A Family Kept This Private Greek Island for 65 Years. Now It’s Asking €35 Million

Argyronisos offers 60 acres of ancient olive groves, private coves and discreet stone residences, all within a 50-minute helicopter flight of Athens.

In a corner of the northern Aegean, where silver-green olive trees meet the water and rocky coves interrupt an otherwise untouched coastline, an entire island is searching for a new custodian.

Argyronisos, known internationally as Silver Island, has been placed on the market for the first time in more than six decades. The 60-acre private retreat was brought to market with a reported asking price of €35 million, approximately $40 million, and is being offered exclusively through Engel & Völkers Greece. The brokerage’s live listing now gives the price on application.

The island has belonged to the same family since 1961. During that time, it has been used as a private home, an organic olive estate and, more recently, an intimate wellness retreat. It has escaped the dense development seen in some of the Mediterranean’s best-known destinations, retaining the sense of privacy that is increasingly difficult to manufacture, or buy.

Rather than being dominated by a vast contemporary villa, Argyronisos contains 11 preserved stone buildings arranged discreetly across its landscape. Together, they provide approximately 937 sq m of built space.

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The estate includes a main residence, a separate dining pavilion, a two-storey villa and a traditional coastal stone house. A caretaker’s cottage is joined by several smaller residences, including buildings known as the Olive House and Mason’s House. From an elevated terrace, another residence looks west towards the sunset.

At the heart of the property is the historic chapel of Agioi Anargyroi, a small Greek Orthodox church that anchors the island to a much longer past. Historic stone ruins also remain elsewhere on the estate.

The architecture has been kept deliberately modest. White walls, blue accents, tiled terraces and shaded outdoor spaces sit among mature trees instead of competing with them. This is luxury expressed through land, silence and seclusion rather than scale alone.

Beyond its residences, the island unfolds across rolling ground planted with cypress trees, wildflowers and centuries-old olive groves that continue to be cultivated organically. When the wind turns the leaves, their pale undersides give the landscape a silvery appearance—the image from which Silver Island takes its name.

Small beaches and sheltered coves line the coast, creating private places for swimming, kayaking and paddleboarding. Deep-water access allows larger vessels to approach the island, while the protected Gulf of Pteleos offers calmer conditions than more exposed parts of the Aegean.

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Argyronisos has also been designed to operate independently. Its power is supplied by solar energy, supported by a backup generator, allowing the estate to remain fully off-grid without sacrificing its essential infrastructure.

Although it has welcomed entrepreneurs, artists and other prominent guests over the years, the island has never been transformed into a conventional commercial resort. More recently, it has hosted small wellness stays, but its primary identity has remained that of a secluded family retreat.

Private, but not impossibly remote

The island lies in the Gulf of Pteleos, just off the northern tip of Evia, Greece’s second-largest island. Its position provides access to the Sporades and places Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonnisos within reach for sailing and island-hopping.

Visitors can arrive by private boat from nearby mainland docks and marinas. By road and sea, the total journey from Athens takes approximately three and a half hours. A private helicopter can make the journey from Athens International Airport in around 50 minutes, landing on the island, while a transfer from Skiathos is shorter still.

That balance is central to Argyronisos’s appeal: it feels removed from ordinary life without being cut off from it.

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A rare opportunity—and a responsibility

Private islands with established residences and working infrastructure seldom become available in Greece. Many of the country’s islands are publicly owned, protected or undeveloped, while substantial future building is typically subject to strict planning and environmental controls.

Argyronisos is already operational, giving its next owner the option to continue using it as a private estate or discreet retreat. Any further development would, however, remain subject to the relevant local approvals.

For its next owner, the purchase would extend far beyond acquiring a collection of homes. It would mean assuming responsibility for a landscape that has been intentionally protected for 65 years.

At a reported €35 million, Argyronisos is unquestionably a trophy property. Yet its greatest indulgence may be the one feature no architect can add later: the feeling that very little here has changed at all.