Yahoo Finance Buy on this tropical island and live next door to David Hasselhoff
When you are the most watched man on television, according to the Guinness Book of Records, and almost as famous for a Berlin Wall-busting song entitled Looking for Freedom, you’re going to be in need of somewhere that offers blissful seclusion. Indeed, in these troubled times, it’s what most of us could do with right now – a peaceful paradise that takes us far away from reality and routine.
It seems that David Hasselhoff has found his slice of paradise on the tiny, car-free Indonesian island of Gili Meno, which sits a short helicopter hop away from the islands of Lombok and Bali. “I can just come here and park. I can breathe, work from here, scuba dive in the warmest water I’ve ever known and take a boat over to Gili Trawangan for huge lobsters that cost $6,” enthuses the 65-year-old former Baywatch star.
He is among the first buyers at BASK Gili Meno, a new collection of 87 furnished, luxury villas that start at $200,000 (£154,000) for a studio and rise to $1 million for a three-bedroom beachfront villa like the Hoff’s (baskgilimeno.com). It’s about half the price you would pay in nearby Bali.
The villas, designed by British architect Gary Fell, are mid-century modern combined with contemporary Balinese design, and are surrounded on all sides by water. To the front is the Bali Sea, and behind is a natural salt lake where villa owners can enjoy a spot of spa pampering.
People come here with a suitcase of clothes and another full of books
Hasselhoff calls himself “a Hawaii guy” – though he thinks it is starting to feel too busy these days – and he’s also a regular visitor to Australia’s Bondi Beach. But a chance encounter with property developer Greg Meyer, chief executive of BASK, took him to the little-explored Gili Meno. Smaller than one square mile, it has a permanent population of just 500 and is starting to find a following among those who are looking for what Bali used to be.
“Greg told me about the resort, I said ‘let’s go’, and the moment I set foot on the sand, I said, this is where my condo will be, I’m in,” says the impulsive Hasselhoff, who has owned a number of holiday homes “pretty much everywhere”, he says.
“I’ve done it all, but right now I don’t have a significant amount of homes. I’m throwing balls in the air.”
Owners at BASK Gili Meno get a month’s personal usage of their villas and initial guaranteed rental returns of 7.5 per cent for the rest of the year. “It will be a hideaway for me, my family and my fiancée’s family,” says Hasselhoff, referring to Welsh shop assistant Hayley Roberts. “You can walk everywhere and meet the local people, who are frickin’ fantastic. They know me and say hello, but they don’t stop me for selfies. It’s a piece of heaven.”
The quest for calm and seclusion in this busy, connected world has led developers to search out other remote locations for a spot of luxury.
One such nirvana can be found in Koh Samui, the Thai island that is shrugging off its hippy image to become a luxurious and less-developed alternative to Phuket. Koh Samui is home to the Samujana resort, where the actor Idris Elba stayed while training to become a professional kick-boxer.
After Christopher Biggins and Patricia Hodge, the actors, holidayed there recently, Biggins declared, “It’s the place I could linger indefinitely.” One villa owner – a retired bigwig in Israeli shipping, who has Thai tax residency and spends six months a year there – is convinced that each visit (with his personal trainer, boxing coach and yoga guru in tow) adds 10 years to his life.
Samujana has 27 jaw-droppingly beautiful villas, of which eight are currently for sale from $1 million for a three-bedroom to $5 million for an eight-bedroom through Sphere Estates (sphereestates.com). The architect is Gary Fell, again – the go-to man in Asia for modern inside/outside luxury living – and the style is “very Oscar Niemeyer: clean lines and a main living area that is open to the elements on two or three sides,” says London-based John Kinder, one of the co-investors in the resort.
Should you emerge from the semi-permanent state of hypnosis that the spellbinding views across the verdant islands of the Gulf of Thailand induce, you probably won’t get much further than your villa. Each property comes with a huge infinity pool, cinema room and gym, plus a private chef, spa treatments and bespoke services such as in-villa circus skills training at your disposal.
It may now be gaining a reputation as a paradise getaway for the rich and famous, but Samujana began as something far more casual: a spot where a dozen friends, some from the UK, some from Asia, decided to buy adjacent plots so they could enjoy holidays together with their children.
“When my wife Gerry and I first visited Samujana in 2005, we bought two plots to build on, but then we couldn’t face waiting two years until the villas were ready so we bought an existing villa,” says Kinder. “Then, with our friends, we bought the adjacent hillside, so that no one could overlook us. The bigger we got, the more structured we had to become.
“The estate has grown far beyond its original scope, but we have always retained our original vision,” Kinder adds. “We are all still involved, we come here several times a year and we know everyone on the estate.”
People come here with a suitcase of clothes and another full of books
When it comes to glorious seclusion, you might not think of Barbados, whose multimillionaires’ west coast strip is seeing yet more mega-mansions and five-star resorts take shape. But head over to the east coast, a 40-minute drive across the fattest rump of the island, and you step into a different world.
There’s a reason for this: 99 per cent of the east coast is protected national parkland. You’ll find the odd sea-ravaged clapperboard house on the beach and the occasional rum shack, but little more. This is still very much a local side of the island. Tourists tend to stray here only on safari tours that provide panoramic views of this unspoilt coast from the highlands of the Scotland District – or to stay in the only east coast resort, the Crane, the oldest hotel in the Caribbean, which has grown in the past two decades into a relaxed, five-star haven overlooking pinkish-white sands.
Just on the edge of the parkland, however, the team behind the Crane is developing the only plot that can be built on this peaceful, wild side of Barbados. On a 50-acre site that gently slopes down to the rugged expanses of Skeete’s Bay, Beach Houses is a new development of 63 villas available to buy for $1.9 million to $2.95 million, or from $65,000 on a fractional ownership basis (beachhouses.bb).
Architecturally, they are unlike anything else on the island. Designed by Bajan architect Shawn Archer, the villas are single-storey, eco-friendly and almost disappear in their natural surroundings, wrapped in lush palms and with only their green roofs visible to the more elevated properties. They are so secluded that the glazed walls of the bathrooms open up entirely so you can bathe in your private tropical wilderness.
The resort will have a gym and spa, two restaurants, a bar and convenience store – but the Beach Houses really are about getting away from it all. Their creators call it “no tan lines privacy”.
Paul Doyle, the owner of the Crane, says: “These houses are for people who really want nothing around them. They lead busy lives and, when on holiday, they want to be away from civilisation. It’s just you and the sea.
“Villa owners at the Crane have told us what they really like to do is read. They come here with a suitcase of clothes and another full of books, and a lot come here to write. The Beach Houses have been designed with that in mind.”
These sound like perfect places to avoid the gaze of others – whether you are the most watched man on television, or simply someone who longs for your own little piece of paradise.
