The last private property on Svalbard is for sale

The property South Fagerfjord is located on the south-west tip of Svalbard and is 60 square kilometers or 60,000 acres. The property is located around 40 kilometers from Longyearbyen and offers more than five kilometers of coastline, mountains, fjords and arctic wildlife.

– This is the only opportunity for a buyer to gain a position in the northern areas and establish a strategic foothold, says lawyer Per Kyllingstad, who represents the sellers, to Bloomberg.

It was The daily Børsen who mentioned the case first in Norway.

The property is being marketed globally by Knight Frank LLP, which has set an asking price of 300 million euros, around NOK 3.5 billion.

It has been owned by the Norwegian holding company for over a hundred years Aktieselskabet Kulspids. The company was founded by wealthy families from Oslo who wanted to extract asbestos. The shares have changed since the change of owners, but all the owners are still Norwegian.

The buyer, whether it is a foreign state, companies or private individuals, is bound by the terms of the Svalbard Treaty from 1920, which recognizes Norway’s sovereignty and prohibits military use for “war-like purposes”. More than 40 countries, including China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, have signed the treaty.

In 2014, controversy erupted when another privately owned property on Svalbard was put up for sale. After it became known that a Chinese buyer was interested, the Norwegian state ended up buying the property.