An island for rich people. The coolest islands owned by billionaires

If a house is a man's fortress, then a private island is his kingdom. And although nowadays you don't have to be extremely rich to own an island - a small one can be bought for $50,000 - most of the most exclusive pieces of land in the middle of the seas and oceans are owned by billionaires. The custom of buying pieces of paradise comes from the 1960s, when the late shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis married former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy on his Greek island of Scorpios. Buying an island is unlike any other purchase. It's a way to create your own small world in which everything will be exactly the way you want. Here is a selection of examples of billionaire private property, from pristine retreats for today's Robinson Crusoe to tropical ecologically clean resorts luxury class.

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Larry Ellison: Lanai, Hawaii

Oracle billionaire owner Lawrence Jay Ellison acquired almost all of the Hawaiian island Lanai. The purchase was hotly debated in the press and the island was rumored to cost $300 million. Ellison plans to turn his 98 percent of the island, which is 230 square kilometers, into a popular area tourist holiday and a good place for local residents. All this is planned to be done in a natural way, using renewable energy sources and natural materials.

Ted Turner: St. Phillips Island, South Carolina, USA

Ted Turner and his family and friends have been enjoying fishing and sailing for over 35 years on St. Phillips Island, off the coast of South Carolina near historic seaports Charleston and Savannah. The island's unspoiled nature features miles of long white sand beaches, ponds and swamps and is home to many species of fish and animals.

Richard Branson: Necker, British Virgin Islands

Lucky for us, some millionaires love to share. After visiting Necker Island for the first time in 1978, Sir Richard Branson set about creating an exclusive resort there. Now on his website, Branson invites everyone to enjoy the beauty of his possessions in the British Virgin Islands. Prices for tourists in 2016 start at $16,460 for two for four nights at the Temple of Love Hotel and $29,960 for two for 7 nights.

John S. Malone: ​​Sampson Cay, Bahamas

Ekaterina and Dmitry Rybolovlev: Skorpios Islands, Greece

Even the rich and famous can't always get what they want. Bill Gates, Giorgio Armani and Madonna have cherished dreams of owning the legendary Greek island, where in 1968 the marriage of Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy took place. However, the trophy, along with the neighboring island of Sparti, went to Ekaterina Rybolovleva, daughter of Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. The purchase was made in 2013 and cost approximately $150 million.

Dietrich Mateschitz: Laucala Island, Fiji

The billionaire and co-founder of Red Bull bought the island of Laucala in the early 2000s and created a white-hot sanctuary there. sandy beaches and thickets of wild orchids. Guests can stay in private Fiji-style villas amid tropical rainforest coconut groves and enjoy water sports, golf and horseback riding.

I never carefully prepare for a trip. I don’t want to form any stereotypical expectations, so that later I don’t compare reality with them, but simply absorb it.

This time I was especially glad that I was flying completely unprepared. How do you like this phrase from a neighbor on the plane: “Do you know that St. Barts airport is the most dangerous in the world?”. And when she saw my rounded eyes, she added: “What, didn’t you really watch the video on YouTube?”

Already at the hotel I looked. And you look.

But at that moment I was not ready for such impressions.

A twenty-seater aircraft with pilots sitting almost next to you, after several turns, sharply gains altitude absolutely vertically in front of the mountain itself, goes around it and also starts falling vertically. It is a fall, because it smoothly sits on a short strip that rests directly on white sand beach and the ocean, impossible. It was necessary to close his eyes, but natural curiosity did not. It was the most exotic landing of my life. Then I found out that every day hundreds of vacationers specially come to this beach to watch the landing show. scheduled flight. I also came.

The first person to arrive in St. Barts by plane was the Dutch smuggler Remy de Haenen, the future mayor of the island's capital, Gustavia. It was he who invited the first VIP guests - David Rockefeller, Greta Garbo and Rudolf Nureyev. They became the first of a series of world celebrities who fell in love with St. Barts.

Breakfast in the port of the capital of the island of Gustavia in the circle of the local elite - the governor, ministers. Yes, they have fun there to the fullest with state control. All the attributes of elitism are also evident: a motorcade, which is unrealistic to deploy on three two-hundred-meter streets, a state yacht, a state dacha, and much more.

By the way, about yachts. You can watch for hours how a team of tanned young sailors polish all four decks of multimillion-dollar ocean beauties millimeter by millimeter. At this moment, you understand that it is better to have a friend with a yacht than a yacht. A great option, for example, is to have Roma Abramovich as a friend.

He, with his Russian band of oligarchs, took a fancy to St. Barts, bought a land plot, and, according to rumors, and according to bright notes in a local Russian-language glamor magazine, periodically throws noisy parties on his yacht or in his villa. They say that they are not difficult to get. You just need to refer to the name of a common hat acquaintance. And the doors to the Great Gatsby party are open.

Why is everyone in white pajamas? No, well, not exactly pajamas, but the dress code is very specific - thin, translucent cotton or linen tunics barely covering the very beginning of the legs of ladies, mostly of model appearance, and spacious trousers or Bermuda shorts with shirts, respectively, also snow-white for Hollywood men. Probably, they do not want to spoil the harmony of colors with other colors.

Turquoise ocean, ivory sand, emerald green, red roofs of villas and hotels, boiling white clothes. But if the color does not allow the creativity of designers to play out, then the decoration completely compensates for this: lace, embossing, pearl threads. In general, everything that can reflect the individuality of the owner in this "simple village" for billionaires. Tags with big names of designers "accidentally" exposed are also welcome.

I decided to immerse myself in the life of the island. The choice between an open jeep and a retro bike with a picnic basket in front is difficult, but after learning the distances between the sights (from 500 meters to three kilometers), I decided on a two-wheeled friend.

As you know, a woman cannot be put before a choice. And it happened to me every step of the way. For example, which of the 22 luxurious beaches should you go to? I decided to conquer a few that will meet along the way and attract attention. I didn't do it alone. On the third beach, I saw one couple, who also wandered in search of their favorite place on the ocean. Recognizing each other on the third beach, they could not resist getting to know each other. A couple, about 40, French and Parisians in such a knee that I think their great-great-grandmother watched Napoleon's deeds. He is a shoe designer, she is a pool architect. She was just given an order to design a swimming pool in one of the St. Barts villas and the guys decided to combine work with vacation. I think a lot of people here do it.

The third day on the island, and they are already talking about selling some of the Parisian real estate and settling on this “nice island”. Well, work remotely or fly to clients. This is what many do here as well. Many of those who have been and can afford it.

The administration of the island is very critical of the origin, status and financial condition of the new settlers. They make sure that there is only cream. Those who have moved to the island are not idle. Someone opens a restaurant. As a result, there are over a hundred of them on such a tiny island.

Someone makes handmade shell jewelry from 100 euros for a bracelet.

Walking in the evening, at 10 o'clock, along one of the central streets, I looked into the ajar blinds of one of the boutiques. There, a tanned man of a very aristocratic appearance was sewing suede moccasins. They were displayed in the window even without a price. I am sure that the moccasins sewn on St. Barts by the hands of an aristocrat in the tenth generation are simply priceless ... You will not see such diligence everywhere.

On the fourth beach, I stopped near the famous Eden Rock Hotel. In the Rock Stars villa, owned by this hotel and equipped with a full-fledged recording studio, the hits of The Beetles were born at one time.

I stopped not because of Beatlemania, but because of the great restaurant on the rock. You know, it's when you look at some view and already realize that years will pass, but the picture will be alive in your memory. The kitchen did not disappoint either. True, at first I was surprised that I was alone in the restaurant. But, the smiling waiter explained to me that there would be no empty seats closer to eight in the evening.

And in general - night life active on the island. In one of the nightclubs, eighty-year-old Americans, again in white pajamas, danced fervently on the tables, often kissing the necks of five-liter bottles of champagne. Flocks of model girls flew through the dance floor, and fireworks exploded incessantly outside. It was even hard to imagine that during the day this island is half-asleep and sparsely populated.

In general, I found my formula for an ideal village: clear ocean, perfect weather, magical beaches, unobtrusive hotels and the same service, open people who clearly understand the word “tact”. Ah, yes. I almost forgot about the white pajamas made of the finest linen.

Someone buys luxury cars and apartments, while others buy islands. Some 50-60 years ago desert island could be bought for $1,500, and a habitable one for about $50,000. However, over time, prices have increased significantly, and some refuse their purchases. Well, what, having an island is not so easy: it is necessary to protect the animals that live on it, and this rule is tightened if its inhabitants are listed in the Red Book. So building ambitions are quite difficult to realize. But still, many people dream of acquiring such an unusual and luxurious property. And we present to you five rich private islands that belong to billionaires.

Lanai Island, Hawaii, USA

Who owns: Larry Ellison (net worth $49.4 billion as of 2016, 7th richest person in the world)

Island area: 364 sq. km

Price: approximately $500-600 million

In the summer of 2012, the head of the largest corporation Oracle, Larry Ellison, acquired 98% of the island of Lanai from another billionaire, David Murdoch. This is the sixth largest island of Hawaii, which, by the way, is home to approximately 3,200 people. It was here that the shooting of the series LOST took place, and here Bill Gates and his wife Melinda got married. By the way, it was rumored that it was Gates who wanted to buy this island, but Ellison was ahead of him.

Ellison plans to develop the infrastructure of the island, in particular, to build desalination plants for residents, use electric cars and arrange fruit exports.

Sampson Cay, Bahamas

Who owns: John Malone (net worth $7.2 billion as of 2017)

Island area: 0.12 sq. km

Price: not disclosed

Billionaire John Malone, 76, purchased his small reef island in 2002. Now here is a chic resort with villas and a yacht club. By the way, at first the billionaire wanted to open hotels for vacationers here, but then he changed his mind. So the chance to get into this heavenly place, if you are not familiar with John Malone, is minimal.

James Island, British Columbia, Canada

Who owns: Craig McCaw (net worth $1.84 billion as of 2015)

Island area: 3.1 sq. km

Price: $19 million

Craig McCaw, founder of McCaw Cellular Communications, bought the island off the coast of Canada in 1994. During this time, a piece of land has turned into an elite resort: villas, guest houses, golf courses, private airfield, shopping center, marinas. In 2012, McCaw even put the island up for sale for $75 million, but the ad was later taken down.

Necker Island, British Virgin Islands, Caribbean Sea

Who owns: Richard Branson (net worth $5.1 billion as of 2017)

Island area: 0.3 sq. km

Price: £180k (1970), now valued at $100m

One of the richest residents of the UK, Richard Branson, bought the island in 1970 not only for recreation, but also for business. There are several guest villas, an entertainment complex, tennis courts. By conservative estimates, the rental of this property brings Branson about 53 thousand dollars a day.

And about two hundred flamingos live on Necker Island.

Robins Island, New York, USA

Who owns: Louis Bacon (net worth $1.81 billion as of 2017)

Island area: 1.76 sq. km

Price: $11 million

Robins Island is located off Long Island. Once the former owner wanted to turn the island into a luxury resort, but the company went bankrupt, and at an auction in 1993 the island was bought by Wall Street financier Louis Bacon.

Robins, by the way, never turned into a resort. Bacon made a private reserve here: he restored oak forests, populations of deer and giant tortoises. He spent millions of dollars on all this. True, outsiders are forbidden to visit this reserve, and the New York billionaire comes here to hunt.

March 12th, 2013

“If you can buy a car, you can buy an island,” says Farhad Vladi, founder of Vladi Private Islands, one of the largest agencies selling islands to private owners, and perhaps the only public leader of such a structure. However, it seems that fashion is fading away.

In the 1960s, you could buy a desert island for $1,500 and an inhabited island for $50,000. But since then, prices have risen an average of six times and the cost of maintaining your own island four times; besides, the obligation to protect animals listed in the Red Book severely limits building ambitions. Millionaire Nadeem Sadek ($4.3 million, half the purchase price), singer Celine Dion ($29.3 million), actor Nicolas Cage ($3 million) are selling or have already sold their islands.

As for the domestic "islanders", then, according to open information, they prefer to acquire villas and estates in the already well-developed island infrastructure, rather than entire islands. So, Dmitry Rybolovlev (a fortune of $ 9 billion) bought an estate from actor Will Smith on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Roman Abramovich (worth $ 12.1 billion) in 2009 bought the Gouverneur estate on the island of St. Barts in the Caribbean. And the information that billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov (worth $13.2 billion) bought the island turned out to be a "duck".

Here is a list of the richest among millionaires and billionaires who own their own islands.

Lanai Island

Owner: Larry Ellison net worth $43 billion (2013)
Area: 364 sq. km
Location: Hawaii, USA
Deal amount: estimated - $500-600 million (2012; the exact amount of the transaction was not disclosed)

At the end of the summer of 2012, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison bought 98% of Lanai Island in Hawaii from Castle & Cooke, owned by billionaire David Murdoch (David Murdoch retained his house on the island and the right to build a wind farm). On Lanai, the shooting of the TV series Lost took place; the wedding of Bill and Melinda Gates took place here - it was rumored that Bill Gates wanted to buy the island from Murdoch, but Ellison was quicker. Ellison's plans include the construction of water desalination plants on the island for 3,200 people of the island's population; the widespread use of electric vehicles and the expansion of fruit exports, in particular to Japan (in the early 2000s, the island supplied 75% of pineapples to the world market).

Allan Island

Owner: Paul Allen, net worth $15 billion (2013)
Area: 1.2 sq. km
Location: San Juan Archipelago, 120 km from Seattle, USA
Deal amount: $27 million (1992)

One of the founders of Microsoft Corporation, Paul Allen, who bought a 30-hectare island near Seattle, equipped with a villa, a mini-airfield, a pier and a boathouse, faced a typical problem for such acquisitions - a lack of comfort due to the lack of “normal, classic” electricity. In the end, the billionaire, who practically did not invest in the development of the infrastructure of the island, put it up for sale at half price in 2010. However, the island has not yet been sold.

Reef Sampson

Owner: John Malone, net worth $6 billion (2013)
Area: 0.12 sq. km
Location: 80 km southwest of Nassau Island, Bahamas
Transaction amount: not disclosed (2002)

Media mogul John Malone, who turns 72 this year, owns 8.5 square kilometers of land (thus Malone deprived Ted Turner of the title of "America's main landlord")? annexed the small reef island of Sampson in the Exuma archipelago (Bahamas) to his land empire and built a 4-star resort hotel with a yacht club on it, where a weekly stay in one of the villas costs from $ 2,000 to $ 8,000.

Necker Island

Owner: Richard Branson, worth $4.6 billion (2013)
Area: 0.3 sq. km
Location: British archipelago Virgin Islands, caribbean
Transaction amount: £180 thousand (1970)

Sir Richard Branson, president of the Virgin group of companies, bought the island to make money - well, and to relax too. The 74-acre island is home to Branson himself, called the Temple, as well as several guest villas and an entertainment complex with tennis courts. Two hundred flamingos live on the island, officially considered "members of the Necker family." In 1984, Branson made his home available for private rental; the total rental income (the complex of buildings on the island is included in the corporation as a separate company) brings Branson up to $ 53 thousand per day.

Brekou Island

Owner: David and Frederick Barclay, worth $3.2 billion (2013)
Area: 0.81 sq. km
Location: Channel Islands (English Channel), Crown Dependency of Guernsey, UK
Deal amount: $4.3 million (1993)

Billionaire twins David and Frederick Barclay, who own, among other things, The Daily Telegraph newspaper, bought one of the Channel Islands - Breck. The brothers completely restored and reconstructed old lock in the Gothic style of buildings of the XIV century with a fortress wall, several pools and helipads were built. But most importantly, the brothers restored the Breku gardens, which have been known since the 14th century. In 2012, the island was opened for short-term visits by residents of the neighboring island of Sark, as well as to clients of a chain of hotels owned by business brothers.

Scorpios Island

Owner: Athena Onassis Roussel (Athena Onassis de Miranda), personal fortune - € 2.5 billion (2011)
Area: 0.6 sq. km
Location: Ionian Archipelago, Ionian Sea, Greece
Deal amount: $110,000 (1963; $828,000 in 2013 prices)

Billionaire Aristotle Onassis invented the fashion for private islands in the 1960s, having bought the island on which he married former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Skorpios is now owned by the billionaire's granddaughter, Athena, who decided to sell the island after her husband, Brazilian Alvaro de Miranda, was denied citizenship. According to another version, Athena decided to send her inheritance to charity. Another reason could be the fact that a very substantial amount is spent on the maintenance of the island - about € 1.5 million per year. After the announcement in 2009 of a desire to sell the island, Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa at-Thani, Bill Gates, Roman Abramovich, Madonna and Giorgio Armani were noted among potential buyers. However, it turned out that in his will, Aristotle Onassis forbade the sale of the island on which the family tomb is located. Now the island, valued at $200 million, is waiting for a tenant for the next 99 years.

st philips island

Owner: Ted Turner, worth $2 billion (2013)
Area: 8 sq. km
Location: 95 km southwest of Charleston, South Carolina, USA
Deal amount: $2 million (1979)

Media mogul Thad Turner bought St. Phillips off the coast of South Carolina in 1979, the year before CNN was founded. A few years later it broke border conflict Turner with the inhabitants of the neighboring island of St. Helena, who used the island of St. Phillips as hunting and fishing grounds (the parties came to a settlement agreement in 1984). Now the residence of the Turner family is located on the island, and it is closed to the public. With the purchase of St. Phillips, Thad Turner became the largest private landowner in the United States, but a little later he lost this honorary title to another member of the list - John Malone.

James Island

Owner: Craig McCaw, net worth $1.6 billion (2013)
Area: 3.1 sq. km
Location: 80 kilometers south of Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
Deal amount: $19 million (1994)

Craig McCaw, considered a pioneer in the industry cellular communication, in 1994, sold McCaw Cellular Communications, owned by him and his brothers, to AT&T for $12.6 billion, and in the same year bought an island off the coast of Vancouver Island, which was gradually turning into an elite resort. In ten years, a villa has been built on the island, guest houses around a golf course (designed by one of the world's leading golfers Jack Nicklaus), a village with a library, a gym and shopping center, sheltered harbor and private airfield. Now the island is up for sale, and its current value is estimated at $75.1 million.

Robins Island

Owner: Louis Moore Bacon, worth $1.3 billion (2013)
Area: 1.76 sq. km
Location: at the eastern tip of Long Island, 120 km from New York, USA
Deal amount: $11 million (1993)

In the early 1990s, Robins Island off the coast of Long Island, its then owner decided to set aside 22 luxury villas for construction. The Suffolk County authorities wanted to buy the island and make it a nature reserve, but they could not do it. A little later, the management company that owned this piece of land went bankrupt, and the island was bought at an auction by financier Louis Bacon, who created a special conservation fund for the island. Several million dollars have been spent to restore oak forests, heavily thinned out by clearings, deer populations and giant tortoises. The only negative: the island, which is, in fact, a small private reserve, is completely closed to the public.

North Dumpling Island

Owner: Dean Kamen (net worth $0.8 billion, 2012, estimate)
Area: 8000 sq. m
Location: 170 km northwest of New York, off the coast of Connecticut, USA
Deal amount: $2.5 million (1986)

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway (an electric self-balancing two-wheeled scooter) and founder of the Segway Company, bought the island after being seduced by the old lighthouse and windmill, which he later converted into a wind farm. In addition, Kamen erected an exact copy of Stonehenge on the island. During the presidency of George W. Bush, Kamen declared the island a kingdom with its own currency, flag and anthem, constitution and fleet (consisting of an amphibious vehicle). Despite the fact that the United States did not officially recognize the independence of the island, George W. Bush and Dean Kamen signed a mutual non-aggression pact.

Saint-Tropez, Maldives, Bali - the names of these resorts often appear in the gossip column and are symbols of a luxurious respectable vacation. But all of them cannot be compared in prestige and elite with the small island of St. Barthelemy, which rightfully deserves the name "island for billionaires."

Saint Barthelemy, or St. Barth, as it is called with the light hand of the French (the island is the territory of France), is a modest size (only 45 sq.m) mountainous island in the Caribbean Sea, a real, albeit hard-to-reach, pearl of this region.

By the way, it was the inaccessibility that made this island so popular, because celebrities, while relaxing here, have nothing to fear from the paparazzi.

To get on it, a mere mortal must first land on neighboring island St. Maarten, and from there a boat or a small plane will be delivered to the final destination.

Another thing is that the middle class is unlikely to have a rest on this paradise island because not even every celebrity can afford it.

A modest one-bedroom villa here costs about 1-1.5 million dollars, and for a luxury villa, those who want to relax here lay out from 15 to 30 million.

For example, oligarch Roman Abramovich bought himself a mansion on Caribbean island for $90 million and now throws regular parties at St. Barts, inviting his friends to them.

Saint Barthelemy owes its popularity to David Rockefeller and other wealthy individuals who chose it as their residence in the 1950s.

And now on the island you will not find hotels below the category of stars. The usual attributes for a local holiday are also expensive boutiques, closed clubs and chic restaurants, of which there are about 90. By the way, it is believed that St. Barth has the best cuisine in the entire Caribbean region.

This resort is famous for its cultural life. It hosts several annual music festivals, as well as the Caribbean film festival, a film festival that showcases new works by European and American directors.

But the sights are tight here, but vacationers can enjoy the unique underwater and flora. Everyone who comes to St. Barts falls forever in love with its hilly landscapes, colorful sunsets and the smiles of the locals, who number only 6,000 people.

Surprisingly, this is the only island in the Caribbean where there has never been slavery, so there is practically no black population here.