Qatar’s Emir, who has a fondness for buying Greek islands, said he wants to build a palace on one of the six he owns so far and develop it into a resort.
It was revealed in early March that Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani had purchased the islets in the Echinades group for what was considered to be a bargain price of 8.5 million euros, or about $11 million, pocket change for a man of his wealth.
Now, according to the British newspaper The Guardian, he’s thinking of buying the 12 neighboring islets to give him a buffer against anyone venturing into the area.
Architects are already working on plans to create a luxury palace on at least one of the isles, in their effort to come up with any ideas of creating a tourist resort, Ioannis Kassianos, Mayor of the nearby island Ithaca told the newspaper.
He’s facing a legal battle though as Greek law does not allow a residence to be larger than 250 square meter, no matter how big the land is.”The emir has reacted to this saying his (toilet) is 250 square meters and his kitchen alone has to be 1,000 square meters, because otherwise how is he going to feed all his guests?” Kassianos told the newspaper.
Qatar is one of the largest investors in crisis-stricken Greece, the poorest country in the Eurozone, and the emir’s idyllic purchase was the biggest private investment in the country. Qatar has announced plans to invest up to one billion euros ($1.34 billion) in small and medium-sized Greek companies and is a bidder to develop the old Athens airport at Hellenikon near the sea, which was supposed to become Europe’s biggest park but now looks set to be paved over and covered with cement commercial buildings.
Economic relations between Qatar and Greece have grown markedly this year with the conclusion of several agreements including the establishment of a $2.6 billion joint fund.
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