Boom time for pioneer buyers!

I daresay we’ve all got our own fantasies of owning a stretch of water and somewhere to rest our weary heads after a day’s action.

According to a fascinating article in The Weekend FT  (‘The world’s most impropable property booms’), some big ticket punters are busy fulfilling this Utopian dream.

Experts are highlighting an emerging trend towards property purchases in highly unusual and unexpected locations around the world, fuelled by a number of motivations including fly fishing.

The newly renovated Roshven House in Lochaber, Scotland. A haven for wild fly fishing.

The article reveals that remote, expensive “fringe” property markets are now developing in salmon and fly fishing destinations in Europe and South America.

One of the grand Corrour Lodge bedroom views looking out onto Loch Ossian.

Apparently wealthy British aristocrats are quietly snaffling up lodges along the Norwegian fjords, especially in Finnmark, home to the famous Tana river.  Properties are like hen’s teeth, but the old money is quick to pounce.

European and US fly fishing enthusiasts have also been buying up secluded Patagonian riverfront lodges and, unsuprisingly, there’s mounting interest from “pioneer buyers” in Russia’s Kola Peninsula.

Clearly, this is a rich man’s game, millionaire’s Monopoly, but the fact that our noble sport is powering a global property trend is interesting stuff.

One of the lounges at Corrour Lodge.

Some of the Norwegian properties are being bought by collectives, demonstrating the merit of group purchasing power.   Lose a few noughts on the asking price, shrink the catch records, swap the Learjet for Easyjet, then the likelihood of of us mere mortals buying a wee bothy in Sutherland isn’t so far-fetched after all.

As a father of children whose schools – totally coincidentally, you understand – are within striking distance of one of the UK’s finest chalk streams and a decent racecourse, i have considerable empathy with letting one’s passions interfere with important and otherwise rational life decisions.

Larry Page, Google co-founder once said: “You never lose a dream.  It just incubates as a hobby.”

Argentinian silver from the Tierra del Fuego. A true high end fisherman’s paradise.

So, if anyone of you want to try before you buy (keep playing the Euromillions), then let us know as we’re planning some far-flung adventurous 2013 trips.

Will