Many of us working a standard nine-to-five job wonder and wish at the prospect of being incomprehensibly rich. To own a super flashy car, the finest clothes you could ask for, perhaps even your own private island.
An island in the Bahamas, off the US coast or even a Greek island would be absolutely dreamy. However, surely, when many people can’t afford to save for a home of their own, it would be unthinkable to own an entire island. Right?
Well, wonder not, as our experts at Slingo, one of the UK’s leading bingo sites, have analysed the prices of the private islands currently available for purchase. This allowed us to see where in the world it is the most affordable for you to buy a private island of your own. Additionally, we have looked at the average cost of a private island against the cost of a UK home, calculated per square metre.
The Most Affordable Private Islands in the World
1. La Cornelia Island, Nicaragua
Market Price: £70,829 | Size (m2): 4,047
The island of La Cornelia, in Nicaragua, is the most affordable private island as of 2023, costing £70,829 for the 4,047-metre squared island. The island is part of the Las Isletas de Granada, a group of 365 small islands in Lake Nicaragua, just southeast of the city of Granada, Nicaragua. The island already has electricity, despite it being undeveloped, and is rich with palm and mango trees.
2. Gillis Island, Canada
Market Price: £86,569 | Size (m2): 44,517
The second most affordable private island in the world is Gillis Island, in Canada, costing £86,569 for 44,517 square metres. The island is located on the Pinette River, just a half hour away from Charlottetown, the island also has a mixed forest and a south-facing sandy beach.
3. Calf Island, Canada
Market Price: £131,016 | Size (m2): 105,222
Another Canadian private island, we have Calf Island as the third-most affordable island in 2023, costing £131,016. Off the coast of Mitchell Bay in Nova Scotia, the island has plenty of trees and a mild climate, influenced by the Gulf Stream.
The Most Expensive Private Islands in the World
1. Rangyai Island, Thailand
Market Price: £125,918,400 | Size (m2): 445,170
Rangyai Island, which is located just to the east of Phuket in Thailand, is currently the most expensive private island in the world, worth just under £126 million. The nearby islands of Phuket and Coconut Island have numerous resorts and the 445,170-metre square island of Rangyai is rife with tropical forest and white sand beaches.
2. Long Coco Caye, Belize
Market Price: £78,699,000 | Size (m2): 153,786
The second-most expensive private island in the world is currently Long Coco Caye, which is located in Belize, worth more than £78 million. This island is almost a paradise, with a forest of coconut palm and pine trees, a lagoon with access for yachts and gorgeous white sandy beaches.
3. Pumpkin Key, Florida, US
Market Price: £74,764,050 | Size (m2): 105,222
The US has the third-most expensive private island in the world presently in Pumpkin Key, which is located in the state of Florida. Currently, it is on the market for a fee of almost £75 million. Trivially, this island is just a 10-minute helicopter ride to Miami’s South Beach.
The World's Regions with the Most Affordable Private Islands
1. Maine, US
Average Private Island Price: £607,950 | Average Size (Square metre): 14,165
The US state of Maine has the most affordable islands as of what is available in 2023. The average cost of an island, just off the northeastern coast of the US, is £607,950 and the average size of those islands is just over 14,000 metres squared.
2. Minnesota, US
Average Private Island Price: £646,906 | Average Size (Square metre): 40,470
Another state in the US, this time we have Minnesota as the region with the second-most affordable private islands. On average, based on the most recent 2023 private island prices, it’ll cost almost £647,000 for an island paradise in this region.
3. Nicaragua
Average Private Island Price: £701,208 | Average Size (Square metre): 151,358
And the region with the third-most affordable private island prices in the world is Nicaragua, in Central America. The private islands in this region cost, on average, just over £700,000 as of 2023 and have an average size of 151,358 metres squared.
The World's Regions with the Most Expensive Private Islands
1. Chile
Average Private Island Price: £10,860,462 | Average Size (Square metre): 146,989,738
Currently, Chile is the region with the most expensive private islands, costing an average of almost £11 million, across the three islands currently available in the region. However, the average size of these islands is a massive 146,989,738 metres squared.
2. Bahamas
Average Private Island Price: £9,206,996 | Average Size (Square metre): 483,751
The Bahamas has an established reputation for being an island paradise, however, there is a particularly high cost that comes with it. On average, a private island in the Bahamas costs more than £9.2 million and their average size is a little over 480,000 metres squared.
3. Belize
Average Private Island Price: £8,928,650 | Average Size (Square metre): 463,488
Located on the eastern coast of South America, we have Belize, a country known for its Caribbean shores and tropical jungles, it also has the third-most expensive private islands. On average, islands in this region cost just under £9 million, their size, however, is around 463,000 metres squared, on average.
The Average Cost of a Private Island vs the Cost of a UK House
The comparison between the cost of a private island against the cost of a UK home, per metre squared, is quite stark. The overall average cost of a UK home is currently around £278,108, which is far less than the average cost of a private island, of course, at more than £5.3 million.
However, when you calculate the average cost per metre squared, it begins to look quite different. On average, per metre squared, a private island would cost just £78. When you compare this to the cost of a house in the UK, it is 3,886% more expensive to buy a home in the UK, when calculated per square metre. According to figures as of April 2023, it would cost an average of £3,090, per square metre, to buy a 90 square metre home in the UK.
While many of these private islands have electricity and water, not all have those by default, they’re mostly undeveloped land masses without any buildings you might reside in. Whereas, a home in the UK, is guaranteed to have electric, water, plumbing and many other features, which reflects their higher value to an extent, there is also a higher demand for homes, another contributing factor.
Methodology
To begin, we started by taking down the acre, price, region and name of each available private island on Private Islands Online. This was completed on (27/06/2023). We only included private islands with listed prices.
We then calculated the average price of each island (in GBP, which was converted from USD using Google Finance on 28/06/2023 at 11:20 am BST). We then calculated the average size of the islands as metres squared. This allowed us to find out which regions with at least two available private islands had the least and most affordable private island prices. For this section, we did not include regions with fewer than two private islands.
We then used the UK House Price Index: data downloads April 2023, to get the average price of a house in the UK. And then an ONS resource: House prices: how much does one square metre cost in your area? to get the average UK house size in metres squared (90). This allowed us to calculate both the average cost of a private island and a UK house per metre squared, and then calculate the price difference between the two.
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