The Scottish island on sale in the Shetlands for less than a London flat
Vaila Sound, on the west side of Shetland, is being sold with an asking price of just £250,000
FIRST-TIME buyers struggling to come up with a deposit for their home could instead get themselves a 65-acre private ISLAND for about half the average price of a London property.
A Scottish island - complete with its very own loch - is being sold with an asking price of just £250,000.
The same amount would currently get a buyer a two-bedroom ground floor flat in Romford on the outskirts of east London.
With the average house price in London last year recorded as £481,000 on the UK House Price Index, the island is almost less than half that.
But instead of congested roads and overcrowded public transport, the new owners could look forward to a life in the sheltered Vaila Sound, on the west side of Shetland.
The island only has the remains of two derelict cottages, so the new owners will have their work cut out - although plans to renovate the two buildings have already been given the green light.
Planning permission is already in place for the building of a pier, a storage shed with a reception area and new agricultural buildings too.
A new cottage also forms part of the plans, as well as a windmill and solar panels for power, septic tanks with reed beds for sewage and rainwater capture from the new buildings' roofs to provide the fresh water supply.
Any Brit thinking about the island as a new holiday home should bear in mind that the location of the 63.75-acre island is closer to Norway than Scotland
Fahad Vladi, whose company , said: "In Scotland you have special laws which prohibit you to really develop islands, so we always have to go back to what is there.
"So if there are farmhouse walls, we are allowed to re-build the house, it is very very sensitive - you cannot develop islands.
"Therefore the prices are according to what you can do - if you have only a small stable which you can rebuild, then of course, your use is limited."
Mr Vladi has sold more than 2,000 islands since he started his business in 1972 and says island rentals are becoming more popular with younger generations, who are not so keen on buying.
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He said: "The youngsters they like excitement and joy, but they don't want responsibility - and if you own an island you have a lot of responsibility.
"The younger generation love to rent an island for a week, or two weeks, enjoy it and then next year then they go to another island or a hiking trip to the Himalayas.
"When it comes to ownership, they prefer condos in cities.
"The generation who are 50 or older, they buy islands - they have that love for owning something and looking after it."