buyer disappears a week after sale of Whitsundays private Island

A week after the sale of a private island in the Whitsundays pristine waters, the buyer has disappeared.

It is not a plot of a murder mystery novel, but a real quandary confronted by the directors of Private Islands Online Australia, Richard and Norelle Vanhoff, who have had to put Poole Island back on the market.

The buyer, a WA-based businessman, had signed a contract and paid a $5,000 deposit for the 20 ha island with an asking price of $995,000 less than average home in Australia's biggest cities.

When the property was ready for settlement, the solicitor for the purchaser couldn't find his client. His phone was turned off and his emails went unanswered.

Vanhoff said that the owner selling the island was doubting our ability to track the gentleman down, and so I gave him the details, and he came to the same conclusion. Vanhoff said that the experience was rather odd, he had never had a client completely cut off communication since he and his wife started the business in 2004.

If someone is not going to proceed, they will let you know pretty early that you are not going to waste your time. With an asking price of less than $1 m, where else can one buy a waterfront property for $1 m, and be situated at 50 acres, surrounded by coral and deepwater fishing and not too far from Airlie Beach or Hamilton Island? Vanhoff said something.

The buyer gets the right to own the lease that is granted by the Queensland government for a period of 20 years, with $20,000 paid annually in rent.

The island is surrounded by deep blue water, but unlike other islands in the Whitsundays there is not much in the way of infrastructure beyond two buildings in need of renovation, some sheds and lawn.

The current owners, two Sydney businessmen who bought the property in 2018, had planned to turn the island into a rentable property for functions, such as weddings and birthdays, in order to make the island cost-neutral at the same time as being used for their families recreational purposes. Vanhoff said that the couple no longer have time to spend on the project.

Before 2018, a doctor from Melbourne had owned the island for more than 40 years and used it as a getaway for his family. When he began his tenure in the 1980s, the doctor built a home as well as a natural saltwater swimming pool fashioned from the island's rock outcrop.

The only other existing structure on the island was built out of bricks made by convicts for the manager of the island when it was used for sheep grazing in the late 19th century. The building became the residence of workers at Australia's first refrigerated abattoir, located on the island.

Vanhoff said that it was the first place that they used refrigeration in Queensland.

There is no evidence of First Nations people having lived on the island, said Vanhoff.

He understood that the new buyer had intended to use the island primarily for his own purposes but also intended to proceed with renovations to bring the assets up to a commercial standard for third-party accommodation.

The market for private islands has been going gangbusters since the Pandemic, with no dip in demand since the end of lockdowns, according to Vanhoff.

A lot of buyers have looked at the market during the Covid period: how do they isolate themselves? How do they control their businesses while they are not in residence? And islands seem to cover all of those areas and give them ultimate leisure.