Tropical island snapped up for £1.2 billion

At £1.2 billion, Fuga is the ultimate holiday property. The 10,000 hectare tropical island is in the northern Philippines, and features lush greenery, leading down to white sandy beaches and clear blue water. But who could have forked out this kind of money for a holiday home?

The odd thing about the purchase is that the island doesn't belong to the buyer forever. According to the Metro, £1.2 billion just gets it for the next 25 years. After that point they'll have to give it up or renew the lease and potentially blow another billion on it.
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The 25 year lease either doesn't bother them because they are an ageing billionaire, or because they are so extraordinary wealthy that they have no problem splashing out another £1.2 billion in 25 years' time on a new tropical island.

The Independent speculates that for the American billionaire who snapped it up, it is just one of the must-haves in the basic set of billionaire accessories - after the the super yacht and the football club. If it's good enough for Larry Ellison, it's good enough for every billionaire.

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Alternative uses
However, there are some far more exciting uses the buyer could put it too. Surely it's ideal for becoming a secret evil lair. Scaramanga set the tone here in the James Bond film, the Man With The Golden Gun. You could hide the evidence for your evil plan - like his stolen high-tech solar power plant - and top up your tan at lunchtime.

Alternatively, you could follow Dr No's example and build yourself an underground lair, from where you can disrupt the space race - or at least knock a couple of satellites out and confuse everyone's sat nav.

If evil plans aren't your thing, you could transform it into a secret base for your international rescue organisation. The Thunderbirds showed us that with the installation of a retractable swimming pool and rotating palm trees, you can disguise the whole operation as your holiday home in the sun.

Or how about taking the DNA of a dinosaur, and using it to recreate the creatures on earth today. You could call your island something catchy like Jurassic Park Site B, and it would almost be as if it was a Lost World. What could possibly go wrong?

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