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Atoll Tale
Laura Walbert
08/02/2004
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VALUE JUDMENT
Buying a private island is one way to achieve a welcomed measure of seclusion
and respite. It is also an important and complex investment, which we must
consider carefully. Factors such as location, accessibility and the cost of
property improvements bear on the long-term value of these seabound getaways
even more than they do on our landlocked homes. |
Appreciating Isles
Private
islands have generally proven to be sound investments. Gudgell estimates that
prices in the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest have appreciated between
8 percent and 12 percent a year for the last 25 years. “Some years you get no
appreciation, some years you get a double,” he says. The Roulac family purchased
Coon Island, a two-acre islet off Washington with no utilities, in 1962 for
$35,000. In 2001, it sold for $3.1 million.Neil Wark, who brokers properties
near Vancouver Island, receives half a dozen inquiries each day from his
website, www.bcprivateislands.com.
The Canadian Gulf Islands he brokers are more numerous and less expensive than
the American San Juan Islands that lay just to the south. For example, a 5-acre
islet in the San Juans would sell for approximately $2 million, whereas an
11-acre Canadian island was recently on the market for $795,000. However, with
popularity increasing, Wark estimates the islands of western Canada will double
in price during the next five to seven years.
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