No Money for a House? Buy an Island

Forget house deposits: young American-Finnish couple buy entire island for less than a one-bedroom flat. 

One solution to the housing crisis is just to buy your own island.

This is exactly what maverick couple Oliver Russell and Helena Tomaszewska did when they realised they didn’t have enough money for a house deposit.

Saving for a house deposit is a challenging and lengthy affair, often requiring years of eating beans on toast for dinner, reusing tea bags, and going into hiding at Christmas.

However, twenty-four-year-old American student Oliver Russell and twenty-year-old Helena Tomaszewska from Finland had no such plans. They boldly turned their backs on society and bought an uninhabited island in Finland for around 28,500 euros, which, incidentally, was less than a deposit for a small one-bedroom house.

The dynamic duo found a creative way to secure the property by using their savings to purchase the island. They completely bypassed the conventional housing market and got the unique property they wanted at a fraction of the cost.

The area, home to Raccoon Dogs and European red Squirrels, had been vacant and uninhabitable for the past ten years, which allowed them to pick it up at a bargain price.

Oliver is half-American and half-Finnish and spent summers in Finland as a child. He moved from Colorado to Helsinki in 2022 to study, benefiting from Finland’s free university education system. Oliver and Helena met soon after, and they purchased the island together in March 2024 for $31,000 (approximately £24,000, or €28,500). They found the island listed online while looking to buy a summer house. It was listed for $36,569, but Oliver successfully negotiated the price down to $31,000.  

They plan to build a summer home on the island, starting with basic structures like decking, an outhouse, and a sauna.

Both Oliver and Helena are full-time students with no prior construction experience, making the project a significant challenge for them. They are learning as they go, enjoying the novelty and challenges of building their dream home in a unique location. When they first arrived on their new island, they found it was overgrown with moss and trees. They had to clear space for a campsite and build basic amenities. 

Would you consider an unconventional property purchase as an alternative to a traditional home?