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.
