the island's 38-room brick manor house. "We often go bare-assed swimming at our beach," he reports. Don't get any ideas about sweet-talking him into letting go for any number of millions: Gardiner defeated a move for a Federal take-over a few years back and routinely rebuffs all offers to buy. Waiting in the wings are his nephew and niece. All of which proves the wisdom of choosing one's parents carefully.

Find One on Your Property: Mitch Drozdal is an old-time asparagus farmer in Hadley, Massachusetts, on the Connecticut River. Back in 1936, the spring flood sent a huge old tree down-river; it stopped just off Mitch's property and a little sand bar developed around it. Mitch rowed out and planted a few bushels of willow twigs, which grew up in a jiffy and held the land together. He added young poplars and maples and each year a little more land would collect. Mitch's Island began to form right there in the middle of the Connecticut.

He had a lawyer check things out and they decided he owned it, since it grew on land under the river that belongs to shore owners. He now pays about $35 a year in taxes on it. Mitch's Island today is six acres, going on seven.

From May through Labor Day, friendly Mitch lets duck hunters, fishing buffs and families camp on his island for free. He figures it's worth it for their patronage at his marina and supply depot. Besides, as he explains, "If I charged 'em, I'd have to run water and have toilets and fill out forms." Mitch seems unconcerned that his growing island is moving downstream in the current a couple of feet every year. Easy come, easy go.

The stories of two man-made Islands--one with a happy ending, one otherwise

It is possible, of course, to build your own island by simply--or not so simply--moving some land into a position in which it is surrounded by water. A man in Ipswich, England, was restoring a mill on the bank of a river. Dredging part of the river, he hit upon a brilliant idea: Mass the stuff together, put some fill on top and make an island. He did and gave it to his daughter as a birthday present. Similarly, a group of wealthy Americans built an island on top of an underwater reef in the South Pacific a few years back, named it Minerva and declared sovereignty, figuring their tax troubles were over for good. When they weren't looking, a force from nearby Tonga invaded and declared Minervapart of the Tongan nation. So much for that one.

How to lose an Island

It's one thing to lose an island through tax default or through a lousy hand in a high-stakes poker game, but it's quite another to wake up and find your island missing. It happens now and then, courtesy of floods, small quakes and volcanic disturbances.

The Wallichs, in the lumber business in Detroit, had their little family island in Lake St. Clair for something like 70 years. Just 25 miles from downtown, the spot measured 200' x 1000', enough for a couple of decent cottages and a lot of nice weekends. One day, four or five years ago, high waters came. The houses were washed away and the whole island went under and never came up. The lake waters will probably recede sooner or later, leaving at least something of what used to be. But the Wallichs are writing it off as a loss and they're not hunting for another island retreat. Says brother Joseph: "We're through with islands." Can you blame him?

Earn good money in your spare time

If you want income from your island property, just be sure to invest in an island that produces something salable. About a decade ago, Raymond Burr sank 168,000 of his Perry Mason dollars into the island of Naitauba, in the Lau group, east of Fiji. (He bought the place from the German-born widow of a Fijian chieftain.) For that modest outlay, he got 3000 acres, an assortment of cattle, a working coconut plantation and a small village of natives to keep the place buzzing. Burr's plantation produces top-grade copra, which is shipped to market at Suva, the Fijian capital. Naitauba gives him a place to run between TV shootings and also a nice income. Publisher Malcolm Forbes also has a native-run copra plantation on his Fiji island, Laucala, which is considerably larger than Burr's. For Forbes, Laucala is just another pad on the list (which includes his palace in Tangier and his castle in Normandy), but this one makes money to boot.

What to do if you're short on cash

Rent, of course. You don't need a big sum up front and renting is a good way to test the waters, so to speak, to see if you're an island person. In most spots, vacation rentals on private islands are hard to come by. "Rentals around here are almost always grabbed up by word of mouth," says Mary Cox, of Rimada Realty in the Thousand Islands region of New York State. Nonetheless, she usually comes up with a dozen or so summer island rentals, typically going for $200 a week or thereabouts. "And that's for places where you have to rough it," she warns. Among the plusher rental properties usually available elsewhere in the world:

• Petit Ribaud, two and a half acres with fully equipped house--water, electricity, telephone--at Nice, France. June to September, $7500. Contact Boehm & Vladi.

• Ilet Pele, a volcanic dot of less than an acre with a well-furnished house for ten, only eight boat minutes from Martinique. The price of $145 a day, ten days' minimum, includes a sailfish and a French-speaking maid/cook every day but Sunday. Snorkeling, swimming, plenty of lobster. Kids' pool. A boating bread-man who drops by with fresh bread. Contact Claire Packman, At Home Abroad.

• Wood Island, two and a half acres in Long Island Sound, off the Connecticut coast. The price of $5000 for June, July and August covers house and three boats. Contact Boehm & Vladi.

• Fowl Cay, a splashy 50 acres in the Bahamas. Included are boats, boat boy, maid service, fuel for generator. Minimum stay is two weeks, for $3000 a week in season, $2500 off. Contact Boehm & Vladi.

Then there's Sheep Island, seven acres in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, a half mile from the mainland. A very rustic old cabin with two big rooms, Franklin stove, gas refrigerator, two wells. Something of a steal at $500 a month. Contact Bob Douglas.

The poor man's Island rental

Call or write to any Ticketron office in the East to reserve a campsite at Lake George, New York. Of 154 state-owned island in the lake, 48 are rented to campers, at $4 a night for up to six adults. Islands range from 103 acres, with up to 33 campsites, down to tiny one-site islets. There are about a dozen of these, and while you can't specify a lone island in your reservation, you can ask when you arrive; if you're not in peak season, you stand a fair chance. Maximum is 14 days, though a follow-up reservation by another in your party--a sneaky move--might get you a month's vacation on your own island for just over $100. Docking space, picnic table, fireplace, lake trout, salmon, pike, pickerel, bullhead and peace.

"The theory is that virtually every owner will sell if properly enticed."

Directory of Island savvy

At Home Abroad (Claire Packman), 136 E. 57th Street, New York, New York 10022, telephone 212-421-9165.

Boehm & Vladi, Ballindamm 9, 2 Hamburg 1, West Germany, telephone 32 54 44.

Douglas, Bob, Box 89, Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada B0J 2E0, telephone 902-624-9526.

Knight Frank & Rutley, 20 Hanover Square, London, England W1R OAH, telephone 01-629-8171.

Pazarlis, Demosthenes, 34, Panepistimiou Street, Athens (143), Greece, telephone 626-515 or 614-544.

Previews, Inc., 51 Weaver Street, Greenwich, Connecticut 06830, telephone 203-622-8600, or other offices.

Rimada Realty (Mary Cox), 1623 State Street, Watertown, New York 13601, telephone 315-788-4444.

Schulte, George H., 908 S. Miami Avenue, Miami, Florida 33130, telephone 305-373-1817.

Sherrard, Jerry, Islands of the World, 1818 W. Lake Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98109, telephone 206-285-7530.

Streets Realty (Mary Brooks Mercier), 525 Riverside Drive, Clayton, New York 13624, telephone 315-686-5553.

Wardwell, Frederick, Water Street, Castine, Maine 04421, telephone 207-326-8657.