Not Just For The Rich And Famous: Two Men Buy Caribbean Island To Start Their Own Country!
Owning private islands seems like a very privileged concept only for the rich and famous. However, a group of people have proven that it's more likely possible than you might have thought.
Are you tired of the country you live in? Well, turns out, you can get your own country if you want to (terms and conditions apply).
Owning private islands seems like a very privileged concept only for the rich and famous. However, a group of people have proven that it's more likely possible than you might have thought.
Gareth Johnson and Marshall Mayer, co-founders of Let¡¯s Buy An Island, a project that began in 2018 are setting an example for those who want to buy their own island.
The duo launched a crowd-funding campaign and was able to raise ?250,000 (Rs 2,50,21,974) through investors to purchase an uninhabited island in the Caribbean. They want to develop the area for tourism, share the profits and allow everyone to live their own ¡®private island fantasy¡¯.
In a conversation with CNN, Johnson said, "Who hasn't dreamed of making their own country? Particularly in a post-Trump, post-Brexit, Covid world. If a bunch of regular people can make this work, perhaps it can be a force for good."
By December 2019, the man had raised enough funds to buy Coffee Caye, a 1.2-acre island off the coast of Belize, which became reimagined as the ¡®Principality of Islandia¡¯.
The micronation is not recognised officially but it benefits from many of the features of an autonomous country - it has its own national flag, anthem, and government.
"We are as close to a nation as you can get, without getting an army and a navy," Johnson said.
Johnson, who also co-founded a company called Young Pioneers Tours, which specialises in extreme tourism to destinations like North Korea and Syria and unrecognized states such as Transnistria, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh, initially came up with the idea nearly 15 years ago, having bought the domain name letsbuyanisland.com after deciding it could be fun to buy an island and start a micronation.
Mayer added, "When Gareth first put the idea to me, I thought God no, this will never become a reality. But he began to explain how much an island might cost, and we realized that actually, there are parts of the world where buying an island was much more realistic than I'd ever thought possible, especially if we clubbed our funds together."
Each share on the island would cost $3,250 (Rs 2,48,330). People could buy as many as they wanted but each individual would only be allowed one vote in the democratic decision-making process. After looking at islands in the Philippines, Malaysia, Ireland, Panama and Belize, Coffee Caye was purchased for $180,000 plus tax.
The duo has sold almost 100 shares, and have investors from 25 different countries.
Mayer said: "People really bought into the concept. It was a crazy leap of faith to take, but our initial goal of buying an island, we've done it. But the next phase, where we go to next, we never had any plans because we didn't know we'd make it this far."
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