Last private land on Svalbard up for sale for €300 million

With 60 square kilometers, about the size of Manhattan, and a coastline of five kilometers, the unique faraway property on Svalbard is a geopolitical hotspot in a warming Arctic.


Svalbard archipelago. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

By Thomas Nilsen     
May 12, 2024

THE BARENTS OBSERVER

The 1920 Svalbard Treaty is signed by 46 countries, among them China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and North Korea.

Science and climate research 

Few places on the planet is warming faster than Svalbard. Last July saw heat record for Longyearbyen with an average temperature of 10,1 degrees Celsius. That was first time with a middle temperature above the meteorological term “Polar Climate” for an entire month.

Scientists are worried and the international interest to monitor how climate changes affect the Arctic is growing. 

Today, only Norway and Russia have permanent settlements at Svalbard; Longyearbyen and Barentsburg. Poland has a small polar research station at Hornsund, while Norway facilitates for multiple nation research presence at Ny-Ålesund. Moscow has expressed a desire to create a Arctic research hub for BRICS countries in the Russian ghost town of Pyramiden, but so far little has materialized.

It is, however, not open for a potential buyer to use the property for any kind of commercial activity. Norway’s strict environmental laws apply, although Norwegian authorities cannot discriminate any residents of signature countries. Svalbard is visa-free, but the only commercial flights to the archipelago go via Tromsø and Oslo, airports that require Schengen-visa for travelers in transit to Longyearbyen.

Last time a private property was up for sale on Svalbard was in 2016, when the Norwegian Horn-family sold Austre Adventfjord, a Treaty mentioned piece of land across the fjord from Longyearbyen.

Austre Adventfjord was sold for 300 million kroner (€26 million) to the Norwegian state after the Chinese billionaire and property tycoon Huang Nubo said he would bid for the property.

Satellite communication business 

Svalbard is Norwegian territory. About 60% of the land is covered by glaciers. Here from the southwestern shore of Spitsbergen island. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Although environmental laws likely will hinder mining activity at the property now up for sale, businesses like a satellite station might be built.

Article 4 of the Svalbard Treaty allows for land owners to “establish and use their own purposes wireless telegraphy installations, which shall be free to communicate on private business with fixed or moving wireless stations…”

AS Kulspids highlights this options and writes on its portal that “The very northern position of Svalbard creates unique conditions for satellite communication.”