Dreamy private island off the coast of Maine can be yours for $8M

Itching to get away from it all on your own private island retreat? Want to bring your horses? And maybe a small village? Hope Island—described as a “magical island kingdom”—may be just the land mass you’re looking for.

The 86-acre isle is a 25-minute boat ride from Portland, Maine, and has 11,050 feet of rugged rocky coast and sand beaches. It’s also got a three-bedroom, six-bath mansion clocking in at 10,000 square feet. Apparently the main house was built more for entertaining than sleeping, as the home’s great hall takes up a whopping 1,165 square feet of the space, accommodating a grand floating staircase, bar, and french doors that open onto a wide terrace.

The island also has several guest houses, a large boathouse, 10-stall horse stable, a few barns and houses for ducks and chickens, a small steepled chapel, and a private tavern. The roads are concrete. The island is powered by a submerged marine power cable as well as generators, and it gets its water from nine private freshwater wells.

But all of this lovely luxury comes at a price—and not just the $7.95 million price tag. Property taxes for the isle ballooned so much in the 2000s that owners John and Phyllis Cacoulidis tried to secede into their own private village. The annual tax bill is now over $75,000 a year. And maintaining the infrastructure of a large island isn’t cheap either.

But ah, the view.

Via: Mansion Global, Christie’s