Bureaucracy Drives Away Greek Island Buyers

Despite several high-profile sales of Greek islands this year at bargain-basement prices, don?t whip out your checkbook just yet. It turns out that buying an island from a country languishing in its sixth year of recession may not, in fact, be the most practical idea. Three years ago, German lawmakers infuriated Greeks with the suggestion that Greece sell off its famously idyllic islands as a condition of its European Union bailout. Since then, some private island-owners have taken the Germans? advice. The Emir of Qatar bought six islands in the Ionian Sea for the rock bottom price of ?8.5 million ($11.5 million). And the sole heir of Aristotle Onassis sold Skorpios - the legendary private isle where the shipping tycoon married Jacqueline Kennedy - to a Russian billionaire.

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