Greece island is rock solid investments for some rich cats
- By Pooky, this blog economics journalist
Greece is in trouble financially, because it borrowed too much to stimulate its economy out of the recession. So Greece turned to Europe for help-namely bailouts attached with an austerity plan. Sort of like a European IMF.
One major Greece asset: Pristine islands surrounded by crystal clear waters. One of Thailand’s greatest assets? Phuket Island.
The following article from BBC says many European region leaders wants Greece to sell their islands. Potential wise, there are about 300 un-inhabited Greece islands that could be sold, starting at about US$2-3 million. The world’s super-rice and not so super-rich have been buying up some Greece islands.
- Greece islands are off course “Top-Notch” when it comes to a great vacation spot-just think of crystal clear waters and the Mediterranean culture combined. It takes one back to the roaring 1930s very liberal Paris. Greece is also right there, close to the French Rivera and a great many ports where the world’s greatest yacht are docked.
Does all of that sounds like Phuket may be in trouble? Well “Yes” and “No.”
Phuket is trying to go up-market-but it has not reached the Greece level as yet. But it is getting close. Houses and condo, targeting the super-rich, in Phuket, have crept up in prices to a few million dollars in many case. And Thais are yelling nearly everyday about foreigners buying houses in Thailand.
Girls like Nanny is what makes Phuket hot for the super-rich, but then are European girls that bad?
But I will pose the question to our readers. If you were a super-rich, what will you buy-something in Phuket or a Greece island?
- For me, if I were a guy and if I were a super-rich, what would it be-a privately owned Greece island near the French Rivera-or a house in an island in the tropics? Well, sorry Phuket, for me, it is a Greece island any day. I would be calling my sophisticated European friends over for some serious culture-partying on my private island. Then if the friend has a yacht, bingo, park it right there close to the island-like we can wave good morning to each other before breakfast.
- That is, if Thai girls like Nanny does not get in the way.
The following is from the BBC
Greece should consider selling some of its uninhabited islands to cut its debt, according to political allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Josef Schlarmann and Frank Schaeffler told Germany’s Bild daily that the Greek state should sell stakes in all its assets to raise more cash.
Greek PM George Papandreou is due to meet Mrs Merkel in Berlin later this week for talks about the crisis.
Mr Papandreou has already announced a strict austerity programme.
‘Affordable’ islands
“Sell your islands, you bankrupt Greeks – and the Acropolis too!” says the headline in the Bild newspaper.
It sounds like the sort of daydream induced by too much ouzo, but the idea comes from two senior politicians in Europe’s biggest economy.
Mr Schlarmann is a senior member of Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats and Mr Schaeffler is an MP for the Free Democrats – the junior partner in the centre-right coalition.
Both confirmed to the BBC that they wanted to start a debate about what Greece could do to help itself and bolster the battered euro.
Those who face insolvency, Mr Schlarmann said, must sell everything they have to pay their creditors.
He advised Mrs Merkel not to promise any financial aid when she met Mr Papandreou in Berlin.
According to a poll published on Thursday, 84% of Germans think that the EU should not help Greece out of its debt crisis.
It is true that dotted in the blue waters of the Aegean are some of the country’s most valuable assets – about 6,000 islands, of which only 227 are inhabited. Many of them are privately owned by the world’s super-rich.
According to a specialised real-estate website, Greek islands evoke images of sunglass-sporting shipping magnates sipping champagne on enormous yachts, but cost as little as $2m (£1.3m).
Relatively affordable, the website says – unless, of course, you’re a Greek.
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