search

The Real Deal Logo

Trending

Lawmakers reach sweeping housing deal with “good cause eviction,” new 421aLawmakers reach sweeping housing deal with “good cause eviction,” new 421aMortgage applications jump as buyers worry about rising ratesMortgage applications jump as buyers worry about rising ratesMarty Burger’s new venture sputters on takeoffMarty Burger’s new venture sputters on takeoffAshkenazy, Brookfield's distressed Union Square property in SF sees 40% value cutAshkenazy, Brookfield's distressed Union Square property in SF sees 40% value cut
Residential
New York

You’ll have to shell out another $15M for this private Bahamas island

Almost 40-acre Little Pipe Cay hit market in 2018 for $85M

You’ll have to shell out another $15M for this private Bahamas island
Private Bahamas island of Little Pipe Cay (Knight Frank)

If at first you can’t succeed, hike the price by $15 million and try again.
That seems to be the mantra for the private Bahamas island of Little Pipe Cay, which just hit the market for $100 million, up from $85 million three years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s part of the 365-island archipelago of Exumas.

The reason: luxury prices are rising in nearby tropical markets such as Miami and Palm Beach, according to Douglas Elliman’s John Gomes, who has the listing along with colleague Fredrik Eklund and Knight Frank’s Edward de Mallet Morgan. It doesn’t hurt that the Bahamas are popular among wealthy foreigners seeking to avoid taxes back home, Gomes said.

The asking price makes it the most expensive public listing for an island in the Bahamas. A total of 75 Bahamian islands on the market, asking between half a million dollars and $62 million. Most of those are leaseholds, however, whereas Little Pipe Cay is a freehold island, meaning a buyer would actually own the actual property.

The island was built out by businessman and Shipston Group founder Michael Dingman, who in the 1990s gave up his U.S. citizenship for a Bahamian passport, saving him potentially millions of dollars in taxes, according to a 1996 New York Times article.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Dingman died in 2017. Little Pipe Cay now has 22 structures, including a 5,300-square-foot main residence with three bedrooms. They include a separate 8,900-square-foot home meant for entertaining, complete with a dining area, pub, gym and spa. It also has a staff house and four two-bedroom guest cottages.

Other buildings include a workshop, laundry facility and an equipment storage building stocked with replacement parts for machinery and appliances.

Dingman and his family added a water filtration plant, a freshwater storage system, a power station and an underground power grid.
It cost around $1.5 million a year to operate the island and the family has rented it out for $75,000 per night.

[WSJ] — Dennis Lynch

Tags
Luxury Real Estate