Owning an island seems to be what separates the men from the big boys, so to speak. Some Hollywood A-listers are among the privileged handful that own such secluded private properties surrounded by seemingly interminable stretches of oceans and seas.
If you can’t own an island, the next best thing is to rent one. Luckier are those island owners located in multi-island archipelagos such as the Philippines who rent out their paradise treasure to the moneyed class. In such locations, island property investors/owners have an array of isles and islets to let. After all, even a one-kilometer long sand bar surrounded by pristine white-sand beaches is a tropical treasure that one can let for a not-so-small fortune.
Fly2let is an example of a company that serves information and professional advice for overseas property investors. The group’s aim is to help its ‘visitors become the best informed property investors in the market: up to date with opportunities, responsibilities, pitfalls, and latest requirements when purchasing property abroad.’
This is one group that links capital from developed economies to potential property purchases in, say, the developing world. Naturally, part of their professional advice is how to package future properties into marketable havens of the tourism and hospitality industries.
Going back to paradise, these rented islands, of course, should come with luxurious amenities where the rich renters can enjoy 5-star resort treatment, not to mention industrious service rendered by local residents or island natives that get to be employed as staff in these private resorts.
The Pacific Isles is a spot on earth where island-renting may be prevalent. Behind these arrangements are big businesses in property development and the hospitality industry. The renter just has to have hundreds of thousands of dollars to shell out for a slice of heaven on earth where one can sit among exquisite indigenous orchid blooms while tinkering on a laptop. Hopefully, there’s broadband signal in the area.
But the whole idea behind spending oodles of moolah to be able to rest in these rented islands is to leave the laptop at home, bring only a few of one’s flimsiest and skimpiest pieces of clothing, and learn to play with the fish and jellyfish among the corals in the reefs – and, oh yes, learn the fine craft of swatting those pesky tropical denizens called mosquitoes.
