Pierres Island

Most private islands in the Bahamas are flat. Pierre Island is not.

The 16-acre property sits on elevated ground in Three Islands Bay, at the northern end of the Eleuthera archipelago, with 360-degree views across the bay to the Atlantic Ocean on one side and to the pink sand coast of Harbour Island on the other. The elevation matters. It is the difference between a beach property and a property with a horizon, and it is the reason a thoughtful buyer with a clear architectural vision can build something on Pierre Island that almost no other Bahamian island can offer.

Ten minutes by boat from Harbour Island. Less than 10 kilometres from North Eleuthera International Airport. Mainland electricity and water already piped to the property by underwater cable. This is the part of the Bahamas where the established luxury island market lives.

The Property

Sixteen acres of freehold Bahamian island, lightly developed, primed for a major residence or boutique resort with significant existing infrastructure already in place.

The current improvements include:

• Mainland electricity and freshwater, supplied to the island by underwater cable from Eleuthera. This eliminates the need for solar arrays, desalination plants, generator-only power, or the kind of utility expenditure that typically runs into seven figures on undeveloped islands of this size.
• A backup generator and water tank for resilience during weather events
• A storage building for supplies and equipment
• A substantial deep-water dock on the south side of the island, capable of accommodating yachts and tenders
• A new breakwater under construction to further protect the southern anchorage
• Paved pathways running throughout the island, connecting the various viewpoints and beach access points
• Gazebos and a waterfront bar, with sweeping views across the bay and the Atlantic
• A tennis court foundation, already poured and ready for completion
• 150 mature coconut palms distributed across the property, with the kind of canopy density that takes decades to establish from scratch

The combination of pre-installed mainland utilities, the dock, and the tennis-court-ready foundation means the next owner steps into a property that is genuinely ready for vertical construction rather than ground-up site preparation. For a Bahamian private island transaction, this is unusually advanced infrastructure.

The Setting

Three Islands Bay is the protected stretch of water between North Eleuthera, Harbour Island, and the surrounding cays. Sheltered from the open Atlantic by Harbour Island to the east, with calm shallow water, white and pink sand bars at low tide, and the gentle current that has made this stretch of the Bahamas one of the world's most popular sailing and yachting destinations.

Harbour Island, locally known as Briland, is a 10-minute boat ride away. The island is famous for two things. The first is its three-mile pink sand beach, consistently ranked among the world's finest beaches, with the pale rose colour produced by microscopic red foraminifera shells mixed into the white sand. The second is the social and culinary calendar that has built up around Briland over the past four decades. Gourmet restaurants in restored colonial buildings. The Dunmore Town village with its weathered loyalist architecture. Tennis at the Coral Sands. The boutique hotels (the Dunmore, Pink Sands, Coral Sands, Ocean View) that anchor the island's particular brand of barefoot-elegant Bahamian luxury. India Hicks lives nearby, and Diane von Furstenberg has owned property on Briland for decades.

The point being: when you own Pierre Island, you have a private 16-acre estate with elevated 360-degree views, and you have one of the world's most celebrated small island societies a ten-minute boat ride away. Privacy at home, social life within reach.

Spanish Wells, ten minutes north by boat, is the second piece of the local character. Settled by the Eleutheran Adventurers in the 1640s, Spanish Wells is the longest continuously inhabited settlement in the Bahamas, with a working lobster fishing fleet, picture-postcard pastel cottages, and a tradition of small-boat seamanship that has shaped the local sailing culture for nearly four hundred years.

North Eleuthera and the Wider Region

The North Eleuthera mainland, immediately adjacent, holds the airport and the gateway villages of Three Island Dock and Gene's Bay. Eleuthera island itself stretches 110 miles south from this point, a long narrow ribbon of pink-and-white sand beaches, hidden coves, the Glass Window Bridge where the Atlantic and the Caribbean meet at a single 30-foot-wide isthmus, the abandoned plantations of the cotton era, and the small, slow, distinct villages that have given Eleuthera its reputation as the most refined of the Out Islands.

For a buyer dividing time between a main residence and an island retreat, the configuration is exceptional:

• North Eleuthera International Airport (ELH): less than 10 kilometres from Pierre Island, with direct daily commercial flights to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Nassau, and a full-service FBO for private aircraft
• From Miami: approximately 75 minutes in the air
• From New York or Toronto: approximately 3 hours direct, or via connection through Miami or Nassau
• From London or Europe: through Nassau or Miami connections

A buyer leaving Manhattan or London in the morning is on Pierre Island for sundown.

Development Considerations

The island carries clear scope for two distinct positions:

A private estate. A single main residence with guest houses, a working dock, and the existing tennis court completed, occupying perhaps 2 to 3 acres of the elevated central ground, with the remaining 13 to 14 acres maintained as a private nature reserve. The 360-degree views from the high ground are suitable for a single architecturally significant house in the style of the modern Bahamian estate work being done elsewhere in the Out Islands by firms like SCDA, Chad Oppenheim, or local Bahamian architectural practices.

A boutique luxury resort. The same 16 acres can carry a 15- to 20-villa boutique property in the manner of the Cove Eleuthera or Pink Sands on Briland itself, with the deep-water dock, the existing utility supply, and the proximity to North Eleuthera Airport all providing operational advantages that an undeveloped greenfield site would not.

A small-scale eco or glamping resort is also viable, leveraging the low-impact infrastructure already in place.

Standard Bahamian property law applies. Foreign buyers can hold freehold title directly through a Permit to Purchase from the Bahamian Investment Authority, which is granted as a matter of course for properties over a certain value threshold and supports the country's well-established expatriate-owner ecosystem.

Access

• By aircraft to North Eleuthera (ELH): direct daily commercial service from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Nassau; private jet service through the airport's FBO
• From the airport to the mainland boat dock: approximately 5 minutes by car
• From the mainland dock to Pierre Island: approximately 5 to 10 minutes by boat
• From Pierre Island to Harbour Island: approximately 10 minutes by boat through Three Islands Bay
• By private yacht: the deep-water dock on the south side accommodates yachts; the new breakwater under construction will further improve mooring options

The Position

Pierre Island sits at an unusually clean intersection of three things that rarely overlap in private island real estate: established utility infrastructure (eliminating the eight-figure off-grid build that derails many island projects before they begin), commanding elevated views (a structural rarity in the Bahamas), and proximity to a globally recognised luxury island community in Harbour Island. The 16-acre footprint is large enough for a significant private residence or a thoughtful boutique resort, and small enough to be maintained and operated by a household-scale team.

For a buyer who has been looking at Caribbean private islands and finding that most of them require either significant infrastructure investment, significant isolation, or significant compromise, Pierre Island offers an alternative position: a finished platform on which to build, at the doorstep of one of the most celebrated stretches of coastline in the Caribbean.