Featured Image Credit: SWNS
Topics: World News, UK News
Gerrard Kaonga
Imagine one day being annoyed you are going to be late for class and then being able to buy a private island for you and your girlfriend.
Getting on the property ladder can be pretty difficult for... well just about everyone - and now, people are finding all sorts of ways to live.
Well, in a similar vein, a 24-year-old man found a solution that worked for him and was able to buy himself an island, which he said cost him 'less than a house deposit'.
Oliver Russell is half American and half Finnish, and he spent a lot of his time in the country with friends and family each summer.
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Having grew up in Laguna Beach, California, Russell opted to move to Colorado in 2020 in hopes of getting inter-state tuition.
Struggling to close in on the tuition, however, he decided to move to Helsinki to study in 2022.
"I fell in love with the idea of going to Finland and going to school there." he said.
"As a Finnish citizen, I got free schooling and it has been awesome here and I have really enjoyed my time here."
It was here that he met his girlfriend Helena Tomaszewska, 20, and things must have gotten off to a good start between the two of them because in March 2024, the pair purchased an island after spotting it on a property website.
Oliver said: "I was looking more for fun, I was going through a real estate website and found the island.
"It ended up being cheaper than a normal lot I could buy so we jumped on it."
The two-and-a-half-acre private island had been vacant for 10 years and cost $36,569 - however, Oliver and Helena got it for $31,000.
The couple first stepped on their island in June 2024, where they found it was covered in trees and moss, which made it largely uninhabitable.
However, the two have been working hard on changing that - with the goal being to build a summer cottage and a sauna, which Oliver says is a 'huge part' of Finnish culture.
The first thing Oliver did was fell trees to create space for a deck.
Now, they have already built decking for their tent and an outhouse after spending most of their weekends on the island building everything themselves, which he says has been 'fun' despite having no prior experience in construction.
"We wanted to get the base camp set up so we have a comfortable place to stay while the big building happens next year." he said, adding that he was currently working on a shower structure.
"It is a very big commitment, especially now with me and Helena both being students." Oliver continued.
"Time is a big thing, doing research and getting work done on the island has been hard."
He added: “Every time we go to the island it doesn’t feel real that it is ours, it is so nice to be out there."
“It is so quiet and because it is an island nobody can stumble across it.”