The notion of owning a private island conjures up daydreams of sun-kissed beaches, hammocks strung between palm trees, blissful quiet and total privacy. But it's just a dream unless you're rich, right?
Maybe not, if you swap the palm trees for pines. While islands don't come cheap, plenty are on the market in Canada for less than it costs to buy a house in a major city - and some you can snag for less than the price of a BMW.
"You don't have to be rich," says Farhad Vladi, the high-profile international island broker. "You do have to be an individualist."
Isolation is a rare luxury in an age of Facebook friends, CrackBerry addictions, 24-hour cable TV and work e-mails sent at 3 a.m. But more and more, families are finding it's a luxury they can afford in Canada. While island values worldwide have been soaring - Caribbean properties that wouldn't sell for $300,000 a decade ago are going for $3-million now, according to Mr. Vladi - Canadian islands remain a relative bargain, with several available for less than $100,000.
"I have no chance to buy such a beautiful thing in Europe, but here the price is okay," says Volker Singer, a German dentist who spends a month every summer on his seven-acre Roger Power Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia.
"It is so nice to be on an island. On the mainland, there is too much people around me," Dr. Singer says by cellphone, which is, along with a small boat, his only link to the mainland - he has no television or Internet access.
Dr. Singer bought the island 10 years ago for less than $100,000, and completed construction on a two-bedroom house two years later. His favourite part of island life, he says, is spending uninterrupted time with his wife, 12-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter, swimming, diving, playing horseshoes and fishing."In Germany, I have not so much time for my family," Dr. Singer says. "My whole family is really happy here."
Prices for Canadian islands on two of the most popular brokerage sites, Vladi-private-islands.de and the Toronto-based PrivateIslandsOnline.com, start at $27,900 for little Davis Island in Bras d'Or Lake in Nova Scotia and range up to $8-million for majestic Wolf Island near Victoria.
Of course, you get what you pay for. Cheaper islands tend to be remote, small and may lack docks, houses and such niceties as electricity or land suitable for building.
Many island dreamers are scared off when they learn the price of making an island livable.
Constructing a dock and a house on an island costs at least twice what it would on the mainland, according to Nova Scotia real-estate broker Tim Harris. Then you have to figure on digging a well, installing a septic system, fuelling a generator or running a power cable from the mainland, buying and maintaining a boat and ferrying in supplies.
Also, it's tough to get a mortgage for islands - most island properties lack "comparables" for valuation purposes - so you need cash on hand for the purchase.
"When you add up just what it takes to 'make it' on an island, it does tend to be the more extravagant, privacy-hungry individuals that seek them out," Mr. Harris says.
Still, no amount of expensive inconveniences can stop a determined islophile.
"Most of those who are buying aren't superrich," says Neil Wark, a B.C. real-estate agent who specializes in islands. If people really want it, he adds, they'll find a way to make it work.
For many, the allure of privacy and control more than compensates for the hassles of island life.
"It is your own world," says Mr. Vladi, who has offices in Halifax, Germany and New Zealand.
On the mainland, he notes, "You have neighbours - they might be nice, they might be not nice. Your property is only as good as your neighbours are. ... When I'm on my island, I'm on my own."
And technological advances have made it easier to set up house on an island, says Chris Krolow, founder of Private Islands Inc., a popular Toronto-based island marketing website. Prefabricated homes, easy-to-install solar panels, reverse-osmosis water filtration systems, composting toilets and similar products have opened up the island market.
"A lot of remote islands were sort of useless because there wasn't much you could do with it," Mr. Krolow says. "Now, with these new technologies, they've become viable."
At the same time, many Canadian islands are disappearing from the market as governments and environmental groups snap them up for conservation.
And as they're not making more islands - with the exception of the man-made "World" islands off the coast of Dubai - prices will continue to rise.
Not every island is a good investment, though.
Experts say islands close to the mainland that can easily be built upon will steadily increase in value; more remote and wild islands are a riskier bet.
But remote and wild is exactly what some island lovers seek.
Ken Erickson, a Thunder Bay lawyer who is selling 13 undeveloped, far-flung islands on the northern side of Lake Superior for between $100,000 and $400,000 apiece, doesn't sugarcoat the truth when potential buyers call.
"We tell them at the get-go, don't expect to hop into your 14-foot aluminum boat and get to your island; it's a lot of work," Mr. Erickson says.
Still, inquiries and sales have picked up in the past few years, he says.
"They want to get away from the big cities and get remote, get back to nature," Mr. Erickson says.
"People who are interested in these properties are few and far between. They just say, 'Wow! I can actually buy an island?' "
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