Rare Whitsundays tropical island for sale at bargain price

Fancy getting away from it all?

Robinson Crusoe-wannabes can’t get much more idyllically secluded than this – their own private island that sits a boat ride, or helicopter trip, off the Queensland mainland.

And this desert island life involves no roughing it at all. Victor Island, at the southern end of the Whitsundays and Great Barrier Reef, opposite Mackay, comes with a stylishly furnished four-bedroom house and a separate, self-contained dwelling for a caretaker, butler or maid.

“This is a unique opportunity,” said sales agent Andrew Bell, the chairperson of Ray White Surfers Paradise. 

“It’s a real bucket list moment. It would make the perfect escape for someone with a high-pressured business role, or would be the perfect place to retire to.

“It’s quite an amazing thing, to have a whole island to yourself. There are no neighbours, you can do exactly what you want, and it’s a golden opportunity for a fabulous lifestyle.”

The island, two kilometres off the coast, is being offered as a mortgagee sale, with the added lure that it absolutely has to be sold, and through a third party with no emotional attachment to the place. Its house has the perfect address too – 1 Island Street.

It was listed in June 2021 for $4.7 million but then sold in March 2022 for $3,655,500 to Sydney company Kingdom Developers, which had planned to extend the accommodation with room for 30-plus guests. 

But when the company reconfigured its portfolio, it was reported as saying the island no long fitted with their priorities.

As a result, in late December 2022 it was put back on the market, and by October 2023 it was said to be on sale for the discounted price of just $2.75 million.

This is only a fraction of what you’d pay for a similar house – and only the bricks and mortar, not the island – in Sydney’s Vaucluse, which has a median price, on Domain figures, of $9.59 million. And it is close to the median price of a four-bedroom house in Byron Bay, at $2.34 million.

With an auction now scheduled for April 11, Bell said the price was up in the air – or perhaps down to earth. 

“The mortgagees have a different approach, a fully pragmatic approach,” he said. “The property has to be sold, but we don’t know what for.

SOLD - $2,510,000

1 Island Street (Victor Island), Whitsundays QLD 4802

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“So I’m advising people to work out what they think it’s worth to them, and then to give it their best shot. There simply is nothing like this on the market.”

The island’s house has a business licence to operate as short-term accommodation for up to eight people. 

It might be possible to modify those conditions or put in a DA for a second dwelling. One was approved in 2010 but has since lapsed.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase an island property for an incredibly reasonable price,” said Ray White Commercial agent Michael Willems. 

“Unfortunately for the owner, it is a mortgagee sale and someone will get an absolute bargain.”

The island comes with a perpetual lease, and is just a 20-minute boat trip from Hay Point Marina or 10 minutes by helicopter from Mackay Airport. It offers scuba diving and has a natural marina for mooring vessels.

The newly renovated house is architect-designed and eco-friendly with rainwater storage, a desalination plant and solar power with a back-up generator. 

It has an entertainer’s deck, a pool, soaring ceilings, a curved roof and, naturally, 360-degree views of the Coral Sea.