Owning a private island sounds like fantasy until you realise it occasionally shows up at auction with a price tag closer to a London flat. That's the case right now in Fiji, where a pair of neighbouring islands in the Yasawa Group are being sold together under the hammer. Nanuyasesara and Nanuyabuli were previously listed at $4.512m, but they return to market with a reserve of just $1.7m.
The duo sits off the southern coast of Naviti Island and covers roughly 24.5 acres combined. There are no villas, hotels or other developments on either island — just tropical white-sand beaches and open Pacific views. Getting there is part of the appeal: about 2.5 hours by boat launch from the Nadi area, or a brisk 30 minutes by seaplane or helicopter, according to listing agent Richard Snowsill.
Why sell? The landowners simply need funds for other projects, says Snowsill. The auction is being run by Paramount Realty USA alongside listing agent Cara Milgate of Intero Real Estate Services. Misha Haghani, CEO of Paramount Realty USA, notes that the total lack of development is what makes the sale unusual — an asset like two untouched islands sits outside normal valuation rules.
For the buyer, that means a genuine blank canvas. The islands are held under a 99-year Special Use-Tourism Development Lease, so the purchase buys the right to use and develop them for tourism, subject to lease conditions that haven't been made public. The new owner could build a private residence, launch a tourism project, or both — though building from scratch on an undeveloped island comes with the usual planning, infrastructure and logistics headaches.
And the cost of turning sand into somewhere livable? Snowsill's local agent estimates construction of a modest residence at roughly $5,000-$8,000 per square metre — and that's just the building itself, not the water, power, jetties and everything else required to make an island functional.
Who should care? If you're in the market for a serious property investment with tourism potential, this is a genuinely rare opportunity — undeveloped freehold-style island pairs in Fiji seldom reach open auction. And for everyone else, it's a window into how private island deals actually work: reserve prices, lease structures and build costs. It's also a nudge to visit the Yasawa Group before someone else's development plans reshape it — these islands remain beautifully raw, reachable from Nadi and ringed by some of Fiji's best snorkelling and cruising water.
