Half-price pearl: spectacular beachfront Caribbean villa re-listed for sale after price is slashed by 50 per cent
The owner of one of the Caribbean's most luxurious seafront homes has just cut the asking price by a jaw-dropping 50 per cent.
The Palm Island house in the chain of islands that forms St Vincent & the Grenadines is being sold fully furnished, and also comes complete with a dayboat and two golf-style buggies and there's even separate staff quarters.
Villa Almaviva was originally on sale for $9million - £6.7million - but this has now been slashed to £3.35million, exactly the same price as a fashionable three-bedroom flat in the City.
In contrast to the London apartment, the bright white beachfront property features 10,000 sq ft of living space, including nine bedrooms and nine bathrooms.
It also features impressive 270-degree views from its coastal hilltop and has impressively wide terraces - and an infinity pool - from which to enjoy them, as well as a covered patio to carry on enjoying alfresco living shaded from the sun on the one-acre plot.
As you'd expect from such a prime property, all the bedrooms have air conditioning and en suite showers, while the house is even equipped with its own back-up power generator, desalination facility and storage facilities for 14,000 gallons of water, should mains supplies be disrupted during the hurricane season.
WHAT'S THE CATCH?
Michelle Bellegarde, CEO of the Saint Vincent & the Grenadines branch of Sotheby’s International Realty, admits that the price drop is attention grabbing: “A modest price drop only generates a modest response, whereas a dramatic price drop, such is seen with Villa Almaviva, creates attention and brings more buyers to the table."
Ursula Streit, a former publisher and the home's 80 year-old owner, is keen to sell after using the house as her Caribbean residence for over 20 years and spending the rest of the year in Switzerland.
She says: “Villa Almaviva has always been our place for peace and recreation. My husband and I ran a lively and successful publishing house and escaped to Palm Island whenever we could, even before we built the house.
"I did not have a 9am to 5pm day, but a 9am to 10pm one and the island was very important for creativity, inner balance and generating new ideas.
"We used to run away to the island, away from business meetings and events into a much more relaxed environment of blissful island life. It truly is a retreat, a refresher and a breath of fresh air."
AN IDYLLIC TRANSFORMATION
Palm Island, which is only accessible by boat, had the less glamorous name of Prune Island before the late Sixties when then owners John and Mary Caldwell planted hundreds of coconut palms as part of their plan to transform the island from a mosquito-infested swamp into a proper Caribbean destination.
The former grass airstrip was allowed to be over-run by vegetation and the golf course was also reclaimed in the same way and the 135-acre island is now home not only to a luxury hotel and private homes, but a wide variety of regional wildlife, including land turtles, house geckos, ground and tree lizards, hermit and land crabs and dozens of species of birds.
Although on a truly remote island, the house as little as 14 hours from London by ferry to St Lucia and a connecting flight to Heathrow.
Villa Almaviva is for sale with Sotheby's International Realty with a guide price of $4.5million.