Rare island auction is stirring up interest

BIDDERS are already showing strong interest in Thursday’s auction of an island off the coast of Greece — a highly uncommon offering in SA’s auction market, according to the auctioneer, Auction Avenue.

The 17ha island in the archipelago between Greece and Italy was expected to fetch between €3.5m and €4m (R41m and R47m).

“From our knowledge, it’s probably one of the first times an island has been auctioned off in SA. That’s as far as we are aware, and we’ve been in the industry for about 15 years,” Auction Avenue director Kaleb Willems said on Friday.

The auction is at noon on Thursday at the Maslow Hotel, Sandton.

The vacant island is zoned to accommodate up to six houses. Mr Willems said the nearest airport was “about two hours” away by boat.

The neighbouring island, less than 1km away, was owned by the Qatari royals, Mr Willems said.

The island belonged to a Greek family based in SA, and was held in the family’s trust.

Mr Willems said that if there was sufficient appetite, and “depending on what kind of stock we get”, Auction Avenue would consider more auctions of this nature.

“We are seeing there’s quite high demand for this — we’ve had probably about 100 calls for it already.”

The target market was “either a wealthy individual who wants to do it for his family, or it could be more of a fractional type (of) ownership where six families decide to buy and they can each have their own house on the island”.

While island sales may be a rarity in SA, they are a more common commodity in other parts of the world, such as the artificial archipelago of 300 islands resembling a map of the world, off Dubai.

Sotheby’s International Realty has 22 private islands listed on its website for sale in various locations, including Greece, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Venice and France.

A 35ha island in the Aegean Sea, which lies between Greece and Turkey, is advertised for €35m.